Linear Bandits on Ellipsoids: Minimax Optimal Algorithms

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Raymond, Hadiji, Hedi, Combes, Richard
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zhang, Raymond
Hadiji, Hedi
Combes, Richard
author_facet Zhang, Raymond
Hadiji, Hedi
Combes, Richard
contents We consider linear stochastic bandits where the set of actions is an ellipsoid. We provide the first known minimax optimal algorithm for this problem. We first derive a novel information-theoretic lower bound on the regret of any algorithm, which must be at least $Ω(\min(d σ\sqrt{T} + d \|θ\|_{A}, \|θ\|_{A} T))$ where $d$ is the dimension, $T$ the time horizon, $σ^2$ the noise variance, $A$ a matrix defining the set of actions and $θ$ the vector of unknown parameters. We then provide an algorithm whose regret matches this bound to a multiplicative universal constant. The algorithm is non-classical in the sense that it is not optimistic, and it is not a sampling algorithm. The main idea is to combine a novel sequential procedure to estimate $\|θ\|$, followed by an explore-and-commit strategy informed by this estimate. The algorithm is highly computationally efficient, and a run requires only time $O(dT + d^2 \log(T/d) + d^3)$ and memory $O(d^2)$, in contrast with known optimistic algorithms, which are not implementable in polynomial time. We go beyond minimax optimality and show that our algorithm is locally asymptotically minimax optimal, a much stronger notion of optimality. We further provide numerical experiments to illustrate our theoretical findings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_17175
institution arXiv
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spellingShingle Linear Bandits on Ellipsoids: Minimax Optimal Algorithms
Zhang, Raymond
Hadiji, Hedi
Combes, Richard
Machine Learning
We consider linear stochastic bandits where the set of actions is an ellipsoid. We provide the first known minimax optimal algorithm for this problem. We first derive a novel information-theoretic lower bound on the regret of any algorithm, which must be at least $Ω(\min(d σ\sqrt{T} + d \|θ\|_{A}, \|θ\|_{A} T))$ where $d$ is the dimension, $T$ the time horizon, $σ^2$ the noise variance, $A$ a matrix defining the set of actions and $θ$ the vector of unknown parameters. We then provide an algorithm whose regret matches this bound to a multiplicative universal constant. The algorithm is non-classical in the sense that it is not optimistic, and it is not a sampling algorithm. The main idea is to combine a novel sequential procedure to estimate $\|θ\|$, followed by an explore-and-commit strategy informed by this estimate. The algorithm is highly computationally efficient, and a run requires only time $O(dT + d^2 \log(T/d) + d^3)$ and memory $O(d^2)$, in contrast with known optimistic algorithms, which are not implementable in polynomial time. We go beyond minimax optimality and show that our algorithm is locally asymptotically minimax optimal, a much stronger notion of optimality. We further provide numerical experiments to illustrate our theoretical findings.
title Linear Bandits on Ellipsoids: Minimax Optimal Algorithms
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.17175