English

Extended mean field control: a global numerical solution via finite-dimensional approximation

Optimization and Control 2026-03-23 v4

Abstract

We investigate the global numerical approximation of a class of extended mean field control problems (MFC), where the dynamics and costs depend on the joint distribution of the state and the control. We propose a framework to approximate the value function globally over the Wasserstein space, moving beyond the restriction of fixed initial conditions. Our approach exploits the propagation of chaos by approximating the infinite-dimensional MFC problem by an NN-player cooperative game, together with the usage of finite-dimensional solvers. This method avoids the need to parametrise functions on an infinite-dimensional space, offering a balance between probabilistic rigor and computational efficiency.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.20510,
  title  = {Extended mean field control: a global numerical solution via finite-dimensional approximation},
  author = {Athena Picarelli and Marco Scaratti and Jonathan Tam},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.20510},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

minor update to fix compiler issues in v3

R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:35:07.275Z