Solving Imperfect-Recall Games via Sum-of-Squares Optimization

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Zheng, Rui, Sim, Ryann, Varvitsiotis, Antonios
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Zheng, Rui
Sim, Ryann
Varvitsiotis, Antonios
author_facet Zheng, Rui
Sim, Ryann
Varvitsiotis, Antonios
contents Extensive-form games (EFGs) provide a powerful framework for modeling sequential decision making, capturing strategic interaction under imperfect information, chance events, and temporal structure. Most positive algorithmic and theoretical results for EFGs assume perfect recall, where players remember all past information and actions. We study the increasingly relevant setting of imperfect-recall EFGs (IREFGs), where players may forget parts of their history or previously acquired information, and where equilibrium computation is provably hard. We propose sum-of-squares (SOS) hierarchies for computing ex-ante optimal strategies in single-player IREFGs and Nash equilibria in multi-player IREFGs, working over behavioral strategies. Our theoretical results show that (i) these hierarchies converge asymptotically, (ii) under genericity assumptions, the convergence is finite, and (iii) in single-player non-absentminded IREFGs, convergence occurs at a finite level determined by the number of information sets. Finally, we introduce the new classes of (SOS)-concave and (SOS)-monotone IREFGs, and show that in the single-player setting the SOS hierarchy converges at the first level, enabling equilibrium computation with a single semidefinite program (SDP).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_21722
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Solving Imperfect-Recall Games via Sum-of-Squares Optimization
Zheng, Rui
Sim, Ryann
Varvitsiotis, Antonios
Computer Science and Game Theory
Extensive-form games (EFGs) provide a powerful framework for modeling sequential decision making, capturing strategic interaction under imperfect information, chance events, and temporal structure. Most positive algorithmic and theoretical results for EFGs assume perfect recall, where players remember all past information and actions. We study the increasingly relevant setting of imperfect-recall EFGs (IREFGs), where players may forget parts of their history or previously acquired information, and where equilibrium computation is provably hard. We propose sum-of-squares (SOS) hierarchies for computing ex-ante optimal strategies in single-player IREFGs and Nash equilibria in multi-player IREFGs, working over behavioral strategies. Our theoretical results show that (i) these hierarchies converge asymptotically, (ii) under genericity assumptions, the convergence is finite, and (iii) in single-player non-absentminded IREFGs, convergence occurs at a finite level determined by the number of information sets. Finally, we introduce the new classes of (SOS)-concave and (SOS)-monotone IREFGs, and show that in the single-player setting the SOS hierarchy converges at the first level, enabling equilibrium computation with a single semidefinite program (SDP).
title Solving Imperfect-Recall Games via Sum-of-Squares Optimization
topic Computer Science and Game Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.21722