Bernd Sturmfels (MPI Leipzig and UC Berkeley)​​

Title: Geometry of Dependency Equilibria
Abstract: An n-person game is specified by n tensors of the same format. Its equilibria are points in that tensor space. Dependency equilibria satisfy linear constraints on conditional probabilities. These cut out the Spohn variety, named after the philosopher who introduced the concept. Nash equilibria are tensors of rank one. We discuss the real algebraic geometry of the Spohn variety and its payoff map, with emphasis on connections to oriented matroids and algebraic statistics. This is joint work with Irem Portakal.