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Related papers: Markov $\alpha$-Potential Games

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Computing approximate Nash equilibria in multi-player general-sum Markov games is a computationally intractable task. However, multi-player Markov games with certain cooperative or competitive structures might circumvent this…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-08-17 Zailin Ma , Jiansheng Yang , Zhihua Zhang

Mean field games (MFGs) offer a powerful framework for modeling large-scale multi-agent systems. This paper addresses MFGs formulated in continuous time with discrete state spaces, where agents' dynamics are governed by continuous-time…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-02-27 Yannick Eich , Christian Fabian , Kai Cui , Heinz Koeppl

We develop a flexible stochastic approximation framework for analyzing the long-run behavior of learning in games (both continuous and finite). The proposed analysis template incorporates a wide array of popular learning algorithms,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-07-04 Panayotis Mertikopoulos , Ya-Ping Hsieh , Volkan Cevher

We contribute the first provable guarantees of global convergence to Nash equilibria (NE) in two-player zero-sum convex Markov games (cMGs) by using independent policy gradient methods. Convex Markov games, recently defined by Gemp et al.…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-06-23 Fivos Kalogiannis , Emmanouil-Vasileios Vlatakis-Gkaragkounis , Ian Gemp , Georgios Piliouras

This paper investigates value function approximation in the context of zero-sum Markov games, which can be viewed as a generalization of the Markov decision process (MDP) framework to the two-agent case. We generalize error bounds from MDPs…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2013-01-07 Michail Lagoudakis , Ron Parr

Policy-based methods with function approximation are widely used for solving two-player zero-sum games with large state and/or action spaces. However, it remains elusive how to obtain optimization and statistical guarantees for such…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-03-01 Yulai Zhao , Yuandong Tian , Jason D. Lee , Simon S. Du

Static potential games are non-cooperative games which admit a fictitious function, also referred to as a potential function, such that the minimizers of this function constitute a subset (or a refinement) of the Nash equilibrium strategies…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-03-08 Aathira Prasad , Puduru Viswanadha Reddy

Recent advances at the intersection of dense large graph limits and mean field games have begun to enable the scalable analysis of a broad class of dynamical sequential games with large numbers of agents. So far, results have been largely…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2022-02-21 Kai Cui , Heinz Koeppl

In this paper, we consider the problem of optimization and learning for constrained and multi-objective Markov decision processes, for both discounted rewards and expected average rewards. We formulate the problems as zero-sum games where…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-03-05 Ather Gattami , Qinbo Bai , Vaneet Agarwal

We study Markov potential games under the infinite horizon average reward criterion. Most previous studies have been for discounted rewards. We prove that both algorithms based on independent policy gradient and independent natural policy…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-03-12 Min Cheng , Ruida Zhou , P. R. Kumar , Chao Tian

This work studies an independent natural policy gradient (NPG) algorithm for the multi-agent reinforcement learning problem in Markov potential games. It is shown that, under mild technical assumptions and the introduction of the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-10-30 Youbang Sun , Tao Liu , Ruida Zhou , P. R. Kumar , Shahin Shahrampour

We consider static finite-player network games and their continuum analogs, graphon games. Existence and uniqueness results are provided, as well as convergence of the finite-player network game optimal strategy profiles to their analogs…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-11-26 Rene Carmona , Daniel Cooney , Christy Graves , Mathieu Lauriere

We study the game modification problem, where a benevolent game designer or a malevolent adversary modifies the reward function of a zero-sum Markov game so that a target deterministic or stochastic policy profile becomes the unique Markov…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-08-27 Young Wu , Jeremy McMahan , Yiding Chen , Yudong Chen , Xiaojin Zhu , Qiaomin Xie

Learning problems commonly exhibit an interesting feedback mechanism wherein the population data reacts to competing decision makers' actions. This paper formulates a new game theoretic framework for this phenomenon, called "multi-player…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2022-04-08 Adhyyan Narang , Evan Faulkner , Dmitriy Drusvyatskiy , Maryam Fazel , Lillian J. Ratliff

Softmax policy gradient is a popular algorithm for policy optimization in single-agent reinforcement learning, particularly since projection is not needed for each gradient update. However, in multi-agent systems, the lack of central…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-11-01 Runyu Zhang , Jincheng Mei , Bo Dai , Dale Schuurmans , Na Li

Mean field games (MFGs) model equilibria in games with a continuum of weakly interacting players as limiting systems of symmetric $n$-player games. We consider the finite-state, infinite-horizon problem with ergodic cost. Assuming Markovian…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-03-25 Asaf Cohen , Ethan Zell

We study the asymptotic organization among many optimizing individuals interacting in a suitable "moderate" way. We justify this limiting game by proving that its solution provides approximate Nash equilibria for large but finite player…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-12-20 Franco Flandoli , Maddalena Ghio , Giulia Livieri

We study discrete-time mean-field Markov games with infinite numbers of agents where each agent aims to minimize its ergodic cost. We consider the setting where the agents have identical linear state transitions and quadratic cost…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-10-17 Zuyue Fu , Zhuoran Yang , Yongxin Chen , Zhaoran Wang

This paper studies partially observable two-person zero-sum semi-Markov games under a probability criterion, in which the system state may not be completely observed. It focuses on the probability that the accumulated rewards of player 1…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-08-26 Xin Wen , Li Xia , Zhihui Yu

This paper studies policy optimization algorithms for multi-agent reinforcement learning. We begin by proposing an algorithm framework for two-player zero-sum Markov Games in the full-information setting, where each iteration consists of a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-07-26 Runyu Zhang , Qinghua Liu , Huan Wang , Caiming Xiong , Na Li , Yu Bai