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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.

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103205308410 · Jun 202019922001200920172026
48 results for Value Iteration

Value iteration is a fixed point iteration technique utilized to obtain the optimal value function and policy in a discounted reward Markov Decision Process (MDP). Here, a contraction operator is constructed and applied repeatedly to arrive at the optimal solution. Value iteration is a first order method and therefore …

2019-05-10abs ↗pdf ↗

XLVINs improve data efficiency in implicit planning by leveraging latent space.

problem Improving data efficiency in implicit planning algorithms.
method XLVINs use a high-dimensional latent space to perform planning computations, breaking the algorithmic bottleneck.
result XLVINs significantly improve data efficiency across various settings compared to value iteration-based implicit planners and model-free baselines.

This paper presents a way of solving Markov Decision Processes that combines state abstraction and temporal abstraction. Specifically, we combine state aggregation with the options framework and demonstrate that they work well together and indeed it is only after one combines the two that the full benefit of each is re…

2015-01-16abs ↗pdf ↗

Novel algorithm for Markov decision processes using rank-one approximation.

problem Solving planning and learning problems of Markov decision processes.
method Policy iteration with rank-one approximation of transition probability matrix.
result The proposed algorithm consistently outperforms first-order algorithms and their accelerated versions.

Paper improves worst-case regret bounds for RLSVI in reinforcement learning.

problem Minimizing regret in reinforcement learning with randomized value functions.
method Introduces a clipping variant of Thompson Sampling for RLSVI.
result Achieves a ildeO(H2SAT) ilde{\mathrm{O}}(H^2S\sqrt{AT}) worst-case regret bound.

In a discounted reward Markov Decision Process (MDP), the objective is to find the optimal value function, i.e., the value function corresponding to an optimal policy. This problem reduces to solving a functional equation known as the Bellman equation and a fixed point iteration scheme known as the value iteration is u…

2019-03-09abs ↗pdf ↗

New convergence rates for shuffling gradient methods without strong convexity.

problem Theoretical gap between shuffling gradient methods' empirical success and established convergence rates.
method Proved last-iterate convergence rates for shuffling gradient methods using function value gap.
result First last-iterate convergence rates for shuffling gradient methods without strong convexity.

We adapt the optimization's concept of momentum to reinforcement learning. Seeing the state-action value functions as an analog to the gradients in optimization, we interpret momentum as an average of consecutive qq-functions. We derive Momentum Value Iteration (MoVI), a variation of Value Iteration that incorporates …

2019-10-21abs ↗pdf ↗

Sublinear LSVI via LSH reduces runtime to sublinear in actions.

problem Efficiently estimating value functions in reinforcement learning with sublinear runtime.
method Formulated as approximate maximum inner product search, used LSH to solve with sublinear time complexity.
result Sublinear runtime while maintaining LSVI's regret.

Policy gradient methods with aggregated states can achieve better performance than approximate policy iteration.

problem Approximation errors in policy and value function approximations.
method State-aggregated representations and policy gradient methods.
result Policy gradient methods can achieve a per-period regret bounded by ε, while approximate policy iteration and value iteration have a higher regret.

We introduce the value iteration network (VIN): a fully differentiable neural network with a `planning module' embedded within. VINs can learn to plan, and are suitable for predicting outcomes that involve planning-based reasoning, such as policies for reinforcement learning. Key to our approach is a novel differentiab…

2016-02-09abs ↗pdf ↗

FVI method calculates bicausal OT with neural networks, outperforming other methods.

problem Computing bicausal optimal transport with adapted coupling structures.
method FVI method using multilayer neural networks to approximate value functions.
result FVI method outperforms linear programming and Sinkhorn methods in scalability.

XLVINs improve deep reinforcement learning by combining self-supervised learning and neural algorithmic reasoning.

problem Limitations of Value Iteration Networks (VINs) in deep reinforcement learning.
method Combining contrastive self-supervised learning, graph representation learning, and neural algorithmic reasoning.
result XLVINs match VIN-like models on discrete, fixed MDPs and significantly outperform model-free baselines.

We introduce Bayesian least-squares policy iteration (BLSPI), an off-policy, model-free, policy iteration algorithm that uses the Bayesian least-squares temporal-difference (BLSTD) learning algorithm to evaluate policies. An online variant of BLSPI has been also proposed, called randomised BLSPI (RBLSPI), that improves…

2019-04-06abs ↗pdf ↗

We propose randomized least-squares value iteration (RLSVI) -- a new reinforcement learning algorithm designed to explore and generalize efficiently via linearly parameterized value functions. We explain why versions of least-squares value iteration that use Boltzmann or epsilon-greedy exploration can be highly ineffic…

2014-02-04abs ↗pdf ↗

Pessimistic Minimax Value Iteration finds efficient NE policies from offline data.

problem Finding an approximate Nash equilibrium in offline Markov games with non-uniform coverage.
method Pessimistic Minimax Value Iteration (PMVI) constructs pessimistic value function estimates and solves NEs.
result Established a nearly minimax optimal result for offline Markov games with function approximation.

