Detecting Nash equilibria of strategic games by Vortex Search algorithm

Abstract

Nash equilibrium is a fundamental concept in the theory of games and the most widely used methods of predicting the outcome of a strategic interaction in the social sciences. Detecting Nash equilibria of a strategic game is not an easy work, and this is because of the continues domain of feasible results, which means there is infinite feasible results. Therefore, finding correct results by non-heuristic algorithms seems impossible. In this article, our aim is detecting Nash equilibrium by computing the global minimum of a non-negative cost function. In this regard, we employ a recently proposed metaheuristic algorithm, the Vortex Search (VS), to reach this goal. For evaluating the proposed method, several well-known strategic games are considered and the results and the algorithm efficiency are demonstrated.