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In this paper, the causal bandit problem is investigated, with the objective of maximizing the long-term reward by selecting an optimal sequence of interventions on nodes in an unknown causal graph. It is assumed that both the causal…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-06-30 Chen Peng , Di Zhang , Urbashi Mitra

We consider the problem of studying the performance of greedy algorithm on sensor selection problem for stable linear systems with Kalman Filter. Specifically, the objective is to find the system parameters that affects the performance of…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2017-07-10 Jingyuan Liu

We study finite-armed semiparametric bandits, where each arm's reward combines a linear component with an unknown, potentially adversarial shift. This model strictly generalizes classical linear bandits and reflects complexities common in…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-06-18 Seok-Jin Kim , Gi-Soo Kim , Min-hwan Oh

We study fairness in linear bandit problems. Starting from the notion of meritocratic fairness introduced in Joseph et al. [2016], we carry out a more refined analysis of a more general problem, achieving better performance guarantees with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2017-06-30 Matthew Joseph , Michael Kearns , Jamie Morgenstern , Seth Neel , Aaron Roth

Contextual bandit algorithms are sensitive to the estimation method of the outcome model as well as the exploration method used, particularly in the presence of rich heterogeneity or complex outcome models, which can lead to difficult…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2018-12-18 Maria Dimakopoulou , Zhengyuan Zhou , Susan Athey , Guido Imbens

We study contextual bandits with finitely many actions in which the reward of each arm follows a single-index model with an arm-specific index parameter and an unknown nonparametric link function. We consider a regime in which arms…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-03-20 Sakshi Arya , Satarupa Bhattacharjee , Bharath K. Sriperumbudur

Most bandit algorithms assume that the reward variances or their upper bounds are known, and that they are the same for all arms. This naturally leads to suboptimal performance and higher regret due to variance overestimation. On the other…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-10-13 Aadirupa Saha , Branislav Kveton

Multi-armed bandit algorithms have become a reference solution for handling the explore/exploit dilemma in recommender systems, and many other important real-world problems, such as display advertisement. However, such algorithms usually…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-05-25 Qingyun Wu , Naveen Iyer , Hongning Wang

We study pure exploration in bandits, where the dimension of the feature representation can be much larger than the number of arms. To overcome the curse of dimensionality, we propose to adaptively embed the feature representation of each…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-03-18 Yinglun Zhu , Dongruo Zhou , Ruoxi Jiang , Quanquan Gu , Rebecca Willett , Robert Nowak

We consider a finite-armed structured bandit problem in which mean rewards of different arms are known functions of a common hidden parameter $\theta^*$. Since we do not place any restrictions of these functions, the problem setting…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2021-02-04 Samarth Gupta , Shreyas Chaudhari , Subhojyoti Mukherjee , Gauri Joshi , Osman Yağan

Recent work on exploration in reinforcement learning (RL) has led to a series of increasingly complex solutions to the problem. This increase in complexity often comes at the expense of generality. Recent empirical studies suggest that,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-06-03 Will Dabney , Georg Ostrovski , André Barreto

Multi-armed bandit problems are the most basic examples of sequential decision problems with an exploration-exploitation trade-off. This is the balance between staying with the option that gave highest payoffs in the past and exploring new…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2012-11-06 Sébastien Bubeck , Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi

Intelligent agents equipped with causal knowledge can optimize their action spaces to avoid unnecessary exploration. The structural causal bandit framework provides a graphical characterization for identifying actions that are unable to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-25 Min Woo Park , Sanghack Lee

A core element in decision-making under uncertainty is the feedback on the quality of the performed actions. However, in many applications, such feedback is restricted. For example, in recommendation systems, repeatedly asking the user to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-07-13 Yonathan Efroni , Nadav Merlis , Aadirupa Saha , Shie Mannor

We examine a multi-armed bandit problem with contextual information, where the objective is to ensure that each arm receives a minimum aggregated reward across contexts while simultaneously maximizing the total cumulative reward. This…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-15 Ahmed Ben Yahmed , Hafedh El Ferchichi , Marc Abeille , Vianney Perchet

The stochastic contextual bandit problem, which models the trade-off between exploration and exploitation, has many real applications, including recommender systems, online advertising and clinical trials. As many other machine learning…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-06-14 Qin Ding , Yue Kang , Yi-Wei Liu , Thomas C. M. Lee , Cho-Jui Hsieh , James Sharpnack

Contextual bandit algorithms are at the core of many applications, including recommender systems, clinical trials, and optimal portfolio selection. One of the most popular problems studied in the contextual bandit literature is to maximize…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-10-24 Siddhant Chaudhary , Abhishek Sinha

Generalized linear bandits have been extensively studied due to their broad applicability in real-world online decision-making problems. However, these methods typically assume that the expected reward function is known to the users, an…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-02-10 Yue Kang , Mingshuo Liu , Bongsoo Yi , Jing Lyu , Zhi Zhang , Doudou Zhou , Yao Li

Solving stochastic optimization problems under partial observability, where one needs to adaptively make decisions with uncertain outcomes, is a fundamental but notoriously difficult challenge. In this paper, we introduce the concept of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2017-12-07 Daniel Golovin , Andreas Krause

The generalized linear bandit framework has attracted a lot of attention in recent years by extending the well-understood linear setting and allowing to model richer reward structures. It notably covers the logistic model, widely used when…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-06-09 Louis Faury , Marc Abeille , Clément Calauzènes , Olivier Fercoq