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Anchoring games for parallel repetition

Mohammad Bavarian, Thomas Vidick, Henry Yuen

Published Sep 24, 2015• 10 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Two major open problems regarding the parallel repetition of games are whether an analogue of Raz's parallel-repetition theorem holds for (a) games with more than two players, and (b) games with quantum players using entanglement. We make progress on both problems: we introduce a class of games we call anchored, and prove exponential-decay parallel repetition theorems for anchored games in the multiplayer and entangled-player settings. We introduce a simple transformation on games called anchoring and show that this transformation turns any game into an anchored game. Together, our parallel repetition theorem and our anchoring transformation provide a simple and efficient hardness-amplification technique in both the classical multiplayer and quantum settings.

Related papers

Hardness amplification for entangled games via anchoring

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We study the parallel repetition of one-round games involving players that can use quantum entanglement. A major open question in this area is whether parallel repetition reduces the entangled value of a game at an exponential rate - in other words, does an analogue of Raz's parallel repetition theorem hold for games with players sharing quantum entanglement? Previous results only apply to special classes of games.

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We investigate the value of parallel repetition of one-round games with any number of players $k\ge 2$. It has been an open question whether an analogue of Raz's Parallel Repetition Theorem holds for games with more than two players, i.e., whether the value of the repeated game decays exponentially with the number of repetitions. Verbitsky has shown, via a reduction to the density Hales-Jewett theorem, that the value of the repeated game must approach zero, as the number of repetitions increases. However, the rate of decay obtained in this way is extremely slow, and it is an open question whether the true rate is exponential as is the case for all two-player games. Exponential decay bounds are known for several special cases of multi-player games, e.g., free games and anchored games. In this work, we identify a certain expansion property of the base game and show all games with this property satisfy an exponential decay parallel repetition bound. Free games and anchored games satisfy this expansion property, and thus our parallel repetition theorem reproduces all earlier exponential-decay bounds for multiplayer games. More generally, our parallel repetition bound applies to all multiplayer games that are connected in a certain sense. We also describe a very simple game, called the GHZ game, that does not satisfy this connectivity property, and for which we do not know an exponential decay bound. We suspect that progress on bounding the value of this the parallel repetition of the GHZ game will lead to further progress on the general question.

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We introduce a simple transformation on two-player nonlocal games, called “anchoring,” and prove an exponential-decay parallel repetition theorem for all anchored games in the setting of quantum entangled players. This transformation is inspired in part by the Feige--Kilian transformation [ SIAM J. Comput., 30 (2000), pp. 324--346], and has the property that if the quantum value of the original game $G$ is $v$, then the quantum value of the anchored game $G_{{\perp}}$ is $1 - (1 - \alpha)^2 \cdot (1 - v)$, where $\alpha$ is a parameter of the transformation. In particular the anchored game has quantum value 1 if and only if the original game $G$ has quantum value 1. This provides the first gap amplification technique for general two-player nonlocal games that achieves exponential decay of the quantum value.

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We investigate the value of parallel repetition of one-round games with any number of players k>=2. It has been an open question whether an analogue of Raz's Parallel Repetition Theorem holds for games with more than two players, i.e., whether the value of the repeated game decays exponentially with the number of repetitions. Verbitsky has shown, via a reduction to the density Hales-Jewett theorem, that the value of the repeated game must approach zero, as the number of repetitions increases. However, the rate of decay obtained in this way is extremely slow, and it is an open question whether the true rate is exponential as is the case for all two-player games. Exponential decay bounds are known for several special cases of multi-player games, e.g., free games and anchored games. In this work, we identify a certain expansion property of the base game and show all games with this property satisfy an exponential decay parallel repetition bound. Free games and anchored games satisfy this expansion property, and thus our parallel repetition theorem reproduces all earlier exponential-decay bounds for multiplayer games. More generally, our parallel repetition bound applies to all multiplayer games that are *connected* in a certain sense. We also describe a very simple game, called the GHZ game, that does not satisfy this connectivity property, and for which we do not know an exponential decay bound. We suspect that progress on bounding the value of this the parallel repetition of the GHZ game will lead to further progress on the general question.

