Stochastic Timed Games Revisited

Abstract

Stochastic timed games (STGs), introduced by Bouyer and Forejt, naturally generalize both continuous-time Markov chains and timed automata by providing a partition of the locations between those controlled by two players (Player Box and Player Diamond) with competing objectives and those governed by stochastic laws. Depending on the number of players---$2$, $1$, or $0$---subclasses of stochastic timed games are often classified as $2\frac{1}{2}$-player, $1\frac{1}{2}$-player, and $\frac{1}{2}$-player games where the $\frac{1}{2}$ symbolizes the presence of the stochastic "nature" player. For STGs with reachability objectives it is known that $1\frac{1}{2}$-player one-clock STGs are decidable for qualitative objectives, and that $2\frac{1}{2}$-player three-clock STGs are undecidable for quantitative reachability objectives. This paper further refines the gap in this decidability spectrum. We show that quantitative reachability objectives are already undecidable for $1\frac{1}{2}$ player four-clock STGs, and even under the time-bounded restriction for $2\frac{1}{2}$-player five-clock STGs. We also obtain a class of $1\frac{1}{2}$, $2\frac{1}{2}$ player STGs for which the quantitative reachability problem is decidable.