English

From local to global determinacy in concurrent graph games

Computer Science and Game Theory 2021-07-12 v1

Abstract

In general, finite concurrent two-player reachability games are only determined in a weak sense: the supremum probability to win can be approached via stochastic strategies, but cannot be realized. We introduce a class of concurrent games that are determined in a much stronger sense, and in a way, it is the larger class with this property. To this end, we introduce the notion of \emph{local interaction} at a state of a graph game: it is a \emph{game form} whose outcomes (i.e. a table whose entries) are the next states, which depend on the concurrent actions of the players. By definition, a game form is \emph{determined} iff it always yields games that are determined via deterministic strategies when used as a local interaction in a Nature-free, one-shot reachability game. We show that if all the local interactions of a graph game with Borel objective are determined game forms, the game itself is determined: if Nature does not play, one player has a winning strategy; if Nature plays, both players have deterministic strategies that maximize the probability to win. This constitutes a clear-cut separation: either a game form behaves poorly already when used alone with basic objectives, or it behaves well even when used together with other well-behaved game forms and complex objectives. Existing results for positional and finite-memory determinacy in turn-based games are extended this way to concurrent games with determined local interactions (CG-DLI).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2107.04081,
  title  = {From local to global determinacy in concurrent graph games},
  author = {Benjamin Bordais and Patricia Bouyer and Stéphane Le Roux},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.04081},
  year   = {2021}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T04:01:09.849Z