A Jacobi-type Newton method for Nash equilibrium problems with descent guarantees

A common strategy for solving an unconstrained two-player Nash equilibrium problem with continuous variables is applying Newton’s method to the system of nonlinear equations obtained by the corresponding first-order necessary optimality conditions. However, when taking into account the game dynamics, it is not clear what is the goal of each player when considering that they … Read more

A Tractable Multi-Leader Multi-Follower Peak-Load-Pricing Model with Strategic Interaction

While single-level Nash equilibrium problems are quite well understood nowadays, less is known about multi-leader multi-follower games. However, these have important applications, e.g., in the analysis of electricity and gas markets, where often a limited number of firms interacts on various subsequent markets. In this paper, we consider a special class of two-level multi-leader multi-follower … Read more

A bi-level branch-and-bound algorithm for the capacitated competitive facility location problem

Competitive facility location problem is a typical facility locating optimization problem but in a competitive environment. The main characteristic of this problem is the competitive nature of the market. In essence, the problem involves two competitors, i.e., a leader and a follower, who seek to attract customers by establishing new facilities to maximize their own … Read more

Near-optimal Robust Bilevel Optimization

Bilevel optimization studies problems where the optimal response to a second mathematical optimization problem is integrated in the constraints. Such structure arises in a variety of decision-making problems in areas such as market equilibria, policy design or product pricing. We introduce near-optimal robustness for bilevel problems, protecting the upper-level decision-maker from bounded rationality at the … Read more

A deterministic algorithm for solving stochastic minimax dynamic programmes

In this paper, we present an algorithm for solving stochastic minimax dynamic programmes where state and action sets are convex and compact. A feature of the formulations studied is the simultaneous non-rectangularity of both `min’ and `max’ feasibility sets. We begin by presenting convex programming upper and lower bound representations of saddle functions — extending … Read more

Semidefinite Programming and Nash Equilibria in Bimatrix Games

We explore the power of semidefinite programming (SDP) for finding additive epsilon-approximate Nash equilibria in bimatrix games. We introduce an SDP relaxation for a quadratic programming formulation of the Nash equilibrium (NE) problem and provide a number of valid inequalities to improve the quality of the relaxation. If a rank-1 solution to this SDP is … Read more

Novel formulations for general and security Stackelberg games

In this paper we analyze general Stackelberg games (SGs) and Stackelberg security games (SSGs). SGs are hierarchical adversarial games where players select actions or strategies to optimize their payoffs in a sequential manner. SSGs are a type of SGs that arise in security applications, where the strategies of the player that acts first consist in … Read more

Equilibrium Strategies for Multiple Interdictors on a Common Network

In this work, we introduce multi-interdictor games, which model interactions among multiple interdictors with differing objectives operating on a common network. As a starting point, we focus on shortest path multi-interdictor (SPMI) games, where multiple interdictors try to increase the shortest path lengths of their own adversaries attempting to traverse a common network. We first … Read more

On the shortest path game

In this work we address a game theoretic variant of the shortest path problem, in which two decision makers (agents/players) move together along the edges of a graph from a given starting vertex to a given destination. The two players take turns in deciding in each vertex which edge to traverse next. The decider in … Read more

Solution of Nonlinear Equations via Optimization

This paper presents four optimization models for solving nonlinear equation systems. The models accommodate both over-specified and under-specified systems. A variable endogenization technique that improves efficiency is introduced, and a basic comparative study shows one of the methods presented to be very effective. Citation Siwale, I. (2013). Solution of nonlinear equation systems via optimization. Technical … Read more