arXiv:2607. 17316v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The softmax policy $\pi(a \mid s) \propto \exp(\beta Q(s,a))$ is the default model of stochastic choice in reinforcement learning (RL).
By Silviu Pitis
arXiv:2602. 03778v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Tail-end risk measures such as static conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) are used in safety-critical applications to prevent rare, yet catastrophic events.
By Aneri Muni, Vincent Taboga, Esther Derman, Pierre-Luc Bacon, Erick Delage
arXiv:2603. 23461v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: We study reinforcement learning (RL) with linear function approximation in Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) satisfying \emph{linear Bellman completeness} -- a fundamental setting where the Bellman backup of any linear value function remains linear.
By Zakaria Mhammedi, Alexander Rakhlin, Nneka Okolo
arXiv:2603. 06946v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Many distributional quantities in reinforcement learning are intrinsically joint across actions, including distributions of gaps and probabilities of superiority.
By Ege C. Kaya, Mahsa Ghasemi, Abolfazl Hashemi
arXiv:2607. 16717v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: This paper proposes a causal independence principle for value -- the value Causal Markov Condition (v-CMC) -- and develops the conceptual and mathematical foundations of a "causal value theory" linking causality and utility.
By Olav Benjamin Vassend
arXiv:2606. 00151v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: In reinforcement learning (RL), agents benefit from exploration only because they repeatedly encounter similar states: trying different actions can improve performance or reduce uncertainty; without such retries, a greedy policy is optimal.
By Soichiro Nishimori, Paavo Parmas, Sotetsu Koyamada, Tadashi Kozuno, Toshinori Kitamura, Shin Ishii, Yutaka Matsuo
arXiv:2601. 18840v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Markov decision problems are most commonly solved via dynamic programming.
By Donghwan Lee, Hyukjun Yang
arXiv:2605. 30694v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Many theories of decision making -- planning, reinforcement learning, causal intervention, online learning, and game-theoretic equilibrium -- turn local information into globally coherent behavior.
By Sridhar Mahadevan
arXiv:2511. 19849v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Recurrence objectives, where a target region must be visited infinitely often, are a fundamental class of specifications for Markov decision processes (MDPs) and form the core of $\omega$-regular and linear temporal logic (LTL) objectives.
By Dominik Wagner, Leon Witzman, Luke Ong
arXiv:2607. 17897v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Distributional soft policy iteration (DSPI) provides an important framework for combining distributional reinforcement learning (DRL) with maximum-entropy control, in which the policy evaluation step is governed by a distributional soft Bellman operator acting on entropy-regularised returns.
By Keru Wang, Yixin Deng, Yao Lyu, Stephen Redmond, Shengbo Eben Li
arXiv:2606. 11171v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: We develop Bellman-sufficient information complexity, a formal representation-level framework for sequential decision making.
By Yunbei Xu
arXiv:2506. 00818v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Offline reinforcement learning for longitudinal studies often faces two linked challenges: rewards may be binary or bounded, and reward observations may be available only for a subset of trajectories or time points even when the corresponding state-action-next-state histories are available.
By Sinian Zhang, Kaicheng Zhang, Ziping Xu, Zongqi Xia, Jue Hou, Tianxi Cai, Doudou Zhou