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The behavior of games repeated in parallel, when played with quantumly entangled players, has received much attention in recent years. Quantum analogues of Raz's classical parallel repetition theorem have been proved for many special classes of games. However, for general entangled games no parallel repetition theorem was known. We prove that the entangled value of a two-player game G repeated n times in parallel is at most c_G*n^{-1/4}*log(n) for a constant c_G depending on G, provided that the entangled value of G is less than 1. In particular, this gives the first proof that the entangled value of a parallel repeated game must converge to 0 for all games whose entangled value is less than 1. Central to our proof is a combination of both classical and quantum correlated sampling.

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Multiplayer parallel repetition without dependency-breaking and anchoring variables: monotonic, concave amplification

Pete Rigas

We obtain quantitative estimates on the decay of the multiplayer optimal value under parallel repetition. In comparison to a previous work of the author in 2025 (arXiv: 2508.09380) which sought to generalize dependency-breaking and anchoring variables from two-player Quantum games, being able to establish quantitative estimates on the decay of the optimal value of a multiplayer game under parallel repetition is of interest to establish under different assumptions. Specifically, independently of the dependency-breaking and anchoring variables that have previously been employed to remove correlations from entangled information shared between Alice and Bob (hence removing dependencies), monotonic concave functions can be used in place of such variables to obtain rates of decay on the optimal value. The game-theoretic setting with two players was first analyzed with monotonic concave functions by Lanzenberger and Maurer. For $q_i , x_i > 0$ $\forall 1 \leq i \leq N$ where $N > 0 $ is the total number of players we adddress an open question raised in their work regarding potential generalizations of two-player monotonic concave functions, through amplification functions of the form $Ψ_{\textit{Mult}} \equiv Ψ= N - \underset{1 \leq i \leq N}{\prod} \mathrm{exp} \big[ - q_i x_i \big]$, which in the multiplayer game-theoretic setting have more intricate combinatorial structures.

