Related papers: Exponential Convergence Rates for Stochastically O…
Chen [Ann. Appl. Probab. {\bf 11} (2001), 1242--1262] derived exact convergence rates in a central limit theorem and a local limit theorem for a supercritical branching Wiener process.We extend Chen's results to a branching random walk…
This paper calculates transient distributions of a special class of Markov processes with continuous state space and in continuous time, up to an explicit error bound. We approximate specific queues on R with one-sided L\'evy input, such as…
We study the error introduced by entropy regularization in infinite-horizon discrete discounted Markov decision processes. We show that this error decreases exponentially in the inverse regularization strength, both in a weighted…
Chernoff approximations to strongly continuous one-parameter semigroups give solutions to a wide class of differential equations. This paper studies the rate of convergence of the Chernoff approximations. We provide simple natural examples…
Entropy regularized Markov decision processes have been widely used in reinforcement learning. This paper is concerned with the primal-dual formulation of the entropy regularized problems. Standard first-order methods suffer from slow…
The paper is concerned with stochastic approximation procedures having three main characteristics: truncations with random moving bounds, a matrix valued random step-size sequence, and a dynamically changing random regression function. We…
First-passage properties are central to the kinetics of target-search processes. Theoretical approaches so far primarily focused on predicting first-passage statistics for a given process or model. In practice, however, one faces the…
We provide conditions that guarantee local rates of convergence in distribution of iterated random functions that are not nonexpansive mappings in locally compact Hadamard spaces. Our results are applied to stochastic instances of common…
Necessary and sufficient conditions for convergence in distribution of first-rare-event times and convergence in Skorokhod J-topology of first-rare-event-time processes for perturbed semi-Markov processes with finite phase space are…
We consider sequences $(X_t^N)_{t\geq0}$ of Markov processes in two dimensions whose fluid limit is a stable solution of an ordinary differential equation of the form $\dot{x}_t=b(x_t)$, where $b(x)={\pmatrix{-\mu 0 0 \lambda}}x+\tau(x)$…
Markov chains for probability distributions related to matrix product states and 1D Hamiltonians are introduced. With appropriate 'inverse temperature' schedules, these chains can be combined into a random approximation scheme for ground…
For discrete-time stochastic processes, there is a close connection between return/waiting times and entropy. Such a connection cannot be straightforwardly extended to the continuous-time setting. Contrarily to the discrete-time case one…
Stochastic approximation is a foundation for many algorithms found in machine learning and optimization. It is in general slow to converge: the mean square error vanishes as $O(n^{-1})$. A deterministic counterpart known as quasi-stochastic…
Markov chains are the de facto finite-state model for stochastic dynamical systems, and Markov decision processes (MDPs) extend Markov chains by incorporating non-deterministic behaviors. Given an MDP and rewards on states, a classical…
To deal with very large datasets a mini-batch version of the Monte Carlo Markov Chain Stochastic Approximation Expectation-Maximization algorithm for general latent variable models is proposed. For exponential models the algorithm is shown…
We consider continuous-time Markov chains on integers which allow transitions to adjacent states only, with alternating rates. We give explicit formulas for probability generating functions, and also for means, variances and state…
We present a novel way of generating Lyapunov functions for proving linear convergence rates of first-order optimization methods. Our approach provably obtains the fastest linear convergence rate that can be verified by a quadratic Lyapunov…
This paper is concerned with the development of rigorous approximations to various expectations associated with Markov chains and processes having non-stationary transition probabilities. Such non-stationary models arise naturally in…
We consider a general honest homogeneous continuous-time Markov process with restarts. The process is forced to restart from a given distribution at time moments generated by an independent Poisson process. The motivation to study such…
This paper concerns error bounds for recursive equations subject to Markovian disturbances. Motivating examples abound within the fields of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and Reinforcement Learning (RL), and many of these algorithms can be…