The Complexity of Solving Stochastic Games on Graphs

We consider some well-known families of two-player zero-sum perfect-information stochastic games played on finite directed graphs. The families include stochastic parity games, stochastic mean payoff games, and simple stochastic games. We show that the tasks of solving games in each of these classes (quantitiatively or strategically) are all polynomial time equivalent. In addition, we exhibit a linear time algorithm that given a simple stochastic game and the values of all positions of that game, computes a pair of optimal strategies.

[1]  Ian Stark,et al.  Free-Algebra Models for the pi-Calculus , 2005, FoSSaCS.

[2]  Florian Horn,et al.  Simple Stochastic Games with Few Random Vertices Are Easy to Solve , 2008, FoSSaCS.

[3]  Dean Gillette,et al.  9. STOCHASTIC GAMES WITH ZERO STOP PROBABILITIES , 1958 .

[4]  Krishnendu Chatterjee,et al.  Simple Stochastic Parity Games , 2003, CSL.

[5]  A. Karzanov,et al.  Cyclic games and an algorithm to find minimax cycle means in directed graphs , 1990 .

[6]  Krishnendu Chatterjee,et al.  Stochastic limit-average games are in EXPTIME , 2008, Int. J. Game Theory.

[7]  John Longley Interpreting Localized Computational Effects Using Operators of Higher Type , 2008, CiE.

[8]  J. Filar Ordered field property for stochastic games when the player who controls transitions changes from state to state , 1981 .

[9]  Michael L. Littman,et al.  Algorithms for Sequential Decision Making , 1996 .

[10]  Philip Wolfe,et al.  Contributions to the theory of games , 1953 .

[11]  S. Lippman,et al.  Stochastic Games with Perfect Information and Time Average Payoff , 1969 .

[12]  Peter Bro Miltersen,et al.  On the computational complexity of solving stochastic mean-payoff games , 2008, ArXiv.

[13]  A. Prasad Sistla,et al.  On model checking for the µ-calculus and its fragments , 2001, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[14]  Anne Condon,et al.  The Complexity of Stochastic Games , 1992, Inf. Comput..

[15]  Krishnendu Chatterjee,et al.  Reduction of stochastic parity to stochastic mean-payoff games , 2008, Inf. Process. Lett..

[16]  Robert McNaughton,et al.  Infinite Games Played on Finite Graphs , 1993, Ann. Pure Appl. Logic.

[17]  Krishnendu Chatterjee,et al.  Quantitative stochastic parity games , 2004, SODA '04.

[18]  Ronald A. Howard,et al.  Dynamic Programming and Markov Processes , 1960 .

[19]  Alex K. Simpson,et al.  Computational Adequacy in an Elementary Topos , 1998, CSL.

[20]  Nir Halman,et al.  Simple Stochastic Games, Parity Games, Mean Payoff Games and Discounted Payoff Games Are All LP-Type Problems , 2007, Algorithmica.

[21]  Kristoffer Arnsfelt Hansen,et al.  Winning Concurrent Reachability Games Requires Doubly-Exponential Patience , 2009, 2009 24th Annual IEEE Symposium on Logic In Computer Science.

[22]  Uri Zwick,et al.  The Complexity of Mean Payoff Games on Graphs , 1996, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[23]  L. Shapley,et al.  Stochastic Games* , 1953, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.