Related papers: Prophet inequalities for i.i.d. random variables w…
In the classical prophet inequality, a gambler observes a sequence of stochastic rewards $V_1,...,V_n$ and must decide, for each reward $V_i$, whether to keep it and stop the game or to forfeit the reward forever and reveal the next value…
We consider prophet inequalities in a setting where agents correspond to both elements in a matroid and vertices in a graph. A set of agents is feasible if they form both an independent set in the matroid and an independent set in the…
Let $\xi_1,\xi_2,\ldots$ be independent, identically distributed random variables with infinite mean $\mathbf E[|\xi_1|]=\infty.$ Consider a random walk $S_n=\xi_1+\cdots+\xi_n$, a stopping time $\tau=\min\{n\ge 1: S_n\le 0\}$ and let…
The prophet inequality is one of the cornerstone problems in optimal stopping theory and has become a crucial tool for designing sequential algorithms in Bayesian settings. In the i.i.d. $k$-selection prophet inequality problem, we…
Let X_t, 0<=t<=T be a one-dimensional stochastic process with independent and stationary increments. This paper considers the problem of stopping the process X_t "as close as possible" to its eventual supremum M_T:=sup{X_t: 0<=t<=T}, when…
For a random variable $X$ define $Q(X) = \sup_{x \in \mathbb{R}} \mathbb{P}(X=x)$. Let $X_1, \dots, X_n$ be independent integer random variables. Suppose $Q(X_i) \le \alpha_i \in (0,1]$ for each $i \in \{1, \dots, n\}$. Ju\v{s}kevi\v{c}ius…
We study a variant of the single-choice prophet inequality problem where the decision-maker does not know the underlying distribution and has only access to a set of samples from the distributions. Rubinstein et al. [2020] showed that the…
The telegraph process $\{X(t), t>0\}$, is supposed to be observed at $n+1$ equidistant time points $t_i=i\Delta_n,i=0,1,..., n$. The unknown value of $\lambda$, the underlying rate of the Poisson process, is a parameter to be estimated. The…
Given a stable L\'{e}vy process $X=(X_t)_{0\le t\le T}$ of index $\alpha\in(1,2)$ with no negative jumps, and letting $S_t=\sup_{0\le s\le t}X_s$ denote its running supremum for $t\in [0,T]$, we consider the optimal prediction problem…
We consider a particle which moves on the x axis and is subject to a constant force, such as gravity, plus a random force in the form of Gaussian white noise. We analyze the statistics of first arrival at point $x_1$ of a particle which…
In this paper, we consider multistopping problems for finite discrete time sequences $X_1,...,X_n$. $m$-stops are allowed and the aim is to maximize the expected value of the best of these $m$ stops. The random variables are neither assumed…
Suppose that i.i.d. random variables $X_{1}, X_{2}, \ldots$ are chosen uniformly from $[0,1]$, and let $f: [0,1] \rightarrow [0,1]$ be an increasing bijection. Define $\mu_{f}$ to be the expected value of $f(X_{i})$ for each $i$. Define the…
A novel quickest detection setting is proposed which is a generalization of the well-known Bayesian change-point detection model. Suppose \{(X_i,Y_i)\}_{i\geq 1} is a sequence of pairs of random variables, and that S is a stopping time with…
We introduce a variant of the classic prophet inequality, called \emph{residual prophet inequality} (RPI). In the RPI problem, we consider a finite sequence of $n$ nonnegative independent random values with known distributions, and a known…
Suppose $(X_t)_{t \in T}$ is a Gaussian process indexed by some arbitrary set $T:$ the random variable $\sup_{t \in T}{X_t}$ can be very intricate and bounding its expectation is a natural step towards understanding it. Sudakov-Fernique…
In this article we derive the best possible upper bound for $E[\max{X_i}-\min_i{X_i}]$ under given means and variances on $n$ random variables $X_i$. The random vector $(X_1,...,X_n)$ is allowed to have any dependence structure, provided $E…
The (Non-Preemptive) Throughput Maximization problem is a natural and fundamental scheduling problem. We are given $n$ jobs, where each job $j$ is characterized by a processing time and a time window, contained in a global interval $[0,T)$,…
This paper considers a variation of the full-information secretary problem where the random variables to be observed are independent but not necessary identically distributed. The main result is a sharp lower bound for the optimal win…
In a classical problem for the stopping of a diffusion process $(X_t)_{t \geq 0}$, where the goal is to maximise the expected discounted value of a function of the stopped process ${\mathbb E}^x[e^{-\beta \tau}g(X_\tau)]$, maximisation…
Consider an M/M/$s$ queue with the additional feature that the arrival rate is a random variable of which only the mean, variance, and range are known. Using semi-infinite linear programming and duality theory for moment problems, we…