Playing a quantum game on polarization vortices

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a quantum game implementation using classical optics, exploiting nonquantum entanglement between laser modes' spin and orbital degrees of freedom to explore richer strategic options.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to simulate quantum game theory using classical optical systems with nonquantum entanglement.

Findings

Classical optics can simulate quantum entanglement in game scenarios

Richer strategies emerge from nonquantum entanglement in optical modes

Potential for new quantum game implementations in classical systems

Abstract

The quantum mechanical approach to the well known prisoners dilemma, one of the basic examples to illustrate the concepts of Game Theory, is implemented with a classical optical resource, nonquantum entanglement between spin and orbital degrees of freedom of laser modes. The concept of entanglement is crucial in the quantum version of the game, which brings novel features with a richer universe of strategies. As we show, this richness can be achieved in a quite unexpected context, namely that of paraxial spin-orbit modes in classical optics.