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In this paper, we consider the problem of black-box optimization using Gaussian Process (GP) bandit optimization with a small number of batches. Assuming the unknown function has a low norm in the Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS), we…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-02-23 Zihan Li , Jonathan Scarlett

Thompson Sampling has been widely used for contextual bandit problems due to the flexibility of its modeling power. However, a general theory for this class of methods in the frequentist setting is still lacking. In this paper, we present a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-10-05 Tong Zhang

We establish strong laws of large numbers and central limit theorems for the regret of two of the most popular bandit algorithms: Thompson sampling and UCB. Here, our characterizations of the regret distribution complement the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-12 Lin Fan , Peter W. Glynn

In this study, we propose a new method for constructing UCB-type algorithms for stochastic multi-armed bandits based on general convex optimization methods with an inexact oracle. We derive the regret bounds corresponding to the convergence…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-02-13 Yuriy Dorn , Aleksandr Katrutsa , Ilgam Latypov , Andrey Pudovikov

Variance-dependent regret bounds have received increasing attention in recent studies on contextual bandits. However, most of these studies are focused on upper confidence bound (UCB)-based bandit algorithms, while sampling based bandit…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-05 Xuheng Li , Quanquan Gu

Thompson sampling (TS) is a powerful and widely used strategy for sequential decision-making, with applications ranging from Bayesian optimization to reinforcement learning (RL). Despite its success, the theoretical foundations of TS remain…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-24 Jasmine Bayrooti , Sattar Vakili , Amanda Prorok , Carl Henrik Ek

A challenging aspect of the bandit problem is that a stochastic reward is observed only for the chosen arm and the rewards of other arms remain missing. The dependence of the arm choice on the past context and reward pairs compounds the…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2023-05-02 Wonyoung Kim , Gi-soo Kim , Myunghee Cho Paik

Meta-learning is characterized by its ability to learn how to learn, enabling the adaptation of learning strategies across different tasks. Recent research introduced the Meta-Thompson Sampling (Meta-TS), which meta-learns an unknown prior…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-09-12 Hao Li , Dong Liang , Zheng Xie

This paper investigates stochastic and adversarial combinatorial multi-armed bandit problems. In the stochastic setting under semi-bandit feedback, we derive a problem-specific regret lower bound, and discuss its scaling with the dimension…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2015-11-09 Richard Combes , M. Sadegh Talebi , Alexandre Proutiere , Marc Lelarge

In federated multi-armed bandit problems, maximizing global reward while satisfying minimum privacy requirements to protect clients is the main goal. To formulate such problems, we consider a combinatorial contextual bandit setting with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-07-11 Sepehr Elahi , Baran Atalar , Sevda Öğüt , Cem Tekin

We study the stochastic multi-armed bandit problem and design new policies that enjoy both worst-case optimality for expected regret and light-tailed risk for regret distribution. Specifically, our policy design (i) enjoys the worst-case…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-07-23 David Simchi-Levi , Zeyu Zheng , Feng Zhu

Regret minimization in streaming multi-armed bandits (MABs) has been studied extensively in recent years. In the single-pass setting with $K$ arms and $T$ trials, a regret lower bound of $\Omega(T^{2/3})$ has been proved for any algorithm…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-06-06 Chen Wang

We study combinatorial multi-armed bandit with probabilistically triggered arms (CMAB-T) and semi-bandit feedback. We resolve a serious issue in the prior CMAB-T studies where the regret bounds contain a possibly exponentially large factor…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-06-09 Qinshi Wang , Wei Chen

We study an algorithm-independent, worst-case lower bound for the Gaussian process (GP) bandit problem in the frequentist setting, where the reward function is fixed and has a bounded norm in the known reproducing kernel Hilbert space…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-23 Shogo Iwazaki

This paper studies the optimality and complexity of Follow-the-Perturbed-Leader (FTPL) policy in size-invariant combinatorial semi-bandit problems. Recently, Honda et al. (2023) and Lee et al. (2024) showed that FTPL achieves…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-07-23 Botao Chen , Junya Honda

We study the problem of adversarial combinatorial bandit with a switching cost $\lambda$ for a switch of each selected arm in each round, considering both the bandit feedback and semi-bandit feedback settings. In the oblivious adversarial…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-04-03 Yanyan Dong , Vincent Y. F. Tan

The stochastic multi-arm bandit problem has been extensively studied under standard assumptions on the arm's distribution (e.g bounded with known support, exponential family, etc). These assumptions are suitable for many real-world problems…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2021-11-19 Dorian Baudry , Patrick Saux , Odalric-Ambrym Maillard

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

Non-stationary multi-armed bandits (NS-MABs) model sequential decision-making problems in which the expected rewards of a set of actions, a.k.a.~arms, evolve over time. In this paper, we fill a gap in the literature by providing a novel…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-06-17 Marco Fiandri , Alberto Maria Metelli , Francesco Trovò

The PhD thesis of Maillard (2013) presents a rather obscure algorithm for the $K$-armed bandit problem. This less-known algorithm, which we call Maillard sampling (MS), computes the probability of choosing each arm in a \textit{closed…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-03-08 Jie Bian , Kwang-Sung Jun