Related papers: Late comment on Astumian's paradox

We propose a bottom-up approach to the study of possession and its outcomes for association football, based on probabilistic finite state automata with transition probabilities described by a Markov process. We show how even a very simple…

Optimization under uncertainty is a fundamental problem in learning and decision-making, particularly in multi-agent systems. Previously, Feldman, Kalai, and Tennenholtz [2010] demonstrated the ability to efficiently compete in repeated…

Consider $ m $ copies of an irreducible, aperiodic Markov chain $ Y $ taking values in a finite state space. The asymptotics as $ m $ tends to infinity, of the first time from which on the trajectories of the $ m $ copies differ, have been…

The expansion of global production networks has raised many important questions about the interdependence among countries and how future changes in the world economy are likely to affect the countries' positioning in global value chains. We…

We study a generic family of two-player continuous-time nonzero-sum stopping games modeling a war of attrition with symmetric information and stochastic payoffs that depend on an homogeneous linear diffusion. We first show that any…

In the paper we consider the controlled continuous-time Markov chain describing the interacting particles system with the finite number of types. The system is controlled by two players with the opposite purposes. The limiting game as the…

A new object of the probability theory, two-sided chain of events (symbols), is introduced. A theory of multi-steps Markov chains with long-range memory, proposed earlier in Phys. Rev. E 68, 06117 (2003), is developed and used to establish…

Game semantics allows us to look at basic logical concepts from another side. This approach to logic has a long history, there are plenty of different types of games: provability games, semantic games, etc. And there is an interesting type…

We investigate absorption, i.e., almost sure convergence to an absorbing state, in time-varying (non-homogeneous) discrete-time Markov chains with finite state space. We consider systems that can switch among a finite set of transition…

We study a model of two-player, zero-sum, stopping games with asymmetric information. We assume that the payoff depends on two continuous-time Markov chains (X, Y), where X is only observed by player 1 and Y only by player 2, implying that…

In Parrondo's games, the apparently paradoxical situation occurs where individually losing games combine to win. The basic formulation and definitions of Parrondo's games are described in Harmer et al.. These games have recently gained…

The concept of intransitiveness for games, which is the condition for which there is no first-player winning strategy can arise surprisingly, as happens in the Penney game, an extension of the heads or tails. Since a game can be converted…

In optimal stopping problems, a Markov structure guarantees Markovian optimal stopping times (first exit times). Surprisingly, there is no analogous result for Markovian stopping games once randomization is required. This paper addresses…

Parrondo's paradox arises in sequences of games in which a winning expectation may be obtained by playing the games in a random order, even though each game in the sequence may be lost when played individually. We present a suitable version…

In late May of 2014 I received an email from a colleague introducing to me a non-transitive game developed by Walter Penney. This paper explores this probability game from the perspective of a coin tossing game, and further discusses some…

Two losing gambling games, when alternated in a periodic or random fashion, can produce a winning game. This paradox has been inspired by certain physical systems capable of rectifying fluctuations: the so-called Brownian ratchets. In this…

We propose a new framework of Markov $\alpha$-potential games to study Markov games. We show that any Markov game with finite-state and finite-action is a Markov $\alpha$-potential game, and establish the existence of an associated…

For a relatively large class of well-behaved absorbing (or killed) finite Markov chains, we give detailed quantitative estimates regarding the behavior of the chain before it is absorbed (or killed). Typical examples are random walks on…

We generalize the concept of basin of attraction of a stable state in order to facilitate the analysis of dynamical systems with noise and to assess stability properties of metastable states and long transients. To this end we examine the…

It has been well known for some time that for strictly stationary Markov chains that are ``reversible'', that special symmetry provides special extra features in the mathematical theory. This paper here is primarily a purely expository…