Nash-type equilibria on Riemannian manifolds: a variational approach

Abstract: Motivated by Nash equilibrium problems on 'curved' strategy sets, the concept of Nash-Stampacchia equilibrium points is introduced via variational inequalities on Riemannian manifolds. Characterizations, existence, and stability of Nash-Stampacchia equilibria are studied when the strategy sets are compact/noncompact geodesic convex subsets of Hadamard manifoleds, exploiting two well-known geometrical features of these spaces both involving the metric projection map. These properties actually characterize the {non-positivity} of the sectional curvature of complete and simply connected Riemannian spaces, delimiting the Hadamard manifolds as the optimal geometrical framework of Nash-Stampacchia equilibrium problems. Our analytical approach exploits various elements from set-valued and variational analysis, dynamical systems, and non-smooth calculus on Riemannian manifolds. Examples are presented on the Poincar\'e upper-plane model and on the open convex cone of symmetric positive definite matrices endowed with the trace-type Killing form.