Classical game theory is a powerful tool focusing on optimized resource distribution, allocation and sharing in classical wired and wireless networks. As quantum networks are emerging as a means of providing true connectivity between quantum computers, it is imperative and crucial to exploit game theory for addressing challenges like entanglement distribution and access, routing, topology extraction and inference for quantum networks. Quantum networks provide the promising opportunity of employing quantum games owing to their inherent capability of generating and sharing quantum states. Besides, quantum games offer enhanced payoffs and winning probabilities, new strategies and equilibria, which are unimaginable in classical games. Employing quantum game theory to solve fundamental challenges in quantum networks opens a new fundamental research direction necessitating inter-disciplinary efforts. In this article, we introduce a novel game-theoretical framework for exploiting quantum strategies to solve, as archetypal example, one of the key functionality of a quantum network, namely, the entanglement distribution. We compare the quantum strategies with classical ones by showing the quantum advantages in terms of link fidelity improvement and latency decrease in communication. In future, we will generalize our game framework to optimize entanglement distribution and access over any quantum network topology. We will also explore how quantum games can be leveraged to address other challenges like routing, optimization of quantum operations and topology design.

翻译：经典博弈论是研究经典有线和无线网络中资源优化分配、配置与共享的强有力工具。随着量子网络作为实现量子计算机之间真正互联的手段而兴起，利用博弈论解决量子网络的纠缠分发与接入、路由、拓扑提取与推断等挑战变得至关重要。量子网络因其天生具备生成和共享量子态的能力，为运用量子博弈提供了诱人的机遇。此外，量子博弈能提供在经典博弈中无法想象的增强收益、获胜概率、新策略和均衡。运用量子博弈论解决量子网络中的根本性挑战，开辟了一个需要跨学科努力的全新基础研究方向。在本文中，我们引入一个新颖的博弈论框架，利用量子策略解决量子网络的关键功能之一——纠缠分发——作为典型案例。我们通过展示量子策略在链路保真度提升和通信延迟降低方面的优势，将其与经典策略进行比较。未来，我们将把博弈框架推广到优化任意量子网络拓扑上的纠缠分发与接入。我们还将探索如何利用量子博弈应对路由、量子操作优化及拓扑设计等其他挑战。