Research
On-device research index

arXiv research

A locally-built, LLM-digested index of recent arXiv papers in quant finance, geometry/topology, and statistical ML — keyword search served straight from SQLite on this machine.

168,932 papers · 148 categories

Trend · papers per month

60119179238 · Jun 202019922001200920172026
48 results for Policy Decomposition

POTEC tackles off-policy learning in large action spaces, improving effectiveness.

problem Existing OPL methods fail in large discrete action spaces due to bias or variance issues.
method Two-stage algorithm: cluster selection via policy-based approach, action selection via regression-based approach.
result POTEC provides substantial improvements in off-policy learning effectiveness, especially in large and structured action spaces.

The paper uncovers the mathematical structure enabling value decomposition in multi-agent systems.

problem Theoretical justification for why value decomposition works effectively in multi-agent systems remains underexplored.
method The paper introduces the concept of Markov entanglement to measure the underlying structure and demonstrates how it can be used to bound the decomposition error.
result The widely-used class of index policies is weakly entangled and enjoys a sublinear O(N)\mathcal O(\sqrt{N}) scale of decomposition error for NN-agent systems.

This paper improves Q-learning bounds using reference-advantage decomposition.

problem Improving Q-learning bounds in MDPs with positive suboptimality gaps.
method Develops a novel error decomposition framework to prove gap-dependent regret bounds.
result Establishes logarithmic gap-dependent regret bounds for Q-learning.

The paper explains why estimating a history-dependent policy can reduce MSE in reinforcement learning.

problem Understanding why history-dependent policies can improve MSE in off-policy evaluation.
method The paper derives a bias-variance decomposition of MSE for various OPE estimators, showing how history-dependent policies can decrease variance and increase bias.
result History-dependent policies can decrease the variance of importance sampling estimators, leading to lower MSE.

New method combines value function decomposition and policy gradients for cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning.

problem Challenges in cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning, especially credit assignment and large action spaces.
method Decomposed Soft Actor-Critic (mSAC) method with Q network architecture, discrete probabilistic policy, and counterfactual advantage function.
result Significantly outperforms policy-based approach COMA and achieves competitive results with SOTA value-based approach Qmix.

A new multi-agent learning method improves performance in complex games.

problem Performance gap between MAPG and value-based multi-agent approaches.
method Introduces value function decomposition into multi-agent actor-critic framework for off-policy learning.
result DOP significantly outperforms state-of-the-art multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithms.

The paper proposes a method to decompose value functions in RL for better understanding and prediction.

problem Understanding and predicting the dynamics and returns in reinforcement learning models.
method A two-step approach decomposing the value function into future dynamics and trajectory returns, with a practical deep RL algorithm.
result The proposed algorithm outperforms in MuJoCo tasks, especially under delayed reward settings.

SPEDER extracts state-action abstraction from dynamics for reinforcement learning.

problem Curse of dimensionality and limited applicability of spectral methods.
method Spectral Decomposition Representation (SPEDER) that extracts state-action abstraction from dynamics without policy dependence.
result Theoretical analysis establishes sample efficiency in online and offline settings.

The study examines how different interpolation methods affect the decomposition of life insurance surplus.

problem The impact of different interpolation methods on the decomposition of life insurance surplus.
method The study uses the IASU decomposition method to analyze the effects of different interpolation methods (Lee-Carter and linear) on the surplus decomposition.
result Lee-Carter and linear interpolation yield almost identical decompositions, while constant approximations result in different decompositions.

NOHD optimizes multi-agent systems by decomposing dynamics into irrotational and solenoidal components.

problem Non-stationarity and conflicting interests in multi-agent learning problems.
method NOHD (Newton Optimization on Helmholtz Decomposition) decomposes system dynamics into irrotational and solenoidal components.
result NOHD ensures quadratic convergence in purely irrotational and solenoidal systems and attracts to stable fixed points in general multi-agent systems.

