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We introduce a general framework for measuring risk in the context of Markov control processes with risk maps on general Borel spaces that generalize known concepts of risk measures in mathematical finance, operations research and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2014-01-27 Yun Shen , Wilhelm Stannat , Klaus Obermayer

Stochastic approximation is a framework unifying many random iterative algorithms occurring in a diverse range of applications. The stability of the process is often difficult to verify in practical applications and the process may even be…

Probability · Mathematics 2014-03-10 Christophe Andrieu , Matti Vihola

This paper studies continuous-time Markov decision processes under the risk-sensitive average cost criterion. The state space is a finite set, the action space is a Borel space, the cost and transition rates are bounded, and the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2015-12-22 Qingda Wei , Xian Chen

We use classical tools from calculus of variations to formally derive necessary conditions for a Markov control to be optimal in a standard finite time horizon stochastic control problem. As an example, we solve the well-known Merton…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-27 Matthew Lorig

Using the tools of the Markov Decision Processes, we justify the dynamic programming approach to the optimal impulse control of deterministic dynamical systems. We prove the equivalence of the integral and differential forms of the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-08-06 Alexey Piunovskiy , Alexander Plakhov , Delfim F. M. Torres , Yi Zhang

We study data-driven learning of robust stochastic control for infinite-horizon systems with potentially continuous state and action spaces. In many managerial settings--supply chains, finance, manufacturing, services, and dynamic…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-11-18 Shengbo Wang , Jason Meng , Nian Si , Jose Blanchet , Zhengyuan Zhou

We present a new, tractable method for solving and analyzing risk-aware control problems over finite and infinite, discounted time-horizons where the dynamics of the controlled process are described as a martingale problem. Supposing…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-06-23 Jukka Isohätälä , William B. Haskell

We propose a method for approximating solutions to optimization problems involving the global stability properties of parameter-dependent continuous-time autonomous dynamical systems. The method relies on an approximation of the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2013-08-12 Péter Koltai , Alexander Volf

In this paper, we propose a class of efficient, accurate, and general methods for solving state-estimation problems with equality and inequality constraints. The methods are based on recent developments in variable splitting and partially…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-12-02 Rui Gao , Filip Tronarp , Simo Särkkä

The aim of this paper is to address optimality of stochastic control strategies via dynamic programming subject to total variation distance ambiguity on the conditional distribution of the controlled process. We formulate the stochastic…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2014-02-06 Ioannis Tzortzis , Charalambos D. Charalambous , Themistoklis Charalambous

In multi-period stochastic optimization problems, the future optimal decision is a random variable whose distribution depends on the parameters of the optimization problem. We analyze how the expected value of this random variable changes…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-01-28 Bar Light

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

In this paper, we consider continuous-time stochastic optimal control problems where the cost is evaluated through a coherent risk measure. We provide an explicit gradient descent-ascent algorithm which applies to problems subject to…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-06-23 Gabriel Velho , Jean Auriol , Riccardo Bonalli

We study risk-sensitive control of continuous time Markov chains taking values in discrete state space. We study both finite and infinite horizon problems. In the finite horizon problem we characterise the value function via HJB equation…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2014-09-16 Mrinal K. Ghosh , Subhamay Saha

This paper concerns discrete-time infinite-horizon stochastic control systems with Borel state and action spaces and universally measurable policies. We study optimization problems on strategic measures induced by the policies in these…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-12-22 Huizhen Yu

In this work, we investigate the optimal control problem for continuous-time Markov decision processes with the random impact of the environment. We provide conditions to show the existence of optimal controls under finite-horizon criteria.…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-06-23 Jinghai Shao , Kun Zhao

In this paper, we consider the finite-state approximation of a discrete-time constrained Markov decision process (MDP) under the discounted and average cost criteria. Using the linear programming formulation of the constrained discounted…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-07-10 Naci Saldi

The standard approach to analyzing the asymptotic complexity of probabilistic programs is based on studying the asymptotic growth of certain expected values (such as the expected termination time) for increasing input size. We argue that…

Formal Languages and Automata Theory · Computer Science 2023-07-13 Michal Ajdarów , Antonín Kučera

This paper deals with the unconstrained and constrained cases for continuous-time Markov decision processes under the finite-horizon expected total cost criterion. The state space is denumerable and the transition and cost rates are allowed…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2014-08-26 Qingda Wei , Xian Chen

We study infinite-horizon robust Markov decision processes (MDPs) on continuous state spaces with structured rectangular ambiguity set. The proposed ambiguity set falls within the convex hull of unknown generating kernels. We utilize the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-28 Mengmeng Li , Yifan Hu , Daniel Kuhn , Yan Li