quant-pharXiv:2605.08259•May 11, 2026•0 citations
Two major open problems regarding the parallel repetition of games are whether an analogue of Raz's parallel-repetition theorem holds for (a) games with more than two players, and (b) games with quantum players using entanglement. We make progress on both problems: we introduce a class of games we call anchored, and prove exponential-decay parallel repetition theorems for anchored games in the multiplayer and entangled-player settings. We introduce a simple transformation on games called anchoring and show that this transformation turns any game into an anchored game. Together, our parallel repetition theorem and our anchoring transformation provide a simple and efficient hardness-amplification technique in both the classical multiplayer and quantum settings.
We investigate the value of parallel repetition of one-round games with any number of players k≥2k\ge 2k≥2. It has been an open question whether an analogue of Raz's Parallel Repetition Theorem holds for games with more than two players, i.e., whether the value of the repeated game decays exponentially with the number of repetitions. Verbitsky has shown, via a reduction to the density Hales-Jewett theorem, that the value of the repeated game must approach zero, as the number of repetitions increases. However, the rate of decay obtained in this way is extremely slow, and it is an open question whether the true rate is exponential as is the case for all two-player games. Exponential decay bounds are known for several special cases of multi-player games, e.g., free games and anchored games. In this work, we identify a certain expansion property of the base game and show all games with this property satisfy an exponential decay parallel repetition bound. Free games and anchored games satisfy this expansion property, and thus our parallel repetition theorem reproduces all earlier exponential-decay bounds for multiplayer games. More generally, our parallel repetition bound applies to all multiplayer games that are connected in a certain sense. We also describe a very simple game, called the GHZ game, that does not satisfy this connectivity property, and for which we do not know an exponential decay bound. We suspect that progress on bounding the value of this the parallel repetition of the GHZ game will lead to further progress on the general question.
We introduce a simple transformation on two-player nonlocal games, called “anchoring,” and prove an exponential-decay parallel repetition theorem for all anchored games in the setting of quantum entangled players. This transformation is inspired in part by the Feige--Kilian transformation [ SIAM J. Comput., 30 (2000), pp. 324--346], and has the property that if the quantum value of the original game GGG is vvv, then the quantum value of the anchored game G⊥G_{{\perp}}G⊥​ is 1−(1−α)2⋅(1−v)1 - (1 - \alpha)^2 \cdot (1 - v)1−(1−α)2⋅(1−v), where α\alphaα is a parameter of the transformation. In particular the anchored game has quantum value 1 if and only if the original game GGG has quantum value 1. This provides the first gap amplification technique for general two-player nonlocal games that achieves exponential decay of the quantum value.
We investigate the value of parallel repetition of one-round games with any number of players k>=2. It has been an open question whether an analogue of Raz's Parallel Repetition Theorem holds for games with more than two players, i.e., whether the value of the repeated game decays exponentially with the number of repetitions. Verbitsky has shown, via a reduction to the density Hales-Jewett theorem, that the value of the repeated game must approach zero, as the number of repetitions increases. However, the rate of decay obtained in this way is extremely slow, and it is an open question whether the true rate is exponential as is the case for all two-player games. Exponential decay bounds are known for several special cases of multi-player games, e.g., free games and anchored games. In this work, we identify a certain expansion property of the base game and show all games with this property satisfy an exponential decay parallel repetition bound. Free games and anchored games satisfy this expansion property, and thus our parallel repetition theorem reproduces all earlier exponential-decay bounds for multiplayer games. More generally, our parallel repetition bound applies to all multiplayer games that are *connected* in a certain sense. We also describe a very simple game, called the GHZ game, that does not satisfy this connectivity property, and for which we do not know an exponential decay bound. We suspect that progress on bounding the value of this the parallel repetition of the GHZ game will lead to further progress on the general question.
The behavior of games repeated in parallel, when played with quantumly entangled players, has received much attention in recent years. Quantum analogues of Raz's classical parallel repetition theorem have been proved for many special classes of games. However, for general entangled games no parallel repetition theorem was known. We prove that the entangled value of a two-player game G repeated n times in parallel is at most c_G*n^{-1/4}*log(n) for a constant c_G depending on G, provided that the entangled value of G is less than 1. In particular, this gives the first proof that the entangled value of a parallel repeated game must converge to 0 for all games whose entangled value is less than 1. Central to our proof is a combination of both classical and quantum correlated sampling.
We obtain quantitative estimates on the decay of the multiplayer optimal value under parallel repetition. In comparison to a previous work of the author in 2025 (arXiv: 2508.09380) which sought to generalize dependency-breaking and anchoring variables from two-player Quantum games, being able to establish quantitative estimates on the decay of the optimal value of a multiplayer game under parallel repetition is of interest to establish under different assumptions. Specifically, independently of the dependency-breaking and anchoring variables that have previously been employed to remove correlations from entangled information shared between Alice and Bob (hence removing dependencies), monotonic concave functions can be used in place of such variables to obtain rates of decay on the optimal value. The game-theoretic setting with two players was first analyzed with monotonic concave functions by Lanzenberger and Maurer. For qi,xi>0q_i , x_i > 0qi​,xi​>0 ∀1≤i≤N\forall 1 \leq i \leq N∀1≤i≤N where $N > 0 $ is the total number of players we adddress an open question raised in their work regarding potential generalizations of two-player monotonic concave functions, through amplification functions of the form ΨMult≡Ψ=N−∏1≤i≤Nexp[−qixi]Ψ_{\textit{Mult}} \equiv Ψ= N - \underset{1 \leq i \leq N}{\prod} \mathrm{exp} \big[ - q_i x_i \big]ΨMult​≡Ψ=N−1≤i≤N∏​exp[−qi​xi​], which in the multiplayer game-theoretic setting have more intricate combinatorial structures.