Two-Person Additively-Separable Sum Games

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Lahiri, Somdeb
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Lahiri, Somdeb
author_facet Lahiri, Somdeb
contents We consider a sub-class of bi-matrix games which we refer to as two-person (hereafter referred to as two-player) additively-separable sum (TPASS) games, where the sum of the pay-offs of the two players is additively separable. The row player's pay-off at each pair of pure strategies, is the sum of two numbers, the first of which may be dependent on the pure strategy chosen by the column player and the second being independent of the pure strategy chosen by the column player. The column player's pay-off at each pair of pure strategies, is also the sum of two numbers, the first of which may be dependent on the pure strategy chosen by the row player and the second being independent of the pure strategy chosen by the row player. The sum of the inter-dependent components of the pay-offs of the two players is assumed to be zero. We prove the existence of equilibrium for such games and show that the set of equilibria for such games is the projection on the set of strategy pairs of the solutions of a pair of linear programming problems that are dual to each other. This result is a generalization of the corresponding and well-known result for two-person zero-sum games. We also show that a (randomized or mixed) strategy pair is an equilibrium of the game if and only if there exist two other real numbers such that the three together solve a certain linear programming problem. In order to prove this result, we need to appeal to the existence of an equilibrium for the TPASS game. The technology we use to prove our results, consists of the duality theorems and the complementary slackness theorem of linear programming.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_19325
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Two-Person Additively-Separable Sum Games
Lahiri, Somdeb
Optimization and Control
Computer Science and Game Theory
91A05, 91A10, 90C05
We consider a sub-class of bi-matrix games which we refer to as two-person (hereafter referred to as two-player) additively-separable sum (TPASS) games, where the sum of the pay-offs of the two players is additively separable. The row player's pay-off at each pair of pure strategies, is the sum of two numbers, the first of which may be dependent on the pure strategy chosen by the column player and the second being independent of the pure strategy chosen by the column player. The column player's pay-off at each pair of pure strategies, is also the sum of two numbers, the first of which may be dependent on the pure strategy chosen by the row player and the second being independent of the pure strategy chosen by the row player. The sum of the inter-dependent components of the pay-offs of the two players is assumed to be zero. We prove the existence of equilibrium for such games and show that the set of equilibria for such games is the projection on the set of strategy pairs of the solutions of a pair of linear programming problems that are dual to each other. This result is a generalization of the corresponding and well-known result for two-person zero-sum games. We also show that a (randomized or mixed) strategy pair is an equilibrium of the game if and only if there exist two other real numbers such that the three together solve a certain linear programming problem. In order to prove this result, we need to appeal to the existence of an equilibrium for the TPASS game. The technology we use to prove our results, consists of the duality theorems and the complementary slackness theorem of linear programming.
title Two-Person Additively-Separable Sum Games
topic Optimization and Control
Computer Science and Game Theory
91A05, 91A10, 90C05
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.19325