The paper introduces BUMEX, a reinforcement learning exploration strategy that leverages a set of prior models containing the true transition kernel and reward function. By optimizing over this model set, the method derives upper and lower bounds on the Q‑function to guide exploration, providing theoretical guarantees of convergence to the optimal policy. When the model set follows a bounded‑parameter MDP structure, the optimization becomes convex, enabling finite‑time convergence under mild assumptions and demonstrating accelerated learning in simulations.
arXiv:2506. 07040v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: We study model-free methods for distributionally robust infinite-horizon average-reward Markov decision processes (MDPs).
arXiv:2603. 09344v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Offline reinforcement learning (RL) enables data-efficient and safe policy learning without online exploration, but its performance often degrades under distribution shift.
arXiv:2605. 29032v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Model-based reinforcement learning (MBRL) agents typically learn world models by minimizing predictive loss.
arXiv:2512. 06244v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: The exploration-exploitation dilemma in reinforcement learning (RL) is a fundamental challenge to efficient RL algorithms.
arXiv:2606. 16846v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We study the operator-theoretic core of Q-learning in continuous-time stochastic control with continuous states and actions.
arXiv:2606. 29980v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Zero-shot Transfer in Reinforcement Learning (RL) aims to train an agent that can generate optimal policies for any reward function, without additional learning at transfer time, while training only on reward-free trajectories.
The paper introduces IR‑LQR, an optimistic online linear quadratic regulator that incorporates intrinsic rewards and variance regularization to encourage exploration while maintaining the standard LQR structure. By only adjusting the cost function, IR‑LQR remains computationally simple yet achieves the optimal worst‑case regret rate of √T. The authors validate the method with numerical experiments on aircraft pitch angle control and a UAV example, comparing it to state‑of‑the‑art online LQR algorithms.
arXiv:2601. 19612v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Safe exploration is a key requirement for reinforcement learning (RL) agents to learn and adapt online, beyond controlled (e.
arXiv:2607. 28916v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Multistep credit assignment is critical for sample-efficient reinforcement learning, yet managing off-policy bias in Q-learning remains a fundamental challenge.
arXiv:2510.01721v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Distributionally robust reinforcement learning seeks policies that remain effective when the deployment environment differs from the one that gener...
arXiv:2512. 14617v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Many practical decision-making problems involve tasks whose success depends on the entire system history, rather than on achieving a state with desired properties.
arXiv:2607. 28408v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: This thesis studies policy learning in interactive systems where an agent observes a context, selects an action from a very large set, and receives partial feedback.