Quantum version of Prisoners' Dilemma under Interacting Environment

TL;DR

This paper explores how environmental interactions cause decoherence in a quantum Prisoners' Dilemma, showing that decoherence reduces payoffs and occurs faster when it happens twice, impacting quantum game outcomes.

Contribution

It introduces a model of quantum Prisoners' Dilemma with environmental interactions and compares decoherence effects under different scenarios.

Findings

Decoherence reduces prisoners' payoffs.

Decoherence occurs faster when it happens twice.

Total decoherence time remains constant.

Abstract

Quantum game theory is a rapidly evolving subject that extends beyond physics. In this research work, a schematic picture of quantum game theory has been provided with the help of the famous game Prisoners' Dilemma. It has been considered that the shared qubits of the prisoners may interact with the environment which is a bath of simple harmonic oscillators. This interaction introduces decoherence and this model has been compared with phase damping. Calculation of the decoherence factor shows that decoherence reduces the payoff of the prisoners. The factor has been calculated based on whether the decoherence occurred once or twice. A comparative discussion establishes that the process of decoherence is faster for the case when it occurs twice. It needs to be mentioned here that the total time of decoherence is the same in both cases.