Many advanced Learning from Demonstration (LfD) methods consider the decomposition of complex, real-world tasks into simpler sub-tasks. By reusing the corresponding sub-policies within and between tasks, they provide training data for each policy from different high-level tasks and compose them to perform novel ones. E…

2018-03-02abs ↗pdf ↗

Novel framework for risk-sensitive reinforcement learning using martingale decomposition.

problem Risk sensitivity in sequential decision-making with uncertain rewards.
method Martingale decomposition and chaotic variation for reward uncertainty, integrated into model-free reinforcement learning algorithms.
result Demonstrated relevance of risk-sensitive reinforcement learning in grid world and portfolio optimization problems.

Decomposes spillover effects under misspecified exposure mappings.

problem Modeling outcomes as functions of own treatment and a misspecified exposure mapping of others' treatments.
method Pseudo-true estimands and local-global extension for structured misspecification.
result Sharp asymptotic decomposition into direct, local, and global components.

The paper introduces return parity for fairness in MDPs, addressing delayed and adverse effects.

problem Fairness in MDPs for dynamic domains with delayed and adverse effects.
method Proposes return parity, decomposes return disparity, and develops algorithms for state visitation distributional alignment.
result The proposed algorithms can successfully close the disparity gap while maintaining policy performance.

The paper studies reward concentration in MDPs, covering asymptotic and non-asymptotic settings.

problem Reward concentration in Markov Decision Processes (MDPs).
method Unified approach to reward concentration in MDPs, including asymptotic and non-asymptotic bounds.
result Rate-equivalent definitions of regret for learning policies.

New method prevents RLHF alignment collapse by accounting for policy's influence on reward model updates.

problem Iterative RLHF leads to alignment collapse where policies exploit RM's blind spots.
method Foresighted policy optimization (FPO) restores missing steering term via regularization.
result FPO prevents alignment collapse on LLM alignment pipelines using Llama-3.2-1B.

New method decomposes Markov chain rewards into persistent and transient components.

problem Ambiguity in classical evaluation methods for Markov chains with reducible and periodic states.
method Minimal exact quotient by the real peripheral invariant subspace, decomposing rewards into persistent and transient components.
result Exact comparison with classical methods shows that the new decomposition reallocates the same information, making persistent modes explicit.

We present a novel method for learning a set of disentangled reward functions that sum to the original environment reward and are constrained to be independently obtainable. We define independent obtainability in terms of value functions with respect to obtaining one learned reward while pursuing another learned reward…

2019-01-24abs ↗pdf ↗

The paper develops a new model to evaluate policies in complex temporal/spatial experiments.

problem Evaluating the impact of policies in experiments with temporal and spatial dependencies.
method Temporal/spatio-temporal Varying Coefficient Decision Process (VCDP) model, decomposing ATE into DE and IE.
result Effective estimation and inference of DE and IE with rigorous statistical analysis.

Enhances large language models' reasoning through simpler off-policy reinforcement learning.

problem Improving large language models' ability to reason and solve problems.
method EM Policy Gradient, optimizing expected return over reasoning trajectories using Expectation-Maximization (EM) optimization.
result Achieves comparable or slightly superior performance to state-of-the-art methods on reasoning datasets, with additional cognitive behaviors.

Minimal assumptions analysis of Q-learning with time-varying policies.

problem Finite-time analysis of Q-learning with time-varying policies for discounted MDPs.
method Minimal assumptions, Poisson equation decomposition, sensitivity analysis.
result Established convergence rate and sample complexity for Q-learning.

New algorithm for risk-sensitive reinforcement learning with natural policy gradients.

problem Risk-sensitive reinforcement learning with downside risk constraints.
method Introduce a new Bellman equation to estimate the lower partial moment of returns, use natural policy gradients, and extend Reward Constrained Policy Optimization.
result Sample-efficient estimation of partial moments and effective risk-sensitive control.

