We point out a flaw in the unfair case of the quantum Prisoner's Dilemma as introduced in the pioneering Letter "Quantum Games and Quantum Strategies" of Eisert, Wilkens and Lewenstein. It is not true that the so-called miracle move therein always gives quantum Alice a large reward against classical Bob and outperforms tit-for-tat in an iterated game. Indeed, we introduce a new classical strategy that becomes Bob's dominant strategy, should Alice play the miracle move. Finally, we briefly survey the subsequent literature and turn to the 3-parameter strategic space instead of the 2-parameter one of Eisert et al.
Recently Marinatto and Weber introduced an interesting new scheme for quantizing games, and applied their scheme to the famous game 'Battle of the Sexes'. In this Comment we make two observations: (a) the overall quantization scheme is fundamentally very similar to a previous scheme proposed by Eisert et al., and (b) in contrast to a main claim of the paper, the quantum Battle of the Sexes game does not have a unique solution - a similar dilemma exists in both the classical and the quantum versions.
In a recent paper, Eisert et al. presented a quantum mechanical generalization of Prisoner's Dilemma. They asserted that the maximally entangled game exhibits a unique Nash equilibrium which yields a pay-off equivalent to cooperative behaviour. In this comment we show that their observation is incorrect: there is no Nash equilibrium in the space of deterministic quantum strategies.
Iqbal and Toor [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 65}, 022306 (2002)] and [Commun. Theor. Phys. {\bf 42}, 335 (2004)] generalized the Marinatto-Weber quantum scheme for $2 \times 2$ games in order to study bimatrix games of $3 \times 3$ dimension, in particular the Rock-Paper-Scissors game. In our paper we show that Iqbal and Toor's generalization exhibits certain undesirable property that can considerably influence the game result. To support our argumentation, in the further part of the paper we construct the protocol corresponding to the MW concept for any finite bimatrix game that is free from the fault.
We make remarks on the paper of Du et al (quant-ph/0011078) by pointing out that the quantum strategy proposed by the paper is trivial to the card game and proposing a simple classical strategy to make the game in classical sense fair too.
The quantization of 2-players N-strategies games is considered. The general form of gate operator is determined under the assumption that the classical pure strategies are contained in the set of pure quantum ones.
We study optimal and nearly-optimal quantum strategies for non-local XOR games. First, we prove the following general result: for every non-local XOR game, there exists a set of relations with the properties: (1) a quantum strategy is optimal for the game if and only if it satisfies the relations, and (2) a quantum strategy is nearly optimal for the game if and only if it approximately satisfies the relations. Next, we focus attention on a specific infinite family of XOR games: the CHSH(n) games. This family generalizes the well-known CHSH game. We describe the general form of CHSH(n) optimal …
We construct the general gate operator for 2-players 3-strategies ELW games. It is shown that such a gate, implementing classical strategies, can be constructed out of the elements of Cartan subalgebra of $SU(3)$. The relation between the degree of entanglement and the structure of stability subgroup of initial state is analyzed.
Interesting connection has been established between two apparently unrelated concepts, namely, quantum nonlocality and Bayesian game theory. It has been shown that nonlocal correlations in the form of advice can outperform classical equilibrium strategies in common interest Bayesian games and also in conflicting interest games. However, classical equilibrium strategies can be of two types, fair and unfair. Whereas in fair equilibrium payoffs of different players are same, in unfair case they differ. Advantage of nonlocal correlation has been demonstrated over fair strategies. In this work we s…
We study a quantum game played by two players with restricted multiple strategies. It is found that in this restricted quantum game Nash equilibrium does not always exist when the initial state is entangled. At the same time, we find that when Nash equilibrium exists the pay off function is usually different from that in the classical counterpart except in some special cases. This presents an explicit example where quantum game and classical game may differ. When designing a quantum game with limited strategies, the allowed strategy should be carefully chosen according to the type of initial s…
We investigate the quantization of non-zero sum games. For the particular case of the Prisoners' Dilemma we show that this game ceases to pose a dilemma if quantum strategies are allowed for. We also construct a particular quantum strategy which always gives reward if played against any classical strategy.
We propose a scheme for a quantum game based on performing an EPR type experiment and in which each player's spatial directional choices are considered as their strategies. A classical mixed-strategy game is recovered by restricting the players' choices to specific spatial trajectories. We show that for players' directional choices for which the Bell-CHSH inequality is violated, the players' payoffs in the quantum game have no mapping within the classical mixed-strategy game. The scheme provides a more direct link between classical and quantum games.
We present a quantum implementation of Parrondo's game with randomly switched strategies using 1) a quantum walk as a source of ``randomness'' and 2) a completely positive (CP) map as a randomized evolution. The game exhibits the same paradox as in the classical setting where a combination of two losing strategies might result in a winning strategy. We show that the CP-map scheme leads to significantly lower net gain than the quantum walk scheme.
We initiate a study of random instances of nonlocal games. We show that quantum strategies are better than classical for almost any 2-player XOR game. More precisely, for large n, the entangled value of a random 2-player XOR game with n questions to every player is at least 1.21... times the classical value, for 1-o(1) fraction of all 2-player XOR games.
The explicit construction is presented of two-player game satisfying: (i) symmetry with respect to the permutation of the players; (ii) the existence of upper bound on total payoff following from Bell inequality; (iii) the existence of unfair equilibrium with total payoff saturating the above bound. The quantum counterpart of the game is considered which possesses only fair equilibria and strategies outperforming the classical ones.
A simple but nontrivial class of the quantum strategies in buying-selling games is presented. The player moves are a rational buying and an unconditional selling. The possibility of gaining extremal profits in such the games is considered. The entangled merchants hypothesis is proposed.
