An introduction to quantum game theory

Quantum game theory is a recently developing field of physical research. In this paper, we investigate quantum games in a systematic way. With the famous instance of the Prisoner's Dilemma, we present the fascinating properties of quantum games in different conditions, i.e. different number of the players, different strategic space of the players and different amount of the entanglement involved.

The paper discusses coordination games with remote players that have access to an entangled quantum state. It shows that the entangled state cannot be used by players for communicating information, but that in certain games it can be used for improving coordination of actions. A necessary condition is provided that helps to determine when an entangled quantum state can be useful for improving coordination.

A simple and general formulation of the quantum game theory is presented, accommodating all possible strategies in the Hilbert space for the first time. The theory is solvable for the two strategy quantum game, which is shown to be equivalent to a family of classical games supplemented by quantum interference. Our formulation gives a clear perspective to understand why and how quantum strategies outmaneuver classical strategies. It also reveals novel aspects of quantum games ...

In recent years methods have been proposed to extend classical game theory into the quantum domain. This paper explores further extensions of these ideas that may have a substantial potential for further research. Upon reformulating quantum game theory as a theory of classical games played by "quantum players" I take a constructive approach. The roles of the players and the arbiter are investigated for clues on the nature of the quantum game space. Upon examination of the r...

Quantum game theory offers a lot of interesting questions, and it is relevant to use the quantum information theory to resolve or improve games with lack of information : how to use the power of quantum entanglement to show the superiority of a quantum player that is allowed to use quantum mechanics versus a classical player, how to use quantum communication properties in cooperative games ... But games are also useful to make notions easier to understand, and permit to appre...

The fundamental laws of quantum world upsets the logical foundation of classic physics. They are completely counter-intuitive with many bizarre behaviors. However, this paper shows that they may make sense from the perspective of a general decision-optimization principle for cooperation. This principle also offers a generalization of Nash equilibrium, a key concept in game theory, for better payoffs and stability of game playing.

We pursue a general theory of quantum games. We show that quantum games are more efficient than classical games, and provide a saturated upper bound for this efficiency. We demonstrate that the set of finite classical games is a strict subset of the set of finite quantum games. We also deduce the quantum version of the Minimax Theorem and the Nash Equilibrium Theorem.

In this article, we explore the concept of quantum games and define quantum games as any type of playable games that are related to or reference quantum physics through any of three proposed aspects. The rise of the quantum computers has made it possible to think about a new wave of computer games, namely quantum computer games, games on quantum computers. But at the same time, there are also various games that are exploring quantum mechanics and related topics through digita...

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 qu...

Effect of replacing the classical game object with a quantum object is analyzed. We find this replacement requires a throughout reformation of the framework of Game Theory. If we use density matrix to represent strategy state of players, they are full-structured density matrices with off-diagonal elements for the new games, while reduced diagonal density matrix will be enough for the traditional games on classical objects. In such formalism, the payoff function of every playe...