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We revisit the classic regret-minimization problem in the stochastic multi-armed bandit setting when the arm-distributions are allowed to be heavy-tailed. Regret minimization has been well studied in simpler settings of either bounded…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-02-09 Shubhada Agrawal , Sandeep Juneja , Wouter M. Koolen

We consider sequential optimization of an unknown function in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. We propose a Gaussian process-based algorithm and establish its order-optimal regret performance (up to a poly-logarithmic factor). This is…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2021-11-01 Sudeep Salgia , Sattar Vakili , Qing Zhao

We study the distribution of regret in stochastic multi-armed bandits and episodic reinforcement learning through a unified framework. We formalize a distributional regret bound as a probabilistic guarantee that holds uniformly over all…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-08 Harin Lee , Min-hwan Oh

Several optimism-based stochastic bandit algorithms -- including UCB, UCB-V, linear UCB, and finite-arm GP-UCB -- achieve logarithmic regret using proofs that, despite superficial differences, follow essentially the same structure. This…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-12-23 Vikram Krishnamurthy

Gaussian processes are an important regression tool with excellent analytic properties which allow for direct integration of derivative observations. However, vanilla GP methods scale cubically in the amount of observations. In this work,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-03-06 Emmanouil Angelis , Philippe Wenk , Bernhard Schölkopf , Stefan Bauer , Andreas Krause

We propose a novel contextual bandit algorithm for generalized linear rewards with an $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{\kappa^{-1} \phi T})$ regret over $T$ rounds where $\phi$ is the minimum eigenvalue of the covariance of contexts and $\kappa$ is a lower…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2023-03-02 Wonyoung Kim , Kyungbok Lee , Myunghee Cho Paik

We study the regret minimization problem in the novel setting of generalized kernelized bandits (GKBs), where we optimize an unknown function $f^*$ belonging to a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) having access to samples generated by…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-12-12 Alberto Maria Metelli , Simone Drago , Marco Mussi

We revisit the study of optimal regret rates in bandit combinatorial optimization---a fundamental framework for sequential decision making under uncertainty that abstracts numerous combinatorial prediction problems. We prove that the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2017-02-27 Alon Cohen , Tamir Hazan , Tomer Koren

We revisit the challenge of designing online algorithms for the bandit convex optimization problem (BCO) which are also scalable to high dimensional problems. Hence, we consider algorithms that are \textit{projection-free}, i.e., based on…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-10-09 Dan Garber , Ben Kretzu

We analyze the Bayesian regret of the Gaussian process posterior sampling reinforcement learning (GP-PSRL) algorithm. Posterior sampling is an effective heuristic for decision-making under uncertainty that has been used to develop…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-03-10 Hamish Flynn , Joe Watson , Ingmar Posner , Jan Peters

This paper considers the distributed bandit convex optimization problem with time-varying constraints. In this problem, the global loss function is the average of all the local convex loss functions, which are unknown beforehand. Each agent…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-04-25 Kunpeng Zhang , Lei Xu , Xinlei Yi , Guanghui Wen , Lihua Xie , Tianyou Chai , Tao Yang

We prove that a classic sub-Gaussian mixture proposed by Robbins in a stochastic setting actually satisfies a path-wise (deterministic) regret bound. For every path in a natural ``Ville event'' $\mathcal E_\alpha$, this regret till time $T$…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-23 Shubhada Agrawal , Aaditya Ramdas

Due to the increasing complexity of technical systems, accurate first principle models can often not be obtained. Supervised machine learning can mitigate this issue by inferring models from measurement data. Gaussian process regression is…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-07-11 Armin Lederer , Jonas Umlauft , Sandra Hirche

We study the recovering bandits problem, a variant of the stochastic multi-armed bandit problem where the expected reward of each arm varies according to some unknown function of the time since the arm was last played. While being a natural…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2019-11-01 Ciara Pike-Burke , Steffen Grünewälder

We study the non-stationary stochastic multiarmed bandit (MAB) problem and propose two generic algorithms, namely, the limited memory deterministic sequencing of exploration and exploitation (LM-DSEE) and the Sliding-Window Upper Confidence…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2018-04-25 Lai Wei , Vaibhav Srivastava

Gaussian processes (GP) are one of the most successful frameworks to model uncertainty. However, GP optimization (e.g., GP-UCB) suffers from major scalability issues. Experimental time grows linearly with the number of evaluations, unless…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2020-02-27 Daniele Calandriello , Luigi Carratino , Alessandro Lazaric , Michal Valko , Lorenzo Rosasco

Bayesian bandit algorithms with approximate Bayesian inference have been widely used in real-world applications. Despite the superior practical performance, their theoretical justification is less investigated in the literature, especially…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-05-23 Ziyi Huang , Henry Lam , Haofeng Zhang

This paper investigates the robustness of causal bandits (CBs) in the face of temporal model fluctuations. This setting deviates from the existing literature's widely-adopted assumption of constant causal models. The focus is on causal…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-05-14 Zirui Yan , Arpan Mukherjee , Burak Varıcı , Ali Tajer

In this work, we give a statistical characterization of the $\gamma$-regret for arbitrary structured bandit problems, the regret which arises when comparing against a benchmark that is $\gamma$ times the optimal solution. The…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-07-24 Margalit Glasgow , Alexander Rakhlin

We study the dynamic regret of multi-armed bandit and experts problem in non-stationary stochastic environments. We introduce a new parameter $\Lambda$, which measures the total statistical variance of the loss distributions over $T$ rounds…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-06-24 Chen-Yu Wei , Yi-Te Hong , Chi-Jen Lu