Related papers: Stochastic Approximation, Cooperative Dynamics and…

In this paper we address the convergence of stochastic approximation when the functions to be minimized are not convex and nonsmooth. We show that the "mean-limit" approach to the convergence which leads, for smooth problems, to the ODE…

We consider a class of fully stochastic and fully distributed algorithms, that we prove to learn equilibria in games. Indeed, we consider a family of stochastic distributed dynamics that we prove to converge weakly (in the sense of weak…

The theory of stochastic approximations form the theoretical foundation for studying convergence properties of many popular recursive learning algorithms in statistics, machine learning and statistical physics. Large deviations for…

Stochastic approximation is a class of algorithms that update a vector iteratively, incrementally, and stochastically, including, e.g., stochastic gradient descent and temporal difference learning. One fundamental challenge in analyzing a…

We provide results of a deterministic approximation for non-Markovian stochastic processes modeling finite populations of individuals who recurrently play symmetric finite games and imitate each other according to payoffs. We show that a…

This paper presents the first sufficient conditions that guarantee the stability and almost sure convergence of multi-timescale stochastic approximation (SA) iterates. It extends the existing results on one-timescale and two-timescale SA…

The ODE method has been a workhorse for algorithm design and analysis since the introduction of the stochastic approximation. It is now understood that convergence theory amounts to establishing robustness of Euler approximations for ODEs,…

This paper considers a class of reinforcement-learning that belongs to the family of Learning Automata and provides a stochastic-stability analysis in strategic-form games. For this class of dynamics, convergence to pure Nash equilibria has…

This paper proposes a thorough theoretical analysis of Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) with non-increasing step sizes. First, we show that the recursion defining SGD can be provably approximated by solutions of a time inhomogeneous…

The semimartingale stochastic approximation procedure, namely, the Robbins-Monro type SDE is introduced which naturally includes both generalized stochastic approximation algorithms with martingale noises and recursive parameter estimation…

We study the Robbins-Monro stochastic approximation algorithm with projections on a hyperrectangle and prove its convergence. This work fills a gap in the convergence proof of the classic book by Kushner and Yin. Using the ODE method, we…

Stochastic approximation is a framework unifying many random iterative algorithms occurring in a diverse range of applications. The stability of the process is often difficult to verify in practical applications and the process may even be…

Stochastic approximation algorithm is a useful technique which has been exploited successfully in probability theory and statistics for a long time. The step sizes used in stochastic approximation are generally taken to be deterministic and…

We consider stochastic algorithms derived from methods for solving deterministic optimization problems, especially comparison-based algorithms derived from stochastic approximation algorithms with a constant step-size. We develop a…

We propose an algorithm for approximating the solution of a strongly oscillating SDE, that is, a system in which some ergodic state variables evolve quickly with respect to the other variables. The algorithm profits from homogenization…

Although stochastic approximation learning methods have been widely used in the machine learning literature for over 50 years, formal theoretical analyses of specific machine learning algorithms are less common because stochastic…

We analyze a stochastic approximation algorithm for decision-dependent problems, wherein the data distribution used by the algorithm evolves along the iterate sequence. The primary examples of such problems appear in performative prediction…

A succesful method to describe the asymptotic behavior of a discrete time stochastic process governed by some recursive formula is to relate it to the limit sets of a well chosen mean differential equation. Under an attainability condition,…

We consider a distributed stochastic approximation (SA) scheme for computing an equilibrium of a stochastic Nash game. Standard SA schemes employ diminishing steplength sequences that are square summable but not summable. Such requirements…

We study the convergence behavior of the stochastic heavy-ball method with a small stepsize. Under a change of time scale, we approximate the discrete method by a stochastic differential equation that models small random perturbations of a…