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We consider the framework of stochastic multi-armed bandit problems and study the possibilities and limitations of forecasters that perform an on-line exploration of the arms. These forecasters are assessed in terms of their simple regret,…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2010-07-26 Sébastien Bubeck , Rémi Munos , Gilles Stoltz

We extend the notion of regret with a welfarist perspective. Focussing on the classic multi-armed bandit (MAB) framework, the current work quantifies the performance of bandit algorithms by applying a fundamental welfare function, namely…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-05-30 Siddharth Barman , Arindam Khan , Arnab Maiti , Ayush Sawarni

The Greedy algorithm is the simplest heuristic in sequential decision problem that carelessly takes the locally optimal choice at each round, disregarding any advantages of exploring and/or information gathering. Theoretically, it is known…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-01-05 Matthieu Jedor , Jonathan Louëdec , Vianney Perchet

Motivated by real-world applications that necessitate responsible experimentation, we introduce the problem of best arm identification (BAI) with minimal regret. This innovative variant of the multi-armed bandit problem elegantly…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-09-30 Junwen Yang , Vincent Y. F. Tan , Tianyuan Jin

We study small-loss bounds for adversarial multi-armed bandits with graph feedback, that is, adaptive regret bounds that depend on the loss of the best arm or related quantities, instead of the total number of rounds. We derive the first…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-06-24 Chung-Wei Lee , Haipeng Luo , Mengxiao Zhang

In this paper, we consider the problem of multi-armed bandits with a large, possibly infinite number of correlated arms. We assume that the arms have Bernoulli distributed rewards, independent across time, where the probabilities of success…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2011-11-21 Chong Jiang , R. Srikant

In this paper, we study sequential decision-making for maximizing the Sharpe ratio (SR) in a stochastic multi-armed bandit (MAB) setting. Unlike standard bandit formulations that maximize cumulative reward, SR optimization requires…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-02 Mohammad Taha Shah , Sabrina Khurshid , Gourab Ghatak

In multi-objective decision-making with hierarchical preferences, lexicographic bandits provide a natural framework for optimizing multiple objectives in a prioritized order. In this setting, a learner repeatedly selects arms and observes…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-11 Bo Xue , Yuanyu Wan , Zhichao Lu , Qingfu Zhang

We consider the thresholding bandit problem, whose goal is to find arms of mean rewards above a given threshold $\theta$, with a fixed budget of $T$ trials. We introduce LSA, a new, simple and anytime algorithm that aims to minimize the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-05-28 Chao Tao , Saùl Blanco , Jian Peng , Yuan Zhou

We consider a stochastic multi-armed bandit setting and study the problem of constrained regret minimization over a given time horizon. Each arm is associated with an unknown, possibly multi-dimensional distribution, and the merit of an arm…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-01-05 Anmol Kagrecha , Jayakrishnan Nair , Krishna Jagannathan

We consider a budget-constrained bandit problem where each arm pull incurs a random cost, and yields a random reward in return. The objective is to maximize the total expected reward under a budget constraint on the total cost. The model is…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-03-03 Semih Cayci , Atilla Eryilmaz , R. Srikant

In this work, we extend the concept of the $p$-mean welfare objective from social choice theory (Moulin 2004) to study $p$-mean regret in stochastic multi-armed bandit problems. The $p$-mean regret, defined as the difference between the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-12-18 Anand Krishna , Philips George John , Adarsh Barik , Vincent Y. F. Tan

We consider a stochastic bandit problem with a possibly infinite number of arms. We write $p^*$ for the proportion of optimal arms and $\Delta$ for the minimal mean-gap between optimal and sub-optimal arms. We characterize the optimal…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-11-08 Rianne de Heide , James Cheshire , Pierre Ménard , Alexandra Carpentier

Regret in stochastic multi-armed bandits traditionally measures the difference between the highest reward and either the arithmetic mean of accumulated rewards or the final reward. These conventional metrics often fail to address fairness…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-27 Dhruv Sarkar , Nishant Pandey , Sayak Ray Chowdhury

We develop a novel and generic algorithm for the adversarial multi-armed bandit problem (or more generally the combinatorial semi-bandit problem). When instantiated differently, our algorithm achieves various new data-dependent regret…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-06-08 Chen-Yu Wei , Haipeng Luo

We address online combinatorial optimization when the player has a prior over the adversary's sequence of losses. In this framework, Russo and Van Roy proposed an information-theoretic analysis of Thompson Sampling based on the information…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-04-05 Sébastien Bubeck , Mark Sellke

This paper introduces a general multi-agent bandit model in which each agent is facing a finite set of arms and may communicate with other agents through a central controller in order to identify, in pure exploration, or play, in regret…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-31 Clémence Réda , Sattar Vakili , Emilie Kaufmann

The stochastic multi-arm bandit problem has been extensively studied under standard assumptions on the arm's distribution (e.g bounded with known support, exponential family, etc). These assumptions are suitable for many real-world problems…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2021-11-19 Dorian Baudry , Patrick Saux , Odalric-Ambrym Maillard

In the classical multi-armed bandit problem, d arms are available to the decision maker who pulls them sequentially in order to maximize his cumulative reward. Guarantees can be obtained on a relative quantity called regret, which scales…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2017-06-06 Joon Kwon , Vianney Perchet , Claire Vernade

We study the stochastic multi-armed bandit problem with non-equivalent multiple plays where, at each step, an agent chooses not only a set of arms, but also their order, which influences reward distribution. In several problem formulations…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2015-07-20 Aleksandr Vorobev , Gleb Gusev