Characteristic function games with restricted agent interactions: Core-stability and coalition structures.

In many real-world settings, the structure of the environment constrains the formation of coalitions among agents. These settings can be represented by characteristic function games, also known as coalitional games, equipped with interaction graphs. An interaction graph determines the set of all feasible coalitions, in that a coalition C can form only if the subgraph induced over the nodes/agents in C is connected. Our work analyzes stability issues arising in such environments, by focusing on the core as a solution concept, and by considering the coalition structure viewpoint, that is, without assuming that the grand-coalition necessarily forms.