Robust mean-field control under common noise uncertainty

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Laurière, Mathieu, Neufeld, Ariel, Park, Kyunghyun
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866911251806814208
author Laurière, Mathieu
Neufeld, Ariel
Park, Kyunghyun
author_facet Laurière, Mathieu
Neufeld, Ariel
Park, Kyunghyun
contents We propose and analyze a framework for discrete-time robust mean-field control problems under common noise uncertainty. In this framework, the mean-field interaction describes the collective behavior of infinitely many cooperative agents' state and action, while the common noise -- a random disturbance affecting all agents' state dynamics -- is uncertain. A social planner optimizes over open-loop controls on an infinite horizon to maximize the representative agent's worst-case expected reward, where worst-case corresponds to the most adverse probability measure among all candidates inducing the unknown true law of the common noise process. We refer to this optimization as a robust mean-field control problem under common noise uncertainty. We first show that this problem arises as the asymptotic limit of a cooperative $N$-agent robust optimization problem, commonly known as propagation of chaos. We then prove the existence of an optimal open-loop control by linking the robust mean field control problem to a lifted robust Markov decision problem on the space of probability measures and by establishing the dynamic programming principle and Bellman--Isaac fixed point theorem for the lifted robust Markov decision problem. Finally, we complement our theoretical results with numerical experiments motivated by distribution planning and systemic risk in finance, highlighting the advantages of accounting for common noise uncertainty.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_04515
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Robust mean-field control under common noise uncertainty
Laurière, Mathieu
Neufeld, Ariel
Park, Kyunghyun
Optimization and Control
Probability
Mathematical Finance
We propose and analyze a framework for discrete-time robust mean-field control problems under common noise uncertainty. In this framework, the mean-field interaction describes the collective behavior of infinitely many cooperative agents' state and action, while the common noise -- a random disturbance affecting all agents' state dynamics -- is uncertain. A social planner optimizes over open-loop controls on an infinite horizon to maximize the representative agent's worst-case expected reward, where worst-case corresponds to the most adverse probability measure among all candidates inducing the unknown true law of the common noise process. We refer to this optimization as a robust mean-field control problem under common noise uncertainty. We first show that this problem arises as the asymptotic limit of a cooperative $N$-agent robust optimization problem, commonly known as propagation of chaos. We then prove the existence of an optimal open-loop control by linking the robust mean field control problem to a lifted robust Markov decision problem on the space of probability measures and by establishing the dynamic programming principle and Bellman--Isaac fixed point theorem for the lifted robust Markov decision problem. Finally, we complement our theoretical results with numerical experiments motivated by distribution planning and systemic risk in finance, highlighting the advantages of accounting for common noise uncertainty.
title Robust mean-field control under common noise uncertainty
topic Optimization and Control
Probability
Mathematical Finance
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.04515