A determinacy approach to Borel combinatorics

We study the determinacy of the game G_kappa (A) introduced in [FKSh:549] for uncountable regular kappa and several classes of partial orderings A. Among trees or Boolean algebras, we can always find an A such that G_kappa (A) is undetermined. For the class of linear orders, the existence of such A depends on the size of kappa^{< kappa}. In particular we obtain a characterization of kappa^{< kappa}= kappa in terms of determinacy of the game G_kappa (L) for linear orders L .

We develop a general framework for infinite-dimensional Ramsey theory with and without pigeonhole principle, inspired by Gowers' Ramsey-type theorem for block sequences in Banach spaces and by its exact version proved by Rosendal. In this framework, we prove the adversarial Ramsey principle for Borel sets, a result conjectured by Rosendal that generalizes at the same time his version of Gowers' theorem and Borel determinacy of games on integers.

We investigate determinacy of delay games with Borel winning conditions, infinite-duration two-player games in which one player may delay her moves to obtain a lookahead on her opponent's moves. First, we prove determinacy of such games with respect to a fixed evolution of the lookahead. However, strategies in such games may depend on information about the evolution. Thus, we introduce different notions of universal strategies for both players, which are evolution-independe...

We investigate the existence of certain types of equilibria (Nash, $\varepsilon$-Nash, subgame perfect, $\varepsilon$-subgame perfect, Pareto-optimal) in multi-player multi-outcome infinite sequential games. We use two fundamental approaches: one requires strong topological restrictions on the games, but produces very strong existence results. The other merely requires some very basic determinacy properties to still obtain some existence results. Both results are transfer res...

Blackwell games are infinite games of imperfect information. The two players simultaneously make their moves, and are then informed of each other's moves. Payoff is determined by a Borel measurable function $f$ on the set of possible resulting sequences of moves. A standard result in Game Theory is that finite games of this type are determined. Blackwell proved that infinite games are determined, but only for the cases where the payoff function is the indicator function of an...

The main purpose of the paper is the proof of a cardinal inequality for a space with points $G_\delta$, obtained with the help of a long version of the Menger game. This result improves a similar one of Scheepers and Tall.

We give an elementary proof that in a Borel family of games, the set of games for which player II has a winning strategy is Baire measurable, universally measurable, and completely Ramsey in the case where $X = [\mathbb{N}]^{\aleph_0}$.

We consider the degrees of non-computability (Weihrauch degrees) of finding winning strategies (or more generally, Nash equilibria) in infinite sequential games with certain winning sets (or more generally, outcome sets). In particular, we show that as the complexity of the winning sets increases in the difference hierarchy, the complexity of constructing winning strategies increases in the effective Borel hierarchy.

We prove that the determinacy of Gale-Stewart games whose winning sets are infinitary rational relations accepted by 2-tape B\"uchi automata is equivalent to the determinacy of (effective) analytic Gale-Stewart games which is known to be a large cardinal assumption. Then we prove that winning strategies, when they exist, can be very complex, i.e. highly non-effective, in these games. We prove the same results for Gale-Stewart games with winning sets accepted by real-time 1-co...

Game theory is usually considered applied mathematics, but a few game-theoretic results, such as Borel determinacy, were developed by mathematicians for mathematics in a broad sense. These results usually state determinacy, i.e. the existence of a winning strategy in games that involve two players and two outcomes saying who wins. In a multi-outcome setting, the notion of winning strategy is irrelevant yet usually replaced faithfully with the notion of (pure) Nash equilibrium...