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An Information-Theoretic Analysis of Thompson Sampling

Machine Learning 2015-06-09 v2

Abstract

We provide an information-theoretic analysis of Thompson sampling that applies across a broad range of online optimization problems in which a decision-maker must learn from partial feedback. This analysis inherits the simplicity and elegance of information theory and leads to regret bounds that scale with the entropy of the optimal-action distribution. This strengthens preexisting results and yields new insight into how information improves performance.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1403.5341,
  title  = {An Information-Theoretic Analysis of Thompson Sampling},
  author = {Daniel Russo and Benjamin Van Roy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1403.5341},
  year   = {2015}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T03:31:18.739Z