arXiv Machine Learning

Dominant Arm Identification with Mixing and Recycling Observed Samples

arXiv:2608. 01545v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We study the problem of identifying the dominant arm in multi-armed bandits, where the objective is to find the action with the highest probability of exceeding the realized rewards of all other actions.

arXiv AI
Sep 24

Softmax gradient policy for variance minimization and risk-averse multi armed bandits

The paper introduces a new algorithm for the Multi‑Armed Bandit problem that prioritizes selecting the arm with the lowest variance rather than the highest expected reward, using a softmax policy parameterization. It constructs an unbiased estimate of the minimal‑variance objective by drawing two independent samples from the chosen arm and proves convergence under natural conditions. Numerical experiments demonstrate the algorithm’s practical behavior and provide implementation guidance, while also addressing general risk‑aware trade‑offs between average reward and variance.

By Gabriel Turinici