Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T11:01:47.613Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Class of Decision Processes Showing Policy-Improvement/Newton–Raphson Equivalence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2009

P. Whittle
Affiliation:
Statistical LaboratoryUniversity of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1SB, United Kingdom

Abstract

A condition expressed in Eq. (7) is given which, with one simplifying regularity condition, ensures that the policy-improvement algorithm is equivalent to application of the Newton–Raphson algorithm to an optimality condition. It is shown that this condition covers the two known cases of such equivalence, and another example is noted. The condition is believed to be necessary to within transformations of the problem, but this has not been proved.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

McNamara, J.M. (1989). Policy improvement and the Newton–Raphson algorithm for renewal reward processes. Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences 3: 393396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittle, P. (1981). Risk-sensitive linear/quadratic/Gaussian control. Advances in Applied Probability 13: 764777.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittle, P. & Komarova, N. (1988). Policy improvement and the Newton–Raphson algorithm. Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences 2: 249255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar