Edge-dominance games on graphs

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Arthaud, Farid, Orzech, Edan, Rinard, Martin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Arthaud, Farid
Orzech, Edan
Rinard, Martin
author_facet Arthaud, Farid
Orzech, Edan
Rinard, Martin
contents We consider zero-sum games in which players move between adjacent states, where in each pair of adjacent states one state dominates the other. The states in our game can represent positional advantages in physical conflict such as high ground or camouflage, or product characteristics that lend an advantage over competing sellers in a duopoly. We study the equilibria of the game as a function of the topological and geometric properties of the underlying graph. Our main result characterizes the expected payoff of both players starting from any initial position, under the assumption that the graph does not contain certain types of small cycles. This characterization leverages the block-cut tree of the graph, a construction that describes the topology of the biconnected components of the graph. We identify three natural types of (on-path) pure equilibria, and characterize when these equilibria exist under the above assumptions. On the geometric side, we show that strongly connected outerplanar graphs with undirected girth at least 4 always support some of these types of on-path pure equilibria. Finally, we show that a data structure describing all pure equilibria can be efficiently computed for these games.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_07785
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Edge-dominance games on graphs
Arthaud, Farid
Orzech, Edan
Rinard, Martin
Computer Science and Game Theory
Combinatorics
We consider zero-sum games in which players move between adjacent states, where in each pair of adjacent states one state dominates the other. The states in our game can represent positional advantages in physical conflict such as high ground or camouflage, or product characteristics that lend an advantage over competing sellers in a duopoly. We study the equilibria of the game as a function of the topological and geometric properties of the underlying graph. Our main result characterizes the expected payoff of both players starting from any initial position, under the assumption that the graph does not contain certain types of small cycles. This characterization leverages the block-cut tree of the graph, a construction that describes the topology of the biconnected components of the graph. We identify three natural types of (on-path) pure equilibria, and characterize when these equilibria exist under the above assumptions. On the geometric side, we show that strongly connected outerplanar graphs with undirected girth at least 4 always support some of these types of on-path pure equilibria. Finally, we show that a data structure describing all pure equilibria can be efficiently computed for these games.
title Edge-dominance games on graphs
topic Computer Science and Game Theory
Combinatorics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.07785