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In this article, we propose a novel algorithm for deep reinforcement learning named Expert Q-learning. Expert Q-learning is inspired by Dueling Q-learning and aims at incorporating semi-supervised learning into reinforcement learning…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-06-26 Li Meng , Anis Yazidi , Morten Goodwin , Paal Engelstad

Deep Q-Learning (DQL), a family of temporal difference algorithms for control, employs three techniques collectively known as the `deadly triad' in reinforcement learning: bootstrapping, off-policy learning, and function approximation.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-03-22 Joshua Achiam , Ethan Knight , Pieter Abbeel

This paper studies the continuous-time q-learning (the continuous time counterpart of Q-learing) for Markov switching system under Tsallis entropy regularization. We address the difficulty in traditional RL algorithms where the Tsallis…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-01-28 Minghui Zhang , Xun Li , Xin Zhang

While Bayesian-based exploration often demonstrates superior empirical performance compared to bonus-based methods in model-based reinforcement learning (RL), its theoretical understanding remains limited for model-free settings. Existing…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-05 He Wang , Xingyu Xu , Yuejie Chi

In Reinforcement Learning the Q-learning algorithm provably converges to the optimal solution. However, as others have demonstrated, Q-learning can also overestimate the values and thereby spend too long exploring unhelpful states. Double…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-03-16 David Barber

Average-reward reinforcement learning offers a principled framework for long-term decision-making by maximizing the mean reward per time step. Although Q-learning is a widely used model-free algorithm with established sample complexity in…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-01-21 Yuchen Jiao , Jiin Woo , Gen Li , Gauri Joshi , Yuejie Chi

We consider a general asynchronous Stochastic Approximation (SA) scheme featuring a weighted infinity-norm contractive operator, and prove a bound on its finite-time convergence rate on a single trajectory. Additionally, we specialize the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-02-06 Guannan Qu , Adam Wierman

$Q$-learning with function approximation is one of the most empirically successful while theoretically mysterious reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms, and was identified in Sutton (1999) as one of the most important theoretical open…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-05-04 Zaiwei Chen , John Paul Clarke , Siva Theja Maguluri

Greedy-GQ with linear function approximation, originally proposed in \cite{maei2010toward}, is a value-based off-policy algorithm for optimal control in reinforcement learning, and it has a non-linear two timescale structure with the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-05-03 Yue Wang , Yi Zhou , Shaofeng Zou

A commonly used heuristic in RL is experience replay (e.g.~\citet{lin1993reinforcement, mnih2015human}), in which a learner stores and re-uses past trajectories as if they were sampled online. In this work, we initiate a rigorous study of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-12-09 Liran Szlak , Ohad Shamir

In this work, we present the first finite-time analysis of Q-learning with time-varying learning policies (i.e., on-policy sampling) for discounted Markov decision processes under minimal assumptions, requiring only the existence of a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-07 Phalguni Nanda , Zaiwei Chen

The exploration-exploitation dilemma has been a central challenge in reinforcement learning (RL) with complex model classes. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm, Monotonic Q-Learning with Upper Confidence Bound (MQL-UCB) for RL with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-06 Heyang Zhao , Jiafan He , Quanquan Gu

Online reinforcement learning in non-episodic, finite-horizon MDPs remains underexplored and is challenged by the need to estimate returns to a fixed terminal time. Existing infinite-horizon methods, which often rely on discounted…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-03 Jiamin Xu , Kyra Gan

Some reinforcement learning methods suffer from high sample complexity causing them to not be practical in real-world situations. $Q$-function reuse, a transfer learning method, is one way to reduce the sample complexity of learning,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-03-09 Volodymyr Tkachuk , Sriram Ganapathi Subramanian , Matthew E. Taylor

Reinforcement Learning (RL) has achieved tremendous success in recent years. However, the classical foundations of RL do not account for the risk sensitivity of the objective function, which is critical in various fields, including…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-14 Mohammad Alipour-Vaezi , Huaiyang Zhong , Kwok-Leung Tsui , Sajad Khodadadian

Time-inhomogeneous finite-horizon Markov decision processes (MDP) are frequently employed to model decision-making in dynamic treatment regimes and other statistical reinforcement learning (RL) scenarios. These fields, especially healthcare…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-21 Elynn Chen , Sai Li , Michael I. Jordan

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in analyzing the non-asymptotic behavior of model-free reinforcement learning algorithms. However, the performance of such algorithms in non-ideal environments, such as in the presence of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-09-06 Sreejeet Maity , Aritra Mitra

The breakthrough of deep Q-Learning on different types of environments revolutionized the algorithmic design of Reinforcement Learning to introduce more stable and robust algorithms, to that end many extensions to deep Q-Learning algorithm…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-04-16 Mohammed Sabry , Amr M. A. Khalifa

Model-free reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms, such as Q-learning, directly parameterize and update value functions or policies without explicitly modeling the environment. They are typically simpler, more flexible to use, and thus more…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-07-11 Chi Jin , Zeyuan Allen-Zhu , Sebastien Bubeck , Michael I. Jordan

In this work, we propose a novel cross Q-learning algorithm, aim at alleviating the well-known overestimation problem in value-based reinforcement learning methods, particularly in the deep Q-networks where the overestimation is exaggerated…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2020-09-30 Xing Wang , Alexander Vinel