Antichains for Concurrent Parameterized Games

Concurrent parameterized games involve a fixed yet arbitrary number of players. They are described by finite arenas in which the edges are labeled with languages that describe the possible move combinations leading from one vertex to another (n players yield a word of length n). Previous work showed that, when edge labels are regular languages, one can decide whether a distinguished player, called Eve, has a strategy to ensure a reachability objective, against any strategy profile of her arbitrarily many opponents. This decision problem is known to be PSPACE-complete. A basic ingredient in the PSPACE-membership proof is the reduction to the exponential-size knowledge game, a 2-player game that reflects the knowledge Eve has on the number of opponents. In this paper, we provide a symbolic approach, based on antichains, to compute Eve's winning region in the knowledge game. In words, it gives the minimal knowledge Eve needs at every vertex to win the concurrent parameterized reachability game. More precisely, we propose two fixed-point algorithms that compute, as an antichain, the maximal elements of the winning region for Eve in the knowledge game. We implemented these two algorithms in C++, as well as the one initially proposed, and report on their relative performances on various benchmarks.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science
Published
2026-10-06
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4204/eptcs.454.4
Primary Topic
Formal Methods in Verification
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Antichains for Concurrent Parameterized Games

Nathalie Bertrand, Patricia Bouyer, Gaëtan Staquet
Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science
Formal Methods in Verification
article

Antichains for Concurrent Parameterized Games

Nathalie Bertrand, Patricia Bouyer, Gaëtan Staquet
article en

Abstract

Concurrent parameterized games involve a fixed yet arbitrary number of players. They are described by finite arenas in which the edges are labeled with languages that describe the possible move combinations leading from one vertex to another (n players yield a word of length n). Previous work showed that, when edge labels are regular languages, one can decide whether a distinguished player, called Eve, has a strategy to ensure a reachability objective, against any strategy profile of her arbitrarily many opponents. This decision problem is known to be PSPACE-complete. A basic ingredient in the PSPACE-membership proof is the reduction to the exponential-size knowledge game, a 2-player game that reflects the knowledge Eve has on the number of opponents. In this paper, we provide a symbolic approach, based on antichains, to compute Eve's winning region in the knowledge game. In words, it gives the minimal knowledge Eve needs at every vertex to win the concurrent parameterized reachability game. More precisely, we propose two fixed-point algorithms that compute, as an antichain, the maximal elements of the winning region for Eve in the knowledge game. We implemented these two algorithms in C++, as well as the one initially proposed, and report on their relative performances on various benchmarks.

Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer ScienceVol. 454
École Centrale de Nantes (FR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique (FR), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Systèmes Aléatoires (FR), Laboratoire des Sciences du Numérique de Nantes (FR), Université de Rennes (FR), Nantes Université (FR)
Agence Nationale de la Recherche
Openalex Percentile: Top 97%
Formal Methods in Verification
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.

Antichains for Concurrent Parameterized Games — Nathalie Bertrand, Patricia Bouyer, et al. · Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS