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Related papers: Local Asymptotic Normality for Multi-Armed Bandits

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In this paper, we consider a new Multi-Armed Bandit (MAB) problem where arms are nodes in an unknown and possibly changing graph, and the agent (i) initiates random walks over the graph by pulling arms, (ii) observes the random walk…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-06-28 Tianyu Wang , Lin F. Yang , Zizhuo Wang

In this work, we investigate the problem of adapting to the presence or absence of causal structure in multi-armed bandit problems. In addition to the usual reward signal, we assume the learner has access to additional variables, observed…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-07-02 Ziyi Liu , Idan Attias , Daniel M. Roy

We extend our previous results on local asymptotic normality (LAN) for qubits, to quantum systems of arbitrary finite dimension $d$. LAN means that the quantum statistical model consisting of $n$ identically prepared $d$-dimensional systems…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2011-06-23 Jonas Kahn , Madalin Guta

We investigate an active pure-exploration setting, that includes best-arm identification, in the context of linear stochastic bandits. While asymptotically optimal algorithms exist for standard multi-arm bandits, the existence of such…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2020-07-03 Rémy Degenne , Pierre Ménard , Xuedong Shang , Michal Valko

We consider a multi-armed bandit problem where the decision maker can explore and exploit different arms at every round. The exploited arm adds to the decision maker's cumulative reward (without necessarily observing the reward) while the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2012-07-03 Orly Avner , Shie Mannor , Ohad Shamir

Motivated by wireless networks where interference or channel state estimates provide partial insight into throughput, we study a variant of the classical stochastic multi-armed bandit problem in which the learner has limited access to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-03 Arun Verma , Manjesh Kumar Hanawal , Arun Rajkumar

We introduce a novel framework of combinatorial multi-armed bandits (CMAB) with multivariant and probabilistically triggering arms (CMAB-MT), where the outcome of each arm is a $d$-dimensional multivariant random variable and the feedback…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-04-24 Xutong Liu , Siwei Wang , Jinhang Zuo , Han Zhong , Xuchuang Wang , Zhiyong Wang , Shuai Li , Mohammad Hajiesmaili , John C. S. Lui , Wei Chen

We establish the local asymptotic normality (LAN) property for estimating a multidimensional parameter in the drift of a system of $N$ interacting particles observed over a fixed time horizon in a mean-field regime $N \rightarrow \infty$.…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2022-05-13 Laetitia Della Maestra , Marc Hoffmann

One of the key drivers of complexity in the classical (stochastic) multi-armed bandit (MAB) problem is the difference between mean rewards in the top two arms, also known as the instance gap. The celebrated Upper Confidence Bound (UCB)…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-10-27 Anand Kalvit , Assaf Zeevi

This paper tackles a multi-agent bandit setting where $M$ agents cooperate together to solve the same instance of a $K$-armed stochastic bandit problem. The agents are \textit{heterogeneous}: each agent has limited access to a local subset…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-02-18 Lin Yang , Yu-zhen Janice Chen , Mohammad Hajiesmaili , John CS Lui , Don Towsley

The improving multi-armed bandits problem is a formal model for allocating effort under uncertainty, motivated by scenarios such as investing research effort into new technologies, performing clinical trials, and hyperparameter selection…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-22 Avrim Blum , Marten Garicano , Kavya Ravichandran , Dravyansh Sharma

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 analyze the $K$-armed bandit problem where the reward for each arm is a noisy realization based on an observed context under mild nonparametric assumptions. We attain tight results for top-arm identification and a sublinear regret of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-01-08 Melody Y. Guan , Heinrich Jiang

We consider a contextual bandit problem with a combinatorial action set and time-varying base arm availability. At the beginning of each round, the agent observes the set of available base arms and their contexts and then selects an action…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-09-26 Andi Nika , Sepehr Elahi , Cem Tekin

Learning paradigms based purely on offline data as well as those based solely on sequential online learning have been well-studied in the literature. In this paper, we consider combining offline data with online learning, an area less…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-06-16 Shubhada Agrawal , Sandeep Juneja , Karthikeyan Shanmugam , Arun Sai Suggala

Stochastic bandit algorithms are usually analyzed under a mean-reward criterion, yet many problems favor arms with strong upper-tail performance, which we study herein. For a fixed miscoverage level \(\alpha\), the natural upper-tail target…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-11 Chengyu Du , Mengfan Xu

We study the non-contextual multi-armed bandit problem in a transfer learning setting: before any pulls, the learner is given N'_k i.i.d. samples from each source distribution nu'_k, and the true target distributions nu_k lie within a known…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-09-24 Adrien Prevost , Timothee Mathieu , Odalric-Ambrym Maillard

Adaptive sampling schemes are well known to create complex dependence that may invalidate conventional inference methods. A recent line of work shows that this need not be the case for UCB-type algorithms in multi-armed bandits. A central…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2026-01-30 Qiyang Han

The multi-armed bandit problem is a core framework for sequential decision-making under uncertainty, but classical algorithms often fail in environments with hidden, time-varying states that confound reward estimation and optimal action…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-19 Jikai Jin , Kenneth Hung , Sanath Kumar Krishnamurthy , Baoyi Shi , Congshan Zhang

The stochastic multi-armed bandit setting has been recently studied in the non-stationary regime, where the mean payoff of each action is a non-decreasing function of the number of rounds passed since it was last played. This model captures…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-13 Orestis Papadigenopoulos , Constantine Caramanis , Sanjay Shakkottai