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Identifying shortest paths between nodes in a network is an important task in many applications. Recent work has shown that a malicious actor can manipulate a graph to make traffic between two nodes of interest follow their target path. In…

Social and Information Networks · Computer Science 2025-05-01 Benjamin A. Miller , Zohair Shafi , Wheeler Ruml , Yevgeniy Vorobeychik , Tina Eliassi-Rad , Scott Alfeld

Turn-based discounted-sum games are two-player zero-sum games played on finite directed graphs. The vertices of the graph are partitioned between player 1 and player 2. Plays are infinite walks on the graph where the next vertex is decided…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-05-21 Ali Asadi , Krishnendu Chatterjee , Raimundo Saona , Jakub Svoboda

We present Self-Play Preference Optimization (SPO), an algorithm for reinforcement learning from human feedback. Our approach is minimalist in that it does not require training a reward model nor unstable adversarial training and is…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-06-14 Gokul Swamy , Christoph Dann , Rahul Kidambi , Zhiwei Steven Wu , Alekh Agarwal

We prove that every finite two-person shortest path game, where the local cost of every move is positive for each player, has a Nash equilibrium (NE) in pure stationary strategies, which can be computed in polynomial time. We also extend…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2025-05-22 Endre Boros , Khaled Elbassioni , Vladimir Gurvich , Mikhail Vyalyi

An interesting iterative procedure is proposed to solve a two-player zero-sum Markov games. Under suitable assumption, the boundedness of the proposed iterates is obtained theoretically. Using results from stochastic approximation, the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-09-23 Shreyas S R , Antony Vijesh

We study the open question of how players learn to play a social optimum pure-strategy Nash equilibrium (PSNE) through repeated interactions in general-sum coordination games. A social optimum of a game is the stable Pareto-optimal state…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-07-26 Duong Nguyen , Langford White , Hung Nguyen

Games on graphs provide a natural model for reactive non-terminating systems. In such games, the interaction of two players on an arena results in an infinite path that describes a run of the system. Different settings are used to model…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2011-06-08 Krishnendu Chatterjee , Nathanaël Fijalkow

Congestion games are attractive because they can model many concrete situations where some competing entities interact through the use of some shared resources, and also because they always admit pure Nash equilibria which correspond to the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-08-22 Vittorio Bilò , Angelo Fanelli , Laurent Gourvès , Christos Tsoufis , Cosimo Vinci

We consider a two-player search game on a tree $T$. One vertex (unknown to the players) is randomly selected as the target. The players alternately guess vertices. If a guess $v$ is not the target, then both players are informed in which…

Probability · Mathematics 2022-02-07 Ravi B. Boppana , Joel Brewster Lewis

We consider approximating the minmax value of a multi-player game in strategic form. Tightening recent bounds by Borgs et al., we observe that approximating the value with a precision of epsilon log n digits (for any constant epsilon>0 is…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2008-12-18 Kristoffer Arnsfelt Hansen , Thomas Dueholm Hansen , Peter Bro Miltersen , Troels Bjerre Sørensen

We study the reward-free reinforcement learning framework, which is particularly suitable for batch reinforcement learning and scenarios where one needs policies for multiple reward functions. This framework has two phases. In the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-10-26 Zihan Zhang , Simon S. Du , Xiangyang Ji

In a two-player zero-sum graph game, the players move a token throughout a graph to produce an infinite play, which determines the winner of the game. Bidding games are graph games in which in each turn, an auction (bidding) determines…

Formal Languages and Automata Theory · Computer Science 2025-07-02 Guy Avni , Suman Sadhukhan

We design a novel algorithm for solving Mean-Payoff Games (MPGs). Besides solving an MPG in the usual sense, our algorithm computes more information about the game, information that is important with respect to applications. The weights of…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2010-06-09 Luboš Brim , Jakub Chaloupka

An average-time game is played on the infinite graph of configurations of a finite timed automaton. The two players, Min and Max, construct an infinite run of the automaton by taking turns to perform a timed transition. Player Min wants to…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2020-01-16 Marcin Jurdzinski , Ashutosh Trivedi

We introduce the study of search games between a mobile Searcher and an immobile Hider in a new setting in which the Searcher has some potentially erroneous information, i.e., a prediction on the Hider's position. The objective is to…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-09-05 Spyros Angelopoulos , Thomas Lidbetter , Konstantinos Panagiotou

Graph games provide the foundation for modeling and synthesis of reactive processes. Such games are played over graphs where the vertices are controlled by two adversarial players. We consider graph games where the objective of the first…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-06-21 Krishnendu Chatterjee , Monika Henzinger , Alexander Svozil

In this paper, we consider zero-sum repeated games in which the maximizer is restricted to strategies requiring no more than a limited amount of randomness. Particularly, we analyze the maxmin payoff of the maximizer in two models: the…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2018-10-11 Mehrdad Valizadeh , Amin Gohari

Weighted timed games are zero-sum games played by two players on a timed automaton equipped with weights, where one player wants to minimise the cumulative weight while reaching a target. Used in a reactive synthesis perspective, this…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2023-06-22 Damien Busatto-Gaston , Benjamin Monmege , Pierre-Alain Reynier

The game of Cops and Robber is traditionally played on a finite graph. The purpose of this note is to introduce and analyze the game that is played on an arbitrary geodesic space. The game is defined in such a way that it preserves the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-12-07 Bojan Mohar

Due to the lack of coordination, it is unlikely that the selfish players of a strategic game reach a socially good state. A possible way to cope with selfishness is to compute a desired outcome (if it is tractable) and impose it. However…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2010-12-20 Bruno Escoffier , Laurent Gourvès , Jérôme Monnot