We study a version of the stochastic control problem of minimizing the sum of running and controlling costs, where control opportunities are restricted to independent Poisson arrival times. Under a general setting driven by a general Lévy process, we show the optimality of a periodic barrier strategy, which moves the process upward to the barrier whenever it is observed to be below it. The convergence of the optimal solutions to those in the continuous-observation case is also shown.
This paper studies de Finetti's optimal dividend problem with capital injection. We confirm the optimality of a double barrier strategy when the underlying risk model follows a Lévy process that may have positive and negative jumps. The main result in this paper is a generalization of Theorem 3 in Avram et al.(2007), which is the spectrally negative case, and Theorem 3.1 in Bayraktar et al.(2013), which is the spectrally positive case. In contrast with the spectrally one-sided cases, double barrier strategies cannot be handled by using scale functions to obtain some properties of the expected …
Avanzi et al. (2016) recently studied an optimal dividend problem where dividends are paid both periodically and continuously with different transaction costs. In the Brownian model with Poissonian periodic dividend payment opportunities, they showed that the optimal strategy is either of the pure-continuous, pure-periodic, or hybrid-barrier type. In this paper, we generalize the results of their previous study to the dual (spectrally positive Lévy) model. The optimal strategy is again of the hybrid-barrier type and can be concisely expressed using the scale function. These results are confirm…
Recent work of Dupire and Carr and Lee has highlighted the importance of understanding the Skorokhod embedding originally proposed by Root for the model-independent hedging of variance options. Root's work shows that there exists a barrier from which one may define a stopping time which solves the Skorokhod embedding problem. This construction has the remarkable property, proved by Rost, that it minimizes the variance of the stopping time among all solutions. In this work, we prove a characterization of Root's barrier in terms of the solution to a variational inequality, and we give an alterna…
Designing experiments for generalized linear models is difficult because optimal designs depend on unknown parameters. Here we investigate local optimality. We propose to study for a given design its region of optimality in parameter space. Often these regions are semi-algebraic and feature interesting symmetries. We demonstrate this with the Rasch Poisson counts model. For any given interaction order between the explanatory variables we give a characterization of the regions of optimality of a special saturated design. This extends known results from the case of no interaction. We also give a…
We revisit the classical singular control problem of minimizing running and controlling costs. The problem arises in inventory control, as well as in healthcare management and mathematical finance. Existing studies have shown the optimality of a barrier strategy when driven by the Brownian motion or Lévy processes with one-side jumps. Under the assumption that the running cost function is convex, we show the optimality of a barrier strategy for a general class of Lévy processes.
In this paper we consider the De Finetti's optimal dividend and capital injection problem under a Markov additive model. We assume that the surplus process before dividends and capital injections follows a spectrally positive Markov additive process. Dividend payments are made only at the jump times of an independent Poisson process. Capitals are required to be injected whenever needed to ensure a non-negative surplus process to avoid bankruptcy. Our purpose is to characterize the optimal periodic dividend and capital injection strategy that maximizes the expected total discounted dividends su…
Designing experiments for generalized linear models is difficult because optimal designs depend on unknown parameters. The local optimality approach is to study the regions in parameter space where a given design is optimal. In many situations these regions are semi-algebraic. We investigate regions of optimality using computer tools such as yalmip, qepcad, and Mathematica.
We consider a class of two-sided singular control problems. A controller either increases or decreases a given spectrally negative Levy process so as to minimize the total costs comprising of the running and control costs where the latter is proportional to the size of control. We provide a sufficient condition for the optimality of a double barrier strategy, and in particular show that it holds when the running cost function is convex. Using the fluctuation theory of doubly reflected Levy processes, we express concisely the optimal strategy as well as the value function using the scale functi…
The aim of various technical applications (for example fusion research) is to control a plasma by magnetic fields in a desired fashion. In our model the plasma is described by the Vlasov-Poisson system that is equipped with an external magnetic field. We will prove that this model satisfies some basic properties that are necessary for calculus of variations. After that, we will analyze an optimal control problem with a tracking type cost functional with respect to the following topics: Necessary conditions of first order for local optimality, derivation of an optimality system, sufficient cond…
For a broad class of nonlinear systems, we formulate the problem of guaranteeing safety with optimality under constraints. Specifically, we define controlled safety for differential inclusions with constraints on the states and the inputs. Through the use of nonsmooth analysis tools, we show that a continuous optimal control law can be selected from a set-valued constraint capturing the system constraints and conditions guaranteeing safety using control barrier functions. Our results guarantee optimality and safety via a continuous state-feedback law designed using nonsmooth control barrier fu…
We study the ergodic control problem for a class of controlled jump diffusions driven by a compound Poisson process. This extends the results of [SIAM J. Control Optim. 57 (2019), no. 2, 1516-1540] to running costs that are not near-monotone. This generality is needed in applications such as optimal scheduling of large-scale parallel server networks. We provide a full characterization of optimality via the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation, for which we additionally exhibit regularity of solutions under mild hypotheses. In addition, we show that optimal stationary Markov controls are a.s.…
The aim of this paper is to provide a variational interpretation of the nonlinear filter in continuous time. A time-stepping procedure is introduced, consisting of successive minimization problems in the space of probability densities. The weak form of the nonlinear filter is derived via analysis of the first-order optimality conditions for these problems. The derivation shows the nonlinear filter dynamics may be regarded as a gradient flow, or a steepest descent, for a certain energy functional with respect to the Kullback-Leibler divergence. The second part of the paper is concerned with der…
