Related papers: Concentration of Contractive Stochastic Approximat…

In this work, we investigate stochastic approximation (SA) with Markovian data and nonlinear updates under constant stepsize $\alpha>0$. Existing work has primarily focused on either i.i.d. data or linear update rules. We take a new…

Many machine learning and optimization algorithms can be cast as instances of stochastic approximation (SA). The convergence rate of these algorithms is known to be slow, with the optimal mean squared error (MSE) of order $O(n^{-1})$. In…

We obtain optimal Gaussian concentration bounds (GCBs) for stochastic chains of unbounded memory (SCUMs) on countable alphabets. These stochastic processes are also known as "chains with complete connections" or "$g$-measures". We consider…

Recent studies have provided both empirical and theoretical evidence illustrating that heavy tails can emerge in stochastic gradient descent (SGD) in various scenarios. Such heavy tails potentially result in iterates with diverging…

Stochastic gradient descent is one of the most common iterative algorithms used in machine learning and its convergence analysis is a rich area of research. Understanding its convergence properties can help inform what modifications of it…

This paper considers the problem of minimizing an expectation function over a closed convex set, coupled with a {\color{black} functional or expectation} constraint on either decision variables or problem parameters. We first present a new…

We derive uniform all-time concentration bound of the type 'for all $n \geq n_0$ for some $n_0$' for TD(0) with linear function approximation. We work with online TD learning with samples from a single sample path of the underlying Markov…

We develop a new framework for deriving time-uniform concentration bounds for the output of stochastic sequential algorithms satisfying certain recursive inequalities akin to those defining the almost-supermartingale processes introduced by…

This paper considers the smooth bilevel optimization in which the lower-level problem is strongly convex and the upper-level problem is possibly nonconvex. We focus on the stochastic setting where the algorithm can access the unbiased…

We obtain non asymptotic concentration bounds for two kinds of stochastic approximations. We first consider the deviations between the expectation of a given function of the Euler scheme of some diffusion process at a fixed deterministic…

Two-timescale Stochastic Approximation (SA) algorithms are widely used in Reinforcement Learning (RL). Their iterates have two parts that are updated using distinct stepsizes. In this work, we develop a novel recipe for their finite sample…

Stochastic first-order methods such as Stochastic Extragradient (SEG) or Stochastic Gradient Descent-Ascent (SGDA) for solving smooth minimax problems and, more generally, variational inequality problems (VIP) have been gaining a lot of…

This paper compiles several aspects of the dynamics of stochastic approximation algorithms with Markov iterate-dependent noise when the iterates are not known to be stable beforehand. We achieve the same by extending the lock-in probability…

Heavy-tailed noise is pervasive in modern machine learning applications, arising from data heterogeneity, outliers, and non-stationary stochastic environments. While second-order methods can significantly accelerate convergence in…

We study the maximum achievable differential entropy at the output of a system assigning to each input X the sum X+N, with N a given noise with probability law absolutely continuous with respect to the Lebesgue measure and where the input…

Recently, several studies consider the stochastic optimization problem but in a heavy-tailed noise regime, i.e., the difference between the stochastic gradient and the true gradient is assumed to have a finite $p$-th moment (say being upper…

Two-timescale stochastic approximation (TTSA) is among the most general frameworks for iterative stochastic algorithms. This includes well-known stochastic optimization methods such as SGD variants and those designed for bilevel or minimax…

Viewing a two time scale stochastic approximation scheme as a noisy discretization of a singularly perturbed differential equation, we obtain a concentration bound for its iterates that captures its behavior with quantifiable high…

Motivated by the study of $Q$-learning algorithms in reinforcement learning, we study a class of stochastic approximation procedures based on operators that satisfy monotonicity and quasi-contractivity conditions with respect to an…

Stochastic Approximation (SA) is a popular approach for solving fixed-point equations where the information is corrupted by noise. In this paper, we consider an SA involving a contraction mapping with respect to an arbitrary norm, and show…