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Related papers: A Theory of Regularized Markov Decision Processes

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It is commonly believed that optimizing the reverse KL divergence results in "mode seeking", while optimizing forward KL results in "mass covering", with the latter being preferred if the goal is to sample from multiple diverse modes. We…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-24 Anthony GX-Chen , Jatin Prakash , Jeff Guo , Rob Fergus , Rajesh Ranganath

We consider the monotone inclusion problems in real Hilbert spaces. Proximal splitting algorithms are very popular technique to solve it and generally achieve weak convergence under mild assumptions. Researchers assume the strong conditions…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-05-05 Avinash Dixit , D. R. Sahu , Pankaj Gautam , T. Som

We study reinforcement learning (RL) with linear function approximation in Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) satisfying \emph{linear Bellman completeness} -- a fundamental setting where the Bellman backup of any linear value function remains…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-25 Zakaria Mhammedi , Alexander Rakhlin , Nneka Okolo

This paper discusses basic results and recent developments on variational regularization methods, as developed for inverse problems. In a typical setup we review basic properties needed to obtain a convergent regularization scheme and…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-12-10 Martin Burger

We build a theoretical framework for designing and understanding practical meta-learning methods that integrates sophisticated formalizations of task-similarity with the extensive literature on online convex optimization and sequential…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-12-10 Mikhail Khodak , Maria-Florina Balcan , Ameet Talwalkar

Regularized empirical risk minimization including support vector machines plays an important role in machine learning theory. In this paper regularized pairwise learning (RPL) methods based on kernels will be investigated. One example is…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2015-10-13 Andreas Christmann , Ding-Xuan Zhou

We introduce a general framework for analyzing learning algorithms based on the notion of self-regularization, which captures implicit complexity control without requiring explicit regularization. This is motivated by previous observations…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-03-19 Max Schölpple , Liu Fanghui , Ingo Steinwart

Policy regularization methods such as maximum entropy regularization are widely used in reinforcement learning to improve the robustness of a learned policy. In this paper, we show how this robustness arises from hedging against worst-case…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-04-29 Rob Brekelmans , Tim Genewein , Jordi Grau-Moya , Grégoire Delétang , Markus Kunesch , Shane Legg , Pedro Ortega

We show that several major algorithms of reinforcement learning (RL) fit into the framework of categorical cybernetics, that is to say, parametrised bidirectional processes. We build on our previous work in which we show that value…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-09-26 Jules Hedges , Riu Rodríguez Sakamoto

Replication of experimental results has been a challenge faced by many scientific disciplines, including the field of machine learning. Recent work on the theory of machine learning has formalized replicability as the demand that an…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-15 Eric Eaton , Marcel Hussing , Michael Kearns , Aaron Roth , Sikata Bela Sengupta , Jessica Sorrell

State-space smoothing has found many applications in science and engineering. Under linear and Gaussian assumptions, smoothed estimates can be obtained using efficient recursions, for example Rauch-Tung-Striebel and Mayne-Fraser algorithms.…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2016-09-27 A. Y. Aravkin , J. V. Burke , L. Ljung , A. Lozano , G. Pillonetto

In this paper, we provide a novel algorithm for solving planning and learning problems of Markov decision processes. The proposed algorithm follows a policy iteration-type update by using a rank-one approximation of the transition…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-23 Arman Sharifi Kolarijani , Tolga Ok , Peyman Mohajerin Esfahani , Mohamad Amin Sharif Kolarijani

Implicit regularization is an important way to interpret neural networks. Recent theory starts to explain implicit regularization with the model of deep matrix factorization (DMF) and analyze the trajectory of discrete gradient dynamics in…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-08-14 Jian Cao , Chen Qian , Yihui Huang , Dicheng Chen , Yuncheng Gao , Jiyang Dong , Di Guo , Xiaobo Qu

This article presents a short and concise description of stochastic approximation algorithms in reinforcement learning of Markov decision processes. The algorithms can also be used as a suboptimal method for partially observed Markov…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2015-12-25 Vikram Krishnamurthy

We develop an algorithmic framework for solving convex optimization problems using no-regret game dynamics. By converting the problem of minimizing a convex function into an auxiliary problem of solving a min-max game in a sequential…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-02-21 Jun-Kun Wang , Jacob Abernethy , Kfir Y. Levy

Constraint handling plays a key role in solving realistic complex optimization problems. Though intensively discussed in the last few decades, existing constraint handling techniques predominantly rely on human experts' designs, which more…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2026-02-03 Qianhao Zhu , Sijie Ma , Zeyuan Ma , Hongshu Guo , Yue-Jiao Gong

Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) has attracted attention in machine learning due to its connections to regularization, generalization, and robustness. Existing work has considered uncertainty sets based on phi-divergences and…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-05-28 Matthew Staib , Stefanie Jegelka

Iterative regularization exploits the implicit bias of an optimization algorithm to regularize ill-posed problems. Constructing algorithms with such built-in regularization mechanisms is a classic challenge in inverse problems but also in…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-02-02 Cesare Molinari , Mathurin Massias , Lorenzo Rosasco , Silvia Villa

This dissertation makes three main contributions. First, We identify a new connection between policy gradient and dynamic programming in MMDPs and propose the Coordinate Ascent Dynamic Programming (CADP) algorithm to compute a Markov policy…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-21 Xihong Su

In reinforcement learning, the objective is almost always defined as a \emph{cumulative} function over the rewards along the process. However, there are many optimal control and reinforcement learning problems in various application fields,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-04-15 Wei Cui , Wei Yu