Pith. sign in

REVIEW 1 cited by

From Convex Optimization to MDPs: A Review of First-Order, Second-Order and Quasi-Newton Methods for MDPs

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2104.10677 v2 pith:HL4W3IYH submitted 2021-04-19 math.OC

From Convex Optimization to MDPs: A Review of First-Order, Second-Order and Quasi-Newton Methods for MDPs

classification math.OC
keywords mdpsalgorithmsmethodsconvexoptimizationfirst-orderquasi-newtonrecent
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
0 comments
read the original abstract

In this paper we present a review of the connections between classical algorithms for solving Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) and classical gradient-based algorithms in convex optimization. Some of these connections date as far back as the 1980s, but they have gained momentum in recent years and have lead to faster algorithms for solving MDPs. In particular, two of the most popular methods for solving MDPs, Value Iteration and Policy Iteration, can be linked to first-order and second-order methods in convex optimization. In addition, recent results in quasi-Newton methods lead to novel algorithms for MDPs, such as Anderson acceleration. By explicitly classifying algorithms for MDPs as first-order, second-order, and quasi-Newton methods, we hope to provide a better understanding of these algorithms, and, further expanding this analogy, to help to develop novel algorithms for MDPs, based on recent advances in convex optimization.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Forward citations

Cited by 1 Pith paper

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Mathematical methods of reinforcement learning

    math.OC 2026-07 accept

    A survey unifying the operator-theoretic, probabilistic, and optimization-based mathematical structures underlying modern reinforcement learning algorithms.