{"paper":{"title":"Robust Average-Reward Markov Decision Processes: Minimax-Optimal Learning via Plug-in Reductions","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["math.OC","stat.ML"],"primary_cat":"cs.LG","authors_text":"Yuejie Chi, Yuepeng Yang, Yuxin Chen","submitted_at":"2026-08-06T19:49:48Z","abstract_excerpt":"Distributionally robust Markov decision processes provide a principled framework for sequential decision making under model uncertainty. We study how many samples are necessary and sufficient to learn an $\\varepsilon$-optimal robust policy under the average-reward criterion. A generative model provides samples from the nominal transition kernel, whereas policy performance is evaluated over $(s,a)$-rectangular total-variation uncertainty sets of radius at most $\\sigma$.\n  Let $H_0$ and $H_\\sigma$ denote the nominal and robust optimal bias spans, respectively. We identify $\\sigma H_0$ as the per"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2608.06545","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2608.06545/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}