Error Bounds and Applications for Stochastic Approximation with Non-Decaying Gain

This work analyzes the stochastic approximation algorithm with non-decaying gains as applied in time-varying problems. The setting is to minimize a sequence of scalar-valued loss functions $f_k(\cdot)$ at sampling times $τ_k$ or to locate the root of a sequence of vector-valued functions $g_k(\cdot)$ at $τ_k$ with respect to a parameter $θ\in R^p$. The available information is the noise-corrupted observation(s) of either $f_k(\cdot)$ or $g_k(\cdot)$ evaluated at one or two design points only. Given the time-varying stochastic approximation setup, we apply stochastic approximation algorithms with non-decaying gains, so that the recursive estimate denoted as $\hatθ_k$ can maintain its momentum in tracking the time-varying optimum denoted as $θ_k^*$. Chapter 3 provides a bound for the root-mean-squared error $\sqrt{E(\|\hatθ_k-θ_k^*\|^2})$. Overall, the bounds are applicable under a mild assumption on the time-varying drift and a modest restriction on the observation noise and the bias term. After establishing the tracking capability in Chapter 3, we also discuss the concentration behavior of $\hatθ_k$ in Chapter 4. The weak convergence limit of the continuous interpolation of $\hatθ_k$ is shown to follow the trajectory of a non-autonomous ordinary differential equation. Both Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 are probabilistic arguments and may not provide much guidance on the gain-tuning strategies useful for one single experiment run. Therefore, Chapter 5 discusses a data-dependent gain-tuning strategy based on estimating the Hessian information and the noise level. Overall, this work answers the questions "what is the estimate for the dynamical system $θ_k^*$" and "how much we can trust $\hatθ_k$ as an estimate for $θ_k^*$."

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