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
arXiv:2609.38880v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: We study the last iterate of standard tabular temporal-difference (TD) learning from a single trajectory of a finite Markov reward process. For discoun...
By Yang Peng
We study the last iterate of standard tabular temporal-difference (TD) learning from a single trajectory of a finite Markov reward process. For discount factor $γ$, write $H=(1-γ)^{-1}$, and let $μ_{\...
arXiv:2606. 05967v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: In this paper, we study the finite-time behavior of the TD(0) temporal-difference method with linear function approximation (LFA).
By Ziad Kobeissi (L2S), \'Elo\"ise Berthier (U2IS)
In this paper, we study the finite-time behavior of the TD(0) temporal-difference method with linear function approximation (LFA). We consider on-policy independent and identically distributed (i.
arXiv:2505.20817v3 Announce Type: replace-cross
Abstract: Gradient clipping is widely used in language-model training to control heavy-tailed gradient noise and can improve convergence guarantees ove...
By Taha El Bakkali El Kadi, Savelii Chezhegov, Aleksandr Beznosikov, Samuel Horv\'ath, Eduard Gorbunov
We show the Randomized Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (RHMC) algorithm has accelerated mixing time guarantees for sampling from log-concave probability distributions. RHMC proceeds by repeatedly simulating the continuous-time Hamiltonian dynamics for some random integration times, and resetting the velocity to be an independent Gaussian random variable between each simulation.
arXiv:2608.25279v1 Announce Type: cross
Abstract: The OBABO and BAOAB schemes and the other standard Strang splittings of kinetic (underdamped) Langevin dynamics are widely used Markov chain Monte Ca...
By Nawaf Bou-Rabee
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:2607. 13414v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Non-expansive two-time-scale stochastic approximation is governed by a slow stochastic Krasnoselskii--Mann fixed-point iteration rather than by contraction to a unique equilibrium.
By Dhruv Sarkar, Vaneet Aggarwal
While entropy regularization is widely used to stabilize and accelerate Natural Policy Gradient methods, its ability to yield faster convergence rates for the unregularized objective remains underexplored. Existing analyses often rely on double-loop architectures and invoke a linear entropy penalty.
arXiv:2606. 14488v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Recent finite-time analyses of nonlinear two-time-scale stochastic approximation show that under contractive assumptions the slow iterate $Y_k$ with stepsizes $\beta_k=\Theta(k^{-1})$ and $\alpha_k=\Theta(k^{-a})$, $a\in(1/2,1)$, generally satisfies a mean-square rate of order $k^{-a}$; decoupled $k^{-1}$ rates require strong local linearity.
By Dhruv Sarkar, Vaneet Aggarwal