English

Mean Field Games and Control on Large Expander Graphs

Optimization and Control 2026-04-16 v2

Abstract

This paper investigates mean field games and control on sparse networks. In the case of large expander graphs, the limit topologies are analyzed using the graphexon framework, which characterizes both dense network limits and sparse connections. We prove that the sequence of empirical graphexon measures defined on finite graphs converges weakly to a limit graphexon measure on a continuous state space. Furthermore, the associated sequence of discrete averaging operators converges strongly to a continuous operator. These properties enable the formulation of a linear-quadratic mean field game in which each agent is identified by a spatial network label αX\alpha \in X and only interacts with the neighborhood average defined by the operator G\mathcal{G} characterized by large expander graphs. In Section 5, algebraic conditions for the global asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system are established. The analysis identifies parameter thresholds that gives rise to a Turing-type topological instability, where the homogeneous mean state remains stable while the spatial deviation field diverges over the continuous spectrum of the limit operator.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.05294,
  title  = {Mean Field Games and Control on Large Expander Graphs},
  author = {Tao Zhang and Peter E. Caines},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.05294},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

The short version of this manuscript has been submitted to the 65th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) 2026

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:56:24.741Z