提出非参数场景下最优强化学习算法的后悔尾部特性统一刻画
Regret Tail Characterization of Optimal Bandit Algorithms with Generic Rewards
- 将KL-inf UCB算法拓展至满足弱假设的广义奖励分布
- 首次给出该算法后悔尾概率的紧上界,覆盖有界与重尾情形
- 对有限支持分布,上界与理论下界完全一致,适用于算法分析者
我们研究了在期望意义上渐近最优的随机多臂赌博机算法的后悔尾部行为。尽管最小化期望后悔是经典目标,但近期研究表明,此类算法仍可能表现出严重的后悔尾部,即以非可忽略概率产生大后悔。现有精确的后悔尾部刻画主要局限于参数化设置,如单参数指数族。本文将$\ ext{KLinf}$-UCB算法推广至满足温和假设的广义非参数奖励分布类,并证明其期望意义下的渐近最优性。随后分析其后悔尾部行为,推导出新的后悔尾概率上界。作为特例,结果恢复了有界支持和重尾(矩有界)赌博机模型的后悔尾保证。此外,对于有限支持奖励分布的情形,我们的上界恰好匹配已知下界。因此,本工作为基于KL的最优UCB算法提供了超越参数模型的统一且紧致的后悔尾部刻画。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
We study the tail behavior of regret in stochastic multi-armed bandits for algorithms that are asymptotically optimal in expectation. While minimizing expected regret is the classical objective, recent work shows that even such algorithms can exhibit heavy regret tails, incurring large regret with non-negligible probability. Existing sharp characterizations of regret tails are largely restricted to parametric settings, such as single-parameter exponential families. In this work, we extend the $\KLinf$-UCB algorithm of to a broad nonparametric class of reward distributions satisfying mild assumptions, and establish its asymptotic optimality in expectation. We then analyze the tail behavior of its regret and derive a novel upper bound on the regret tail probability. As special cases, our results recover regret-tail guarantees for both bounded-support and heavy-tailed (moment-bounded) bandit models. Moreover, for the special case of finitely-supported reward distributions, our upper bound matches the known lower bound exactly. Our results thus provide a unified and tight characterization of regret tails for asymptotically optimal KL-based UCB algorithms, going beyond parametric models.
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