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arXiv:2608.29926

Emergence of Strategic Equilibria from Transverse Field Ising Hamiltonian Dynamics

Teena Thomas, S. Balakrishnan

quant-phSubmitted Aug 30, 2026• Announced Sep 1, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Game theory studies strategic decision-making among rational agents, and many classical games can be mapped onto interaction models such as the Ising model. Quantum game theory extends this framework by allowing players to exploit quantum superposition and entanglement. In this work, we study quantum games using an operator-based formulation derived from the transverse-field quantum Ising model. We show that the Hamiltonian-driven dynamics naturally generate entangling operator which resolve the dilemma in the game settings. This leads to a clear quantum advantage over classical outcomes. Unlike standard quantization schemes based on fixed entangling gates, the present approach enables tunable entanglement, controlled directly by physical Hamiltonian parameters, providing a hardware-relevant perspective on quantum game design.

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Game theory studies strategic decision-making among rational agents, and many classical games can be mapped onto interaction models such as the Ising model. Quantum game theory extends this framework by allowing players to exploit quantum superposition and entanglement. In this work, we study quantum games using an operator-based formulation derived from the transverse-field quantum Ising model. We show that the Hamiltonian-driven dynamics naturally generate entangling operator which resolve the dilemma in the game settings. This leads to a clear quantum advantage over classical outcomes. Unlike standard quantization schemes based on fixed entangling gates, the present approach enables tunable entanglement, controlled directly by physical Hamiltonian parameters, providing a hardware-relevant perspective on quantum game design.
Quantum game theory investigates the influence of quantum resources on strategic decision-making. In this work, two-player quantum games based on the Transverse Field Ising Model(TFIM) are investigated under amplitude-damping decoherence. The TFIM Hamiltonian naturally produces a family of entangling gates, enabling a physically motivated implementation of quantum games. The effects of noise on Nash equilibria, players' payoffs, concurrence and coherence of the quantum states for different initial states and strategy pairs are analyzed. The results show that decoherence progressively suppresses quantum strategic advantages, with maximum damping driving all outcomes to identical classical payoffs. The concurrence and coherence analysis of the states generated in the quantum game reveal initial state and strategy dependent quantum correlation dynamics, including entanglement sudden birth and death.
Quantum games extend classical game theory into the quantum realm by incorporating quantum players and quantum strategies. Two-player quantum games have been widely studied and applied, among other areas, in optimization and decision-making. In this work, we introduce, formalize and analyze a novel class of three-player quantum games, referred to as Proxy Quantum Games (PQGs). In this setting, one player, the Controller, influences or governs the strategic operations executed by a second player, the Proxy, who, in turn, competes directly against a third player, the Opponent. The strategic influence is implemented via controlled unitary operations, whereby the Proxy’s available strategies are conditioned on the Controller’s quantum state. We further generalize the PQG framework by incorporating multiple Controllers acting on a common Proxy, thereby enabling the study of higher-order strategic interactions and multi-agent influence structures. The objective under consideration is the maximization of the Controller’s expected payoff, under various configurations of strategic control and entanglement. Comparative analyses are conducted between the PQG formulation and conventional multiplayer quantum games, highlighting key differences in strategic behavior and payoff distributions.
We propose a framework for quantizing randomized quantum games in which entanglement is examined as a tunable fairness resource without relying on fine-tuned strategy parameters. As a case study of the Monty Hall problem, we show that initial entanglement between host and player registers neutralizes classical asymmetry at the distribution level, driving win-probability distributions under different strategic conditions to converge. Implemented on IBM’s Eagle processors via four-qubit encodings, our experiments span a continuum of entanglement strengths and employ extensive randomized trials over broad strategy ensembles. Although the mean no-switch probability remains fixed at its classical value, stronger entanglement progressively suppresses distributional signatures of asymmetric play, yielding increasingly uniform outcome statistics across adversarial conditions. Within the pure-state setting studied here, these findings provide evidence for an experimentally accessible route to quantify entanglement-enabled fairness in quantum games and suggest relevance to quantum information settings involving strategic decision-making under asymmetry.
Abstract Multiplayer quantum games have received growing attention due to the ability of quantum computational models to access enlarged strategic spaces, thereby enabling the emergence of nonclassical Nash equilibria and Pareto-efficient solutions. Concurrently, graph-theoretic representations have become a standard tool for encoding relational dependencies among interacting players. This work establishes a unified formalism that embeds arbitrary graph topologies into parametrized quantum-game circuits, providing a direct mapping between network structure and the strategic interaction space of quantum players. Within this framework, we analytically and computationally evaluate how graph-induced interpersonal couplings modulate payoff distributions over repeated quantum-game iterations. In addition, we integrate a reward-driven adaptation algorithm that allows players to optimize their local strategy parameters dynamically with respect to accumulated payoffs. Experimental results demonstrate that the equilibrium reward landscape is highly sensitive to the players’ graph-theoretic centrality and the weighted structure of their adversarial and cooperative relationships.
The volunteer's dilemma is a well-known game in game theory that models the conflict players face when deciding whether to volunteer for a collective benefit, knowing that volunteering incurs a personal cost. In this work we introduce a quantum variant of the classical volunteer's dilemma, generalizing it by allowing players to utilize quantum strategies. Employing the Eisert-Wilkens-Lewenstein quantization framework, we analyze a multiplayer quantum volunteer's dilemma scenario with an arbitrary number of players, where the cost of volunteering is shared equally among the volunteers. We derive analytical expressions for the players' expected payoffs and demonstrate the quantum game's advantage over the classical game. In particular, we prove that the quantum volunteer's dilemma possesses symmetric Nash equilibria with larger expected payoffs compared to the unique symmetric Nash equilibrium of the classical game, wherein players use mixed strategies. Furthermore, we show that the quantum Nash equilibria we identify are Pareto optimal. Our findings reveal distinct dynamics in volunteer's dilemma scenarios when players adhere to quantum rules, underscoring a strategic advantage of decision making in quantum settings.