Exact sensitivity analysis of Markov reward processes via algebraic geometry

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Chan, Timothy C. Y., Maaz, Muhammad
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Chan, Timothy C. Y.
Maaz, Muhammad
author_facet Chan, Timothy C. Y.
Maaz, Muhammad
contents We introduce a new approach for deterministic sensitivity analysis of Markov reward processes, commonly used in cost-effectiveness analyses, via reformulation into a polynomial system. Our approach leverages cylindrical algebraic decomposition (CAD), a technique arising from algebraic geometry that provides an exact description of all solutions to a polynomial system. While it is typically intractable to build a CAD for systems with more than a few variables, we show that a special class of polynomial systems, which includes the polynomials arising from Markov reward processes, can be analyzed much more tractably. We establish several theoretical results about such systems and develop a specialized algorithm to construct their CAD, which allows us to perform exact, multi-way sensitivity analysis for common health economic analyses. We develop an open-source software package that implements our algorithm. Finally, we apply it to two case studies, one with synthetic data and one that re-analyzes a previous cost-effectiveness analysis from the literature, demonstrating advantages of our approach over standard techniques. Our software and code are available at: \url{https://github.com/mmaaz-git/markovag}.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_05471
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exact sensitivity analysis of Markov reward processes via algebraic geometry
Chan, Timothy C. Y.
Maaz, Muhammad
Optimization and Control
Mathematical Software
Algebraic Geometry
Probability
We introduce a new approach for deterministic sensitivity analysis of Markov reward processes, commonly used in cost-effectiveness analyses, via reformulation into a polynomial system. Our approach leverages cylindrical algebraic decomposition (CAD), a technique arising from algebraic geometry that provides an exact description of all solutions to a polynomial system. While it is typically intractable to build a CAD for systems with more than a few variables, we show that a special class of polynomial systems, which includes the polynomials arising from Markov reward processes, can be analyzed much more tractably. We establish several theoretical results about such systems and develop a specialized algorithm to construct their CAD, which allows us to perform exact, multi-way sensitivity analysis for common health economic analyses. We develop an open-source software package that implements our algorithm. Finally, we apply it to two case studies, one with synthetic data and one that re-analyzes a previous cost-effectiveness analysis from the literature, demonstrating advantages of our approach over standard techniques. Our software and code are available at: \url{https://github.com/mmaaz-git/markovag}.
title Exact sensitivity analysis of Markov reward processes via algebraic geometry
topic Optimization and Control
Mathematical Software
Algebraic Geometry
Probability
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.05471