Static Quantum Games Revisited

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new framework for defining quantum games through scenarios and implementations, clarifying conceptual confusions and challenging claims about entanglement's role and Bell inequalities in static quantum games.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous conceptual framework for quantum games, distinguishing different types within the same scenario and clarifying misconceptions about entanglement and Bell inequalities.

Findings

Different quantum games can be defined within the same scenario.

The role of entanglement in static quantum games is not as essential as previously claimed.

Connections between quantum games and Bell inequalities are disproved.

Abstract

The so called \emph{quantum game theory} has recently been proclaimed as one of the new branches in the development of both quantum information theory and game theory. However, the notion of a quantum game itself has never been strictly defined, which has led to a lot of conceptual confusion among different authors. In this paper we introduce a new conceptual framework of a \emph{scenario} and an \emph{implementation} of a game. It is shown that the procedures of "quantization" of games proposed in the literature lead in fact to several different games which can be defined within the same scenario, but apart from this they may have nothing in common with the original game. Within the framework we put forward, a lot of conceptual misunderstandings that have arisen around "quantum games" can be stated clearly and resolved uniquely. In particular, the proclaimed essential role of entanglement in several static "quantum games", and their connection with Bell inequalities, is disproved.