Game theory can be briefly described as the investigation of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation among rational entities. In the past, it has been extensively applied to problems of economics, but the last few decades have found intriguing applications in various fields of engineering.
This book provides rigorous but not extensive encyclopedic coverage of game theory. Nevertheless, it includes materials that can be used as building blocks of the knowledge required to address various problems that can be seen and solved from the perspective of game theory. It is strongly oriented toward topics that have applied significance for distributed collective systems that interact with humans, such as power systems, networks, and similar multiagent systems.
The book consists of two parts. The first part, apart from some introductory material on games, covers theoretical issues relevant to two-player games, Nash and Stackelberg equilibria, coalition games, and differential, stochastic, and mean field games. The second part focuses on applications of these concepts in various fields, including the consensus problem, opinion dynamics, bargaining, and cyber-physical systems.
The material in each chapter is self-contained. The references provided at the end of each chapter aim to provide additional study pointers to the reader, but still the reader can be adequately exposed to the chapter’s topic(s) based only the chapter’s material. The examples in each chapter cover a significant part of the chapter, and are very carefully designed. They provide the right mix of theoretical and practical understanding of the chapter’s material. The lively writing style of the author makes digestion of the book’s contents much easier than expected for a book with advanced and sophisticated math material.
The audience of the book potentially includes advanced undergraduate or postgraduate students mainly from the fields of industrial, mechanical, aerospace, and electrical engineering. However, it will probably be useful to same-level students of computer science, biology, and physics.
It is my strong feeling that the book covers a significant gap in the literature by combining clarity, simplicity, and mathematical precision.