Mathematics Colloquium
Date: Wednesday, 7 February 2024
Time: 2:00 - 3:00 PM
Venue: Seminar Hall
Big Match
TES Raghavan
University of Illinois, Chicago.
07-02-24

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Abstract

Shapley introduced the notion of zero sum two person stochastic games with discounted payoff and proved that they always admit optimal strategies for the two players . Further they can also be chosen by the maximizer to be a stationary strategy that guarantees value against any strategy of the minimizer. A similar statement holds for the minimizer admitting stationary optimal strategy . However if the players are interested in optimizing the long run average payoff ( Cesaro payoff) , it is quite possible that neither player has any optimal strategy even though value exists in behavioral strategies. A specific game with just 3 states where two states are absorbing is constructed and we will show that one of the players has only an epsilon optimal behavior strategy.