Potential Games

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Overview

Potential games represent how an individual player's change in strategy relates to a shared scalar function, making stable outcomes easier to analyze and compute. Methods include exact, ordinal, weighted, and α-potential constructions, alongside best-response dynamics, policy-gradient learning, zeroth-order optimization, and distributed primal–dual algorithms. Applications range from federated learning and multi-agent reinforcement learning to traffic coordination, resource allocation, coalition formation, and scheduling. A central challenge is that approximating asymmetric general-sum games with a common potential can ease equilibrium search but distort incentives, equilibrium accuracy, or social efficiency.

Latest papers

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16 papers3 papers in the last four weeks, with none the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

  1. Priority Coordination Games: Hodge Decomposition and a Sharp Design Limit

    Oct 5, 2026Zhihao Lin, Jianglin Lan, Anh-Tu Nguyen +1Multi-Agent CoordinationGame Theory

    Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Osaka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan · James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom · LAMIH UMR CNRS 8201 Laboratory, Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, 59313 Valenciennes, France +2

  2. Distributed Algorithms for αα-Potential Functions in General-Sum Games

    Oct 4, 2026Yifei Chen, Chinmay MaheshwariDistributed OptimizationPotential Games

    Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

  3. Decentralized Decision-Making among Heterogeneous Autonomous Vehicles: An αα-Potential Game Framework

    Sep 30, 2026Anran Hu, Zhexin Wang, Yufei Zhang +1Game TheoryAutonomous Driving

    Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Columbia University · Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London, UK · Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Data Science Institute, Columbia University

  4. Stable and Budget-Feasible Coalition Formation for Clustered Federated Learning: A Hedonic Potential-Game Approach

    Jul 29, 2026Cengis HasanCooperative Game TheoryCoalition Formation

    Cognifinity, Luxembourg

  5. Distributed Constraint Optimization via Online Learning and Iterative Pricing with Application to Large-Scale Satellite Scheduling

    Jul 28, 2026Itai Zilberstein, Pranav Rajbhandari, Steve Chien +1Distributed OptimizationPotential Games

    Department of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University · Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology · Additional affiliations: Strategy Robot, Inc., Strategic Machine, Inc., Optimized Markets, Inc.

  6. Pure Nash Equilibria under the Affine Mechanism: A Potential Game of Exaggeration

    Jun 27, 2026Jason Jisen Li, Young Wu, Yancheng Zhu +2Nash EquilibriumMechanism Design

    University of Wisconsin - Madison

  7. Exit-and-Join Dynamics for Decentralized Coalition Formation

    Jun 18, 2026Quanyan ZhuCooperative Game TheoryCoalition Formation

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering New York University Tandon School of Engineering Brooklyn, NY, USA

  8. A four-player potential game for barren-plateau-aware quantum ansatz design

    Apr 23, 2026Rubén Darío GuerreroQuantum ChemistryBarren Plateaus

    Parametrized-QC-Graphs Project

  9. Toward Cooperative Driving in Mixed Traffic: An Adaptive Potential Game-Based Approach with Field Test Verification

    Apr 22, 2026Shiyu Fang, Xiaocong Zhao, Xuekai Liu +4Intelligent Transportation SystemsAutonomous Driving

    Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering of the State, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, China · State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Green Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China · State Key Lab of Intelligent Transportation System, School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

  10. Cooperate to Compete: Strategic Data Generation and Incentivization Framework for Coopetitive Cross-Silo Federated Learning

    Apr 16, 2026Thanh Linh Nguyen, Nguyen Van Huynh, Quoc-Viet PhamSynthetic Data GenerationPotential Games

    School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, D02 PN40, Ireland · School of Computer Science and Informatics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3DR, UK

  11. NePPO: Near-Potential Policy Optimization for General-Sum Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 7, 2026Addison Kalanther, Sanika Bharvirkar, Shankar Sastry +1Multi-Agent Reinforcement LearningGame-Theoretic RL

    Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley · Electrical and Computer Engineering, Data Science & Artificial Intelligence Institute, Johns Hopkins University

  12. A potentialization algorithm for games with applications to multi-agent learning in repeated games

    Feb 21, 2026Philipp Lakheshar, Sharwin RezagholiGame TheoryPotential Games

    University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien, Vienna, Austria

  13. Learning Distributed Equilibria in Linear-Quadratic Stochastic Differential Games: An αα-Potential Approach

    Feb 18, 2026Philipp Plank, Yufei ZhangGame TheoryNash Equilibrium Computation

    Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London, UK

  14. Game-theoretic Regulated Decentralized Coordination for Airspace Sector Overload Mitigation

    Nov 14, 2025Jaehan Im, Daniel Delahaye, David Fridovich-Keil +1Multi-Agent CoordinationAir Traffic Management

    The University of Texas at Austin, 110 Inner Campus Drive, Austin, 78712, Texas, United States · École Nationale de lAviation Civile, 7 Avenue Édouard Belin, CS 54005, Toulouse Cedex 4, 31055, France

  15. A Game-Theoretic Spatio-Temporal Reinforcement Learning Framework for Collaborative Public Resource Allocation

    Oct 30, 2025Songxin Lei, Qiongyan Wang, Yanchen Zhu +6Multi-Agent CoordinationReinforcement Learning

    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) · Peking University · Beijing Institute of Technology +1

  16. Nonlinear Equilibrium Transitions in a Potential Game Model for Federated Learning

    Nov 18, 2024Kang Liu, Ziqi Wang, Enrique ZuazuaNash EquilibriumGame Theory

    Institut de Mathématiques de Bourgogne, Université Bourgogne Europe, CNRS, Dijon, 21000, France · Chair for Dynamics, Control, Machine Learning and Numerics – Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, Department of Mathematics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Cauerstrasse 11, Erlangen, 91058, Germany · Chair of Computational Mathematics, Fundación Deusto, Avenida de las Universidades, 24, Bilbao, 48007, Basque Country, Spain +1