arXiv:2607. 12902v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We show the Randomized Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (RHMC) algorithm has accelerated mixing time guarantees for sampling from log-concave probability distributions.
By Siddharth Mitra, Vishwak Srinivasan, Xiuyuan Wang, Andre Wibisono
arXiv:2606. 24981v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We study linear TD(0) under Markovian sampling, where data are generated along a single trajectory.
By Wei-Cheng Lee, Francesco Orabona
arXiv:2405. 15379v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: In this paper, we study the problem of sampling from log-concave distributions supported on convex and compact sets, with a particular focus on the randomized midpoint discretization of both overdamped and kinetic Langevin diffusions in constrained domains.
By Yifeng Yu, Shijie Zhang, Lu Yu
arXiv:2606. 09191v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We prove that $\rho\text{-}\mathrm{NPTS}_{\mathrm{SG}}$, an anchor-free nonparametric Thompson Sampling algorithm for risk-averse bandits, achieves regret matching the instance-dependent lower bound to leading order in $\log n$, establishing it as asymptotically optimal for any continuous risk functional $\rho$ (CVaR, mean-variance, Sharpe ratio, distortion risk measures, and more) on the class of distributions with bounded density and sub-Gaussian tails, including Gaussian arms.
By Joel Q. L. Chang
arXiv:2512. 24152v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Sampling based on score diffusions has led to striking empirical results, and has attracted considerable attention from various research communities.
By M. J. Wainwright
arXiv:2409. 08469v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: We provide finite-particle convergence rates for the Stein Variational Gradient Descent (SVGD) algorithm in the Kernelized Stein Discrepancy ($\mathsf{KSD}$) and Wasserstein-2 metrics.
By Sayan Banerjee, Krishnakumar Balasubramanian, Promit Ghosal
arXiv:2606. 26316v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We study first-order methods for smooth objectives satisfying the Polyak-\L{}ojasiewicz (PL) condition when gradient samples are generated by an exogenous Markov chain.
By Dhruv Sarkar, Aprameyo Chakrabartty, Vaneet Aggarwal
We prove that $ρ\text{-}\mathrm{NPTS}_{\mathrm{SG}}$, an anchor-free nonparametric Thompson Sampling algorithm for risk-averse bandits, achieves regret matching the instance-dependent lower bound to leading order in $\log n$, establishing it as asymptotically optimal for any continuous risk functional $ρ$ (CVaR, mean-variance, Sharpe ratio, distortion risk measures, and more) on the class of distributions with bounded density and sub-Gaussian tails, including Gaussian arms. Both this result and its bounded-support counterpart require only continuity of $ρ$: strictly weaker than the dominance condition of prior parametric Thompson Sampling results, and strictly weaker than the Lipschitz condition of UCB-type algorithms, yielding the first instance-optimal guarantees for non-Lipschitz functionals such as the Sharpe ratio without parametric reward assumptions.
arXiv:2602. 13906v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Stochastic approximation (SA) is a method for finding the root of an operator perturbed by noise.
By Shaan Ul Haque, Zedong Wang, Zixuan Zhang, Siva Theja Maguluri
arXiv:2606. 17260v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We develop Hamiltonian dynamics-based algorithms for smooth convex optimization that achieve accelerated rates of convergence.
By Xiuyuan Wang, Vishwak Srinivasan, Qiang Fu, Siddharth Mitra, Ashia Wilson, Andre Wibisono
arXiv:2608. 02430v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We provide new estimates in Wasserstein distance for the asymptotic bias of the unadjusted Langevin algorithm, in the classical setting of log-smooth strongly log-concave measures.
By Francesco Pedrotti, Peter A. Whalley
arXiv:2607. 15208v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Unadjusted samplers such as unadjusted Hamiltonian Monte Carlo and underdamped Langevin are well-known to be biased.
By Yifan Chen, Xiaoou Cheng, Jonathan Niles-Weed, Jonathan Weare