English

Finite-memory strategies in two-player infinite games

Computer Science and Game Theory 2021-07-22 v1

Abstract

We study infinite two-player win/lose games (A,B,W)(A,B,W) where A,BA,B are finite and W(A×B)ωW \subseteq (A \times B)^\omega. At each round Player 1 and Player 2 concurrently choose one action in AA and BB, respectively. Player 1 wins iff the generated sequence is in WW. Each history h(A×B)h \in (A \times B)^* induces a game (A,B,Wh)(A,B,W_h) with Wh:={ρ(A×B)ωhρW}W_h := \{\rho \in (A \times B)^\omega \mid h \rho \in W\}. We show the following: if WW is in Δ20\Delta^0_2 (for the usual topology), if the inclusion relation induces a well partial order on the WhW_h's, and if Player 1 has a winning strategy, then she has a finite-memory winning strategy. Our proof relies on inductive descriptions of set complexity, such as the Hausdorff difference hierarchy of the open sets. Examples in Σ20\Sigma^0_2 and Π20\Pi^0_2 show some tightness of our result. Our result can be translated to games on finite graphs: e.g. finite-memory determinacy of multi-energy games is a direct corollary, whereas it does not follow from recent general results on finite memory strategies.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2107.09945,
  title  = {Finite-memory strategies in two-player infinite games},
  author = {Patricia Bouyer and Stéphane Le Roux and Nathan Thomasset},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.09945},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

15 pages (+ appendix), submitted to CSL 2022

R2 v1 2026-06-24T04:23:23.713Z