Offline-Online Reinforcement Learning for Linear Mixture MDPs

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Zhongjun, Sinclair, Sean R.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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_version_ 1866914470112002048
author Zhang, Zhongjun
Sinclair, Sean R.
author_facet Zhang, Zhongjun
Sinclair, Sean R.
contents We study offline-online reinforcement learning in linear mixture Markov decision processes (MDPs) under environment shift. In the offline phase, data are collected by an unknown behavior policy and may come from a mismatched environment, while in the online phase the learner interacts with the target environment. We propose an algorithm that adaptively leverages offline data. When the offline data are informative, either due to sufficient coverage or small environment shift, the algorithm provably improves over purely online learning. When the offline data are uninformative, it safely ignores them and matches the online-only performance. We establish regret upper bounds that explicitly characterize when offline data are beneficial, together with nearly matching lower bounds. Numerical experiments further corroborate our theoretical findings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_11994
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Offline-Online Reinforcement Learning for Linear Mixture MDPs
Zhang, Zhongjun
Sinclair, Sean R.
Machine Learning
Optimization and Control
We study offline-online reinforcement learning in linear mixture Markov decision processes (MDPs) under environment shift. In the offline phase, data are collected by an unknown behavior policy and may come from a mismatched environment, while in the online phase the learner interacts with the target environment. We propose an algorithm that adaptively leverages offline data. When the offline data are informative, either due to sufficient coverage or small environment shift, the algorithm provably improves over purely online learning. When the offline data are uninformative, it safely ignores them and matches the online-only performance. We establish regret upper bounds that explicitly characterize when offline data are beneficial, together with nearly matching lower bounds. Numerical experiments further corroborate our theoretical findings.
title Offline-Online Reinforcement Learning for Linear Mixture MDPs
topic Machine Learning
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.11994