A new reinforcement learning approach using competitive primitives that specialize and specialize based on information needs.

problem Complex environments require efficient and specialized decision-making.
method Decomposes policy into competitive primitives that decide based on information needs, regularized to use minimal information.
result Improves generalization over flat and hierarchical policies.

We propose a new reinforcement learning algorithm for partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDP) based on spectral decomposition methods. While spectral methods have been previously employed for consistent learning of (passive) latent variable models such as hidden Markov models, POMDPs are more challenging…

2016-02-25abs ↗pdf ↗

Paper proposes FedQ-Advantage for federated Q-learning with near-optimal regret and low communication cost.

problem Near-optimal federated Q-learning with low communication cost.
method Reference-advantage decomposition for variance reduction, synchronization between agents and server, policy update.
result Achieves almost optimal regret and near-linear regret speedup compared to single-agent learning.

Q(ΔΔ)-Learning improves Q-Learning by separating action-value functions into different time scales.

problem Q-Learning struggles with bias-variance trade-off, especially in long-term rewards.
method Introduces Q(ΔΔ)-Learning, extending TD(ΔΔ) to decompose Q(ΔΔ)-function into distinct discount factors.
result Q(ΔΔ)-Learning achieves better stability and scalability, especially for long-term tasks.

Graph ConvNet learns to solve Tree Decomposition problems efficiently.

problem Tree Decomposition problem in graph theory and its applications.
method Graph Convolutional Neural Network (GCN) combined with Reinforcement Learning (Actor-Critic method).
result The model efficiently generalizes from small to large real-world instances of the TD problem.

New estimator improves off-policy evaluation for large action spaces.

problem Conventional importance-weighting approaches suffer from excessive variance in off-policy evaluation for large discrete action spaces.
method Proposes OffCEM estimator based on conjunct effect model (CEM), applying importance weighting only to action clusters and using model-based reward estimation for residual effects.
result Proposed estimator is unbiased under local correctness condition, providing substantial improvements in OPE especially with many actions.

Paper proposes a new DRL algorithm optimizing Spectral Risk Measures for better risk management.

problem Inconsistencies and conservatism in existing risk measures in DRL.
method Optimizes a broader class of static Spectral Risk Measures (SRM) in DRL.
result Demonstrates improved performance over existing risk-neutral and risk-sensitive DRL models.

DeepPPMNet forecasts EMS demand and performs causal analyses for policy-making.

problem Accurate prediction and causal analysis of EMS demand for effective policy-making.
method DeepPPMNet, a LSTM-based framework, globally forecasts and analyzes causal relationships using Granger causality.
result DeepPPMNet outperforms traditional methods in forecasting EMS demand and policy-making.

We propose RUDDER, a novel reinforcement learning approach for delayed rewards in finite Markov decision processes (MDPs). In MDPs the Q-values are equal to the expected immediate reward plus the expected future rewards. The latter are related to bias problems in temporal difference (TD) learning and to high variance p…

2018-06-20abs ↗pdf ↗

Paper addresses online alignment of large language models under uncertain preference feedback.

problem Online alignment of large language models with misspecified preference feedback.
method Formulates an oracle-robust objective as a worst-case optimization problem for log-linear policies, and develops projected stochastic composite updates.
result Shows that the robust objective admits an exact closed-form decomposition and achieves O~(ε2)\widetilde{O}(\varepsilon^{-2}) oracle complexity.

The ability of a reinforcement learning (RL) agent to learn about many reward functions at the same time has many potential benefits, such as the decomposition of complex tasks into simpler ones, the exchange of information between tasks, and the reuse of skills. We focus on one aspect in particular, namely the ability…

2018-12-18abs ↗pdf ↗

Paper develops a new probabilistic method for American options using entropy regularization.

problem Finding optimal stopping times for American options with entropy regularization.
method Entropy-regularized penalization scheme based on Doob-Meyer-Mertens decomposition and reflected backward stochastic differential equations.
result Explicit convergence rates and policy improvement algorithm for American options.