English

Bounds for Synchronizing Markov Decision Processes

Logic in Computer Science 2022-04-28 v1

Abstract

We consider Markov decision processes with synchronizing objectives, which require that a probability mass of 1ϵ1-\epsilon accumulates in a designated set of target states, either once, always, infinitely often, or always from some point on, where ϵ=0\epsilon = 0 for sure synchronizing, and ϵ0\epsilon \to 0 for almost-sure and limit-sure synchronizing. We introduce two new qualitative modes of synchronizing, where the probability mass should be either positive, or bounded away from 00. They can be viewed as dual synchronizing objectives. We present algorithms and tight complexity results for the problem of deciding if a Markov decision process is positive, or bounded synchronizing, and we provide explicit bounds on ϵ\epsilon in all synchronizing modes. In particular, we show that deciding positive and bounded synchronizing always from some point on, is coNP-complete.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2204.12814,
  title  = {Bounds for Synchronizing Markov Decision Processes},
  author = {Laurent Doyen and Marie van den Bogaard},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.12814},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T11:00:01.763Z