In this paper, we investigate the problem of optimal strategies of dividend and reinsurance under the Cramér-Lundberg risk model embedded with the thinning-dependence structure which was firstly introduced by Wang and Yuen (2005), subject to the optimality criteria of maximizing the expected accumulated discounted dividends paid until ruin. To enhance the practical relevance of the optimal dividend and reinsurance problem, non-cheap reinsurance is considered and transaction costs and taxes are imposed on dividends, which converts our optimization problem into a mixed classical-impulse control …
This paper studies the bailout optimal dividend problem with regime switching under the constraint that dividend payments can be made only at the arrival times of an independent Poisson process while capital can be injected continuously in time. We show the optimality of the regime-modulated Parisian-classical reflection strategy when the underlying risk model follows a general spectrally negative Markov additive process. In order to verify the optimality, first we study an auxiliary problem driven by a single spectrally negative \lev process with a final payoff at an exponential terminal time…
This paper is concerned with second-order optimality conditions for Tikhonov regularized optimal control problems governed by the obstacle problem. Using a simple observation that allows to characterize the structure of optimal controls on the active set, we derive various conditions that guarantee the local/global optimality of first-order stationary points and/or the local/global quadratic growth of the reduced objective function. Our analysis extends and refines existing results from the literature, and also covers those situations where the problem at hand involves additional box-constrain…
In the paper "Optimal control of a Vlasov-Poisson plasma by an external magnetic field - The basics for variational calculus" [arXiv:1708.02464] we have already introduced a set of admissible magnetic fields and we have proved that each of those fields induces a unique strong solution of the Vlasov-Poisson system. We have also established that the field-state operator that maps any admissible field onto its corresponding solution is continuous and weakly compact. In this paper we will show that this operator is also Fréchet differentiable and we will continue to analyze the optimal control pro…
Safe Learning Control with Optimality and Stability Guarantees
Shenzhen Key Lab for Advanced Motion Control and Modern Automation Equipments, School of Intelligence Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, China（深圳先进 motion 控制与现代自动化装备重点实验室，智能科学与工程学院，哈尔滨工业大学，深圳，广东 518055，中国）；School of Data Science, Lingnan University, Hong Kong（数据科学学院，岭南大学，香港）；School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore（电气与电子工程学院，南洋理工大学，新加坡）；MIT CSAIL
Some direct transcription methods can fail to converge, e.g. when there are singular arcs. We recently introduced a convergent direct transcription method for optimal control problems, called the penalty-barrier finite element method (PBF). PBF converges under very weak assumptions on the problem instance. PBF avoids the ringing between collocation points, for example, by avoiding collocation entirely. Instead, equality path constraint residuals are forced to zero everywhere by an integral quadratic penalty term. We highlight conceptual differences between collocation- and penalty-type direct …
We study the problem of optimal dividend payout from a surplus process governed by Brownian motion with drift under the additional constraint of ratcheting, i.e. the dividend rate can never decrease. We solve the resulting two-dimensional optimal control problem, identifying the value function to be the unique viscosity solution of the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. For finitely many admissible dividend rates we prove that threshold strategies are optimal, and for any finite continuum of admissible dividend rates we establish the $\varepsilon$-optimality of curve strategies. T…
The interpretation of deep learning as a dynamical system has gained a considerable attention in recent years as it provides a promising framework. It allows for the use of existing ideas from established fields of mathematics for studying deep neural networks. In this article we present deep learning as an equivalent hydrodynamics formulation which in fact possess a Lie-Poisson structure and this further allows for using Poisson geometry to study deep learning. This is possible by considering the training of a deep neural network as a stochastic optimal control problem, which is solved using …
We propose a continuous non-convex variational model for Single Molecule Localisation Microscopy (SMLM) super-resolution in order to overcome light diffraction barriers. Namely, we consider a variation of the Continuous Exact $\ell_0$ (CEL0) penalty recently introduced to relax the $\ell_2-\ell_0$ problem where a weighted-$\ell_2$ data fidelity is considered to model signal-dependent Poisson noise. For the numerical solution of the associated minimisation problem, we consider an iterative reweighted $\ell_1$ (IRL1) strategy for which we detail efficient parameter computation strategies. We rep…
We present and analyze a new generalized Frank-Wolfe method for the composite optimization problem $(P):{\min}_{x\in\mathbb{R}^n}\; f(\mathsf{A} x) + h(x)$, where $f$ is a $θ$-logarithmically-homogeneous self-concordant barrier, $\mathsf{A}$ is a linear operator and the function $h$ has bounded domain but is possibly non-smooth. We show that our generalized Frank-Wolfe method requires $O((δ_0 + θ+ R_h)\ln(δ_0) + (θ+ R_h)^2/\varepsilon)$ iterations to produce an $\varepsilon$-approximate solution, where $δ_0$ denotes the initial optimality gap and $R_h$ is the variation of $h$ on its domain. Th…
In this paper we consider the maximum principle of optimal control for a stochastic control problem. This problem is governed by a system of fully coupled multi-dimensional forward-backward doubly stochastic differential equation with Poisson jumps. Moreover, all the coefficients appearing in this system are allowed to be random and depend on the control variable. We derive, in particular, sufficient conditions for optimality for this stochastic optimal control problem.
We consider a version of the stochastic inventory control problem for a spectrally positive Lévy demand process, in which the inventory can only be replenished at independent exponential times. We show the optimality of a periodic barrier replenishment policy that restocks any shortage below a certain threshold at each replenishment opportunity. The optimal policies and value functions are concisely written in terms of the scale functions. Numerical results are also provided.
Optimal Parameter Adaptation for Safety-Critical Control via Safe Barrier Bayesian Optimization
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China（电子科技大学）；University of Exeter（埃克塞特大学）；Australian AI Institute（澳大利亚人工智能研究所）；University of Technology Sydney（悉尼科技大学）；Hunan University（湖南大学）；China University of Mining and Technology（中国矿业大学）；Southeast University（东南大学）