In this paper, we consider the stochastic iterative counterpart of the value iteration scheme wherein only noisy and possibly biased approximations of the Bellman operator are available. We call this counterpart as the approximate value iteration (AVI) scheme. Neural networks are often used as function approximators, i…

2017-09-14abs ↗pdf ↗

Adaptive optimal control of nonlinear dynamic systems with deterministic and known dynamics under a known undiscounted infinite-horizon cost function is investigated. Policy iteration scheme initiated using a stabilizing initial control is analyzed in solving the problem. The convergence of the iterations and the optim…

2015-05-20abs ↗pdf ↗

New algorithm reduces reinforcement learning regret to sqrt(T) without strong dynamics assumptions.

problem Infinite-horizon average-reward reinforcement learning with linear MDPs.
method Approximate by discounted-reward MDPs and apply optimistic value iteration.
result Achieves O(sqrt(T)) regret with polynomial complexity.

Papers learn from data to make decisions without interacting, improving on previous methods.

problem Achieving optimal decision-making from offline data with non-linear function approximation.
method Pessimistic Nonlinear Least-Square Value Iteration (PNLSVI) with three innovative components.
result Achieves minimax optimal instance-dependent regret for non-linear function approximation.

Polynomial-time RL algorithm for constant actions under linear Bellman completeness.

problem Efficient online reinforcement learning with few actions.
method Polynomial-time algorithm based on linear function approximation.
result First computationally efficient algorithm for RL with constant actions under linear Bellman completeness.

Proposes a method for obtaining interval bounds in off-policy evaluation.

problem Provides provably correct upper and lower bounds for off-policy evaluation.
method Searches for the maximum and minimum values of the expected reward among Lipschitz Q-functions.
result Introduces a Lipschitz value iteration method to monotonically tighten interval bounds.

Iterative procedures for parameter estimation based on stochastic gradient descent allow the estimation to scale to massive data sets. However, in both theory and practice, they suffer from numerical instability. Moreover, they are statistically inefficient as estimators of the true parameter value. To address these tw…

2015-05-10abs ↗pdf ↗

This work proposes a non-iterative strategy for missing value imputations which is guided by similarity between observations, but instead of explicitly determining distances or nearest neighbors, it assigns observations to overlapping buckets through recursive semi-random hyperplane cuts, in which weighted averages are…

2019-11-15abs ↗pdf ↗

We give a formula of the Upsilon invariant of any L-space cable knot Kp,qK_{p,q} using p,ΥKp,Υ_K and ΥTp,qΥ_{T_{p,q}}. The integral value of the Upsilon invariant gives a Q{\mathbb Q}-valued knot concordance invariant. We compute the integral values for L-space iterated cable knots.

2017-03-26abs ↗pdf ↗

New algorithm identifies near-optimal policies in adversarial distributed RL settings.

problem Adversarial agents in distributed RL settings that can collude and report arbitrary data.
method Weighted-Clique algorithm for robust mean estimation from batches, combined with novel distributed algorithms.
result Achieves superior robustness guarantees and near-optimal sample complexities in both offline and online settings.

A new algorithm uses IVs to learn optimal policies from observational data.

problem Learning optimal policies from unobserved variable confounded data.
method IV-aided Value Iteration (IVVI) algorithm based on conditional moment restrictions.
result First provably efficient algorithm for instrument-aided offline RL.

Policy gradient method proves convergence in imperfect-information games.

problem Policy gradient methods in imperfect-information games (EFGs).
method Policy gradient approach with best-iterate convergence.
result Policy gradient leads to provable best-iterate convergence in self-play EFGs.

A new method calibrates value predictions in offline RL to improve reliability.

problem Difficulty in long-horizon value prediction in offline reinforcement learning.
method Bellman calibration, a weak reliability criterion, and Iterated Bellman Calibration.
result Finite-sample guarantees show that Bellman calibration error is controlled at nonparametric rates.

Following the lines of a celebrated result by R. Bott (Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 9, 1956) we study the Morse index of the iterated of a closed geodesic in stationary Lorentzian manifolds, or, more generally, of a closed Lorentzian geodesic that admits a timelike periodic Jacobi field. Given one such closed geodesic γγ, w…

2007-05-04abs ↗pdf ↗

Solves capillary curvature problems for specific p values.

problem Capillary curvature problems for n<p<1-n < p < 1 and θ(0,π2)θ\in (0,\fracπ{2}).
method Iterative scheme based on capillary Minkowski problem and capillary curvature image operators.
result Fixed points of capillary curvature image operators correspond to solutions of capillary LpL_p-Minkowski problem.

Study tight offline learning bounds for linear MDPs using variance information.

problem Understanding statistical limits with linear function representations in offline reinforcement learning.
method Variance-aware pessimistic value iteration (VAPVI) that reweights Bellman residuals based on estimated variances.
result Improved offline learning bounds expressed in terms of system quantities.

RRPI improves offline RL by optimizing policies against worst-case dynamics.

problem Offline RL's performance degrades under distribution shift and transition uncertainty.
method Formulates offline RL as robust policy optimization, treating transition kernel as decision variable.
result RRPI achieves strong average performance on D4RL benchmarks, outperforming recent baselines.

KL regularization helps RL algorithms by implicitly averaging q-values.

problem Understanding why KL regularization improves RL performance.
method An approximate value iteration scheme, studying KL and entropy regularization.
result Strong performance bound combining linear horizon dependency and averaging effect of estimation errors.