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We study discrete-time mean-field Markov games with infinite numbers of agents where each agent aims to minimize its ergodic cost. We consider the setting where the agents have identical linear state transitions and quadratic cost…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-10-17 Zuyue Fu , Zhuoran Yang , Yongxin Chen , Zhaoran Wang

Policy gradient algorithms have been widely applied to Markov decision processes and reinforcement learning problems in recent years. Regularization with various entropy functions is often used to encourage exploration and improve…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-06-09 Haoya Li , Samarth Gupta , Hsiangfu Yu , Lexing Ying , Inderjit Dhillon

We consider generalized Nash equilibrium (GNE) problems in games with strongly monotone pseudo-gradients and jointly linear coupling constraints. We establish the convergence rate of a payoff-based approach intended to learn a variational…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-11-14 Tatiana Tatarenko , Maryam Kamgarpour

We study the global convergence of policy optimization for finding the Nash equilibria (NE) in zero-sum linear quadratic (LQ) games. To this end, we first investigate the landscape of LQ games, viewing it as a nonconvex-nonconcave…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-02-12 Kaiqing Zhang , Zhuoran Yang , Tamer Başar

In this paper, we present algorithms that perform gradient ascent of the average reward in a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). These algorithms are based on GPOMDP, an algorithm introduced in a companion paper (Baxter…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2019-11-18 J. Baxter , P. L. Bartlett , L. Weaver

Multi-agent games are becoming an increasing prevalent formalism for the study of electronic commerce and auctions. The speed at which transactions can take place and the growing complexity of electronic marketplaces makes the study of…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2013-01-18 Satinder Singh , Michael Kearns , Yishay Mansour

Mean-field games have been used as a theoretical tool to obtain an approximate Nash equilibrium for symmetric and anonymous $N$-player games. However, limiting applicability, existing theoretical results assume variations of a "population…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-06-12 Batuhan Yardim , Semih Cayci , Matthieu Geist , Niao He

This paper studies policy optimization algorithms for multi-agent reinforcement learning. We begin by proposing an algorithm framework for two-player zero-sum Markov Games in the full-information setting, where each iteration consists of a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-07-26 Runyu Zhang , Qinghua Liu , Huan Wang , Caiming Xiong , Na Li , Yu Bai

Learning in games provides a powerful framework to design control policies for self-interested agents that may be coupled through their dynamics, costs, or constraints. We consider the case where the dynamics of the coupled system can be…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-09-18 Mostafa M. Shibl , Vijay Gupta

We study robust Markov decision processes (RMDPs) with general policy parameterization under s-rectangular and non-rectangular uncertainty sets. Prior work is largely limited to tabular policies, and hence either lacks sample complexity…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-13 Anirudh Satheesh , Ziyi Chen , Furong Huang , Heng Huang

Zero-sum stochastic games are easy to solve as they can be cast as simple Markov decision processes. This is however not the case with general-sum stochastic games. A fairly general optimization problem formulation is available for…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2015-07-02 H. L. Prasad , Shalabh Bhatnagar

We propose policy gradient algorithms which learn risk-sensitive policies in a reinforcement learning (RL) framework. Our proposed algorithms maximize the distortion risk measure (DRM) of the cumulative reward in an episodic Markov decision…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-02-06 Nithia Vijayan , Prashanth L. A

The goal of this paper is to analyze distributional Markov Decision Processes as a class of control problems in which the objective is to learn policies that steer the distribution of a cumulative reward toward a prescribed target law,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-02-09 Nicole Bäuerle , Athanasios Vasileiadis

Decoding how rational agents should behave in shared systems remains a critical challenge within theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence and economics studies. Central to this challenge is the task of computing the solution…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-01-07 Dongge Wang , Xiang Yan , Zehao Dou , Wenhan Huang , Yaodong Yang , Xiaotie Deng

This paper explores the realm of infinite horizon average reward Constrained Markov Decision Processes (CMDPs). To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to delve into the regret and constraint violation analysis of average…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-10-31 Qinbo Bai , Washim Uddin Mondal , Vaneet Aggarwal

We study policy gradient methods for reinforcement learning in non-Markovian decision processes (NMDPs), where observations and rewards depend on the entire interaction history. To handle this dependence, the agent maintains an internal…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-12 Avik Kar , Siddharth Chandak , Rahul Singh , Soumitra Sinhahajari , Eric Moulines , Shalabh Bhatnagar , Nicholas Bambos

We consider the problem of computing mixed Nash equilibria of two-player zero-sum games with continuous sets of pure strategies and with first-order access to the payoff function. This problem arises for example in game-theory-inspired…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-09-04 Guillaume Wang , Lénaïc Chizat

Zero-sum Markov Stackelberg games can be used to model myriad problems, in domains ranging from economics to human robot interaction. In this paper, we develop policy gradient methods that solve these games in continuous state and action…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-01-24 Denizalp Goktas , Arjun Prakash , Amy Greenwald

Reinforcement learning considers the problem of finding policies that maximize an expected cumulative reward in a Markov decision process with unknown transition probabilities. In this paper we consider the problem of finding optimal…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-10-19 Santiago Paternain , Juan Andres Bazerque , Alejandro Ribeiro

Policy gradient methods, which have been extensively studied in the last decade, offer an effective and efficient framework for reinforcement learning problems. However, their performances can often be unsatisfactory, suffering from…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-27 Shihab Ahmed , El Houcine Bergou , Aritra Dutta , Yue Wang