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The Value Function Polytope in Reinforcement Learning

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arxiv 1901.11524 v3 pith:IV56GWTD submitted 2019-01-31 cs.LG cs.AIstat.ML

classification cs.LGcs.AIstat.ML
keywords valuefunctionslearninglinepoliciespolytopepropertiesreinforcement
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We establish geometric and topological properties of the space of value functions in finite state-action Markov decision processes. Our main contribution is the characterization of the nature of its shape: a general polytope (Aigner et al., 2010). To demonstrate this result, we exhibit several properties of the structural relationship between policies and value functions including the line theorem, which shows that the value functions of policies constrained on all but one state describe a line segment. Finally, we use this novel perspective to introduce visualizations to enhance the understanding of the dynamics of reinforcement learning algorithms.

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Cited by 1 Pith paper

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

  1. Bellman operator convergence enhancements in reinforcement learning algorithms

    cs.LG 2025-05 reject novelty 4.0 of 10

    A new advantage-weighted Bellman operator is claimed to speed up Q-learning convergence, but the proofs are flawed and experiments lack error bars.

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