We unify and consolidate various results about non-signall-ing games, a subclass of non-local two-player one-round games, by introducing and studying several new families of games and establishing general theorems about them, which extend a number of known facts in a variety of special cases. Among these families are {\it reflexive games,} which are characterised as the hardest non-signalling games that can be won using a given set of strategies. We introduce {\it imitation games,} in which the players display linked behaviour, and which contains as subclasses the classes of variable assignmen…
We quantized the Hawk-Dove game by using the most general form of a pure initial state to investigate the existence of pure and mixed Evolutionarily Stable Strategies (ESS). An example is considered to draw a comparison between classical and quantum version of the game. Our choice of most general initial quantum state enables us to make the game symmetric or asymmetric. We show that for a particular set of game parameters where there exist only mixed ESS in the classical version of the game, however, quantization allows even a pure strategy to be an ESS for symmetric game in addition to ixed E…
We study the advantages of quantum strategies in evolutionary social dilemmas on evolving random networks. We focus our study on the two-player games: prisoner's dilemma, snowdrift and stag-hunt games. The obtained result show the benefits of quantum strategies for the prisoner's dilemma game. For the other two games, we obtain regions of parameters where the quantum strategies dominate, as well as regions where the classical strategies coexist.
Communication complexity is an area of classical computer science which studies how much communication is necessary to solve various distributed computational problems. Quantum information processing can be used to reduce the amount of communication required to carry out some distributed problems. We speak of pseudo-telepathy when it is able to completely eliminate the need for communication. The matching game is the newest member of the family of pseudo-telepathy games. After introducing a general model for pseudo-telepathy games, we focus on the question what the smallest size of inputs is f…
The CHSH no-signalling game studies Bell nonlocality by showcasing a gap between the win rates of classical strategies, quantum-entangled strategies, and no-signalling strategies. Similarly, the CHSH* single-system game explores the advantage of irreversible processes by showcasing a gap between the win rates of classical reversible strategies, quantum reversible strategies, and irreversible strategies. The irreversible process of erasure rules supreme for the CHSH* single-system game, but this ``erasure advantage'' does not necessarily extend to every single-system game: We introduce the 32-G…
Effects of classical/quantum correlations and operations in game theory are analyzed using Samaritan's Dilemma. We observe that introducing either quantum or classical correlations to the game results in the emergence of a unique or multiple Nash equilibria (NE) which do not exist in the original classical game. It is shown that the strategies creating the NE and the amount of payoffs the players receive at these NE's depend on the type of the correlation. We also discuss whether the Samaritan can resolve the dilemma acting unilaterally.
We present a scheme for playing quantum repeated 2x2 games based on the Marinatto and Weber's approach to quantum games. As a potential application, we study twice repeated Prisoner's Dilemma game. We show that results not available in classical game can be obtained when the game is played in the quantum way. Before we present our idea, we comment on the previous scheme of playing quantum repeated games.
Game theory is the mathematical framework for analyzing strategic interactions in conflict and competition situations. In recent years quantum game theory has earned the attention of physicists, and has emerged as a branch of quantum information theory [1]. With the aid of entanglement and linear superposition of strategies, quantum games are shown to yield signifcant advantage over their classical counterparts. In this paper we explore optimal and equilibrium solutions to quantum minority games. Initial states with different level of entanglement are investigated. Focus will be on 4 and 6 pla…
First, we consider the problem of deciding whether a nonlocal game admits a perfect entangled strategy that uses projective measurements on a maximally entangled shared state. Via a polynomial-time Karp reduction, we show that independent set games are the hardest instances of this problem. Secondly, we show that if every independent set game whose entangled value is equal to one admits a perfect entangled strategy, then the same holds for all symmetric synchronous games. Finally, we identify combinatorial lower bounds on the classical and entangled values of synchronous games in terms of vari…
Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS) in classical game theory is a refinement of Nash equilibrium concept. We investigate the consequences when a small group of mutants using quantum strategies try to invade a classical ESS in a population engaged in symmetric bimatrix game of Prisoner's Dilemma. Secondly we show that in an asymmetric quantum game between two players an ESS pair can be made to appear or disappear by resorting to entangled or unentangled initial states used to play the game even when the strategy pair remains a Nash equilibrium in both forms of the game.
In game theory, an Evolutionarily Stable Set (ES set) is a set of Nash Equilibrium (NE) strategies that give the same payoffs. Similar to an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ES strategy), an ES set is also a strict NE. This work investigates the evolutionary stability of classical and quantum strategies in the quantum penny flip games. In particular, we developed an evolutionary game theory model to conduct a series of simulations where a population of mixed classical strategies from the ES set of the game were invaded by quantum strategies. We found that when only one of the two players' mixed…
Linear system games are a generalization of Mermin's magic square game introduced by Cleve and Mittal. They show that perfect strategies for linear system games in the tensor-product model of entanglement correspond to finite-dimensional operator solutions of a certain set of non-commutative equations. We investigate linear system games in the commuting-operator model of entanglement, where Alice and Bob's measurement operators act on a joint Hilbert space, and Alice's operators must commute with Bob's operators. We show that perfect strategies in this model correspond to possibly-infinite-dim…
We consider quantum XOR games, defined in [11], from the perspective of unitary correlations defined in [7]. We show that Connes' embedding problem has a positive answer if and only if every quantum XOR game has entanglement bias equal to the commuting bias. In particular, the embedding problem is equivalent to determining whether every quantum XOR game $G$ with a winning strategy in the commuting model also has a winning strategy in the approximate finite-dimensional model.
