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We investigate the problem dependent regime in the stochastic Thresholding Bandit problem (TBP) under several shape constraints. In the TBP, the objective of the learner is to output, at the end of a sequential game, the set of arms whose…
This paper considers a multi-armed bandit game where the number of arms is much larger than the maximum budget and is effectively infinite. We characterize necessary and sufficient conditions on the total budget for an algorithm to return…
We study the airplane refueling problem which was introduced by the physicists Gamow and Stern in their classical book Puzzle-Math (1958). Sticking to the original story behind this problem, suppose we have to deliver a bomb in some distant…
We adapt ideas and concepts developed in optimal transport (and its martingale variant) to give a geometric description of optimal stopping times of Brownian motion subject to the constraint that the distribution of the stopping time is a…
We explore intertemporal preferences that are recursive and account for local intertemporal substitution. First, we establish a rigorous foundation for these preferences and analyze their properties. Next, we examine the associated optimal…
We solve the problem of optimal stopping of a Brownian motion subject to the constraint that the stopping time's distribution is a given measure consisting of finitely-many atoms. In particular, we show that this problem can be converted to…
We obtain the first probabilistic proof of continuous differentiability of time-dependent optimal boundaries in optimal stopping problems. The underlying stochastic dynamics is a one-dimensional, time-inhomogeneous diffusion. The gain…
This study investigates the problem of $K$-armed linear contextual bandits, an instance of the multi-armed bandit problem, under an adversarial corruption. At each round, a decision-maker observes an independent and identically distributed…
The randomized $k$-number partitioning problem is the task to distribute $N$ i.i.d. random variables into $k$ groups in such a way that the sums of the variables in each group are as similar as possible. The restricted $k$-partitioning…
We use probabilistic methods to characterise time dependent optimal stopping boundaries in a problem of multiple optimal stopping on a finite time horizon. Motivated by financial applications we consider a payoff of immediate stopping of…
We consider a sequential decision-making problem where an agent can take one action at a time and each action has a stochastic temporal extent, i.e., a new action cannot be taken until the previous one is finished. Upon completion, the…
Many discrete-time optimal stopping problems are known to have more tractable limit forms based on a planar Poisson process. Using this tool we find a solution to the optimal stopping problem for i.i.d. sequence of $n$ discrete uniform…
The problem of detection time distribution concerns a quantum particle surrounded by detectors and consists of computing the probability distribution of where and when the particle will be detected. While the correct answer can be obtained…
We consider a multi-hypothesis testing problem involving a K-armed bandit. Each arm's signal follows a distribution from a vector exponential family. The actual parameters of the arms are unknown to the decision maker. The decision maker…
The Prophet Inequality and Pandora's Box problems are fundamental stochastic problem with applications in Mechanism Design, Online Algorithms, Stochastic Optimization, Optimal Stopping, and Operations Research. A usual assumption in these…
A defender dispatches patrollers to circumambulate a perimeter to guard against potential attacks. The defender decides on the time points to dispatch patrollers and each patroller's direction and speed, as long as the long-run rate…
This paper is concerned with the axiomatic foundation and explicit construction of a general class of optimality criteria that can be used for investment problems with multiple time horizons, or when the time horizon is not known in…
We study an optimal process control problem with multiple assignable causes. The process is initially in-control but is subject to random transition to one of multiple out-of-control states due to assignable causes. The objective is to find…
This paper provides a full characterization of the value function and solution(s) of an optimal stopping problem for a one-dimensional diffusion with an integral criterion. The results hold under very weak assumptions, namely, the diffusion…
The Colonel Blotto game is a renowned resource allocation problem with a long-standing literature in game theory (almost 100 years). However, its scope of application is still restricted by the lack of studies on the incomplete-information…