activity
20052026
most citedIs Q-Learning Minimax Optimal? A Tight Sample Complexity Analysis

17 citations · 39 across the 17 of their papers we have counts for

collaborators

21 papers

cs.LG2026

Transformer-Based Masked Diffusion Models Provably Learn Distributions with Latent Structure

Jingda Wu, Changxiao Cai

Masked diffusion models (MDMs) generate discrete data by iteratively unmasking multiple tokens in parallel using a learned mask predictor. Their output carries two errors: parallel…

cs.LG2026

Training Parallel Speculative Draft Models by Directly Minimizing Expected Decoding Rounds

Yunxiao Zhao, Changxiao Cai

Speculative decoding accelerates large language model inference by using a low-cost draft model to propose tokens that the full-size target model verifies in parallel. Parallel and…

cs.CL2026

ConvergeFlow: Language Flow with Provable Convergence to Token Embeddings

Na Li, Yuchen Jiao, Changxiao Cai +1

Recent advances in continuous diffusion and flow-based language models (LMs) have achieved performance competitive with discrete LMs. However, existing continuous frameworks still…

cs.LG2026

Provable diffusion-based posterior sampling for linear inverse problems via DDIM

Yuchen Jiao, Na Li, Changxiao Cai +2

Diffusion-based methods have achieved remarkable empirical success in solving inverse problems. However, many existing posterior samplers either lack rigorous theoretical guarantee…

stat.ML2026

Diffusion Models Adapt to Low-Dimensional Structure Under Flexible Coefficient Choices

Changxiao Cai, Yuchen Jiao, Gen Li

Diffusion models are known to exploit unknown low-dimensional structure to accelerate sampling. However, existing convergence theory under low-dimensional data structure has largel…

stat.ML2026

Diffusion Models Are Statistically Optimal for Learning Low-Dimensional Multi-Modal Distributions

Jingda Wu, Changxiao Cai

Score-based diffusion models have demonstrated remarkable empirical success in learning high-dimensional distributions, particularly those exhibiting low-dimensional and multi-moda…

cs.LG2026

Confidence-Based Decoding is Provably Efficient for Diffusion Language Models

Changxiao Cai, Gen Li

Diffusion language models (DLMs) have emerged as a promising alternative to autoregressive (AR) models for language modeling, allowing flexible generation order and parallel genera…

cs.LG2026

Adaptation to Intrinsic Dependence in Diffusion Language Models

Yunxiao Zhao, Changxiao Cai

Diffusion language models (DLMs) have recently emerged as a promising alternative to autoregressive (AR) approaches, enabling parallel token generation beyond a rigid left-to-right…

stat.ML2025

Are First-Order Diffusion Samplers Really Slower? A Fast Forward-Value Approach

Yuchen Jiao, Na Li, Changxiao Cai +1

Higher-order ODE solvers have become a standard tool for accelerating diffusion probabilistic model (DPM) sampling, motivating the widespread view that first-order methods are inhe…

cs.LG2025

Breaking AR's Sampling Bottleneck: Provable Acceleration via Diffusion Language Models

Gen Li, Changxiao Cai

Diffusion models have emerged as a powerful paradigm for modern generative modeling, demonstrating strong potential for large language models (LLMs). Unlike conventional autoregres…

cs.LG2025

Dimension-Free Convergence of Diffusion Models for Approximate Gaussian Mixtures

Gen Li, Changxiao Cai, Yuting Wei

Diffusion models are distinguished by their exceptional generative performance, particularly in producing high-quality samples through iterative denoising. While current theory sug…

cs.LG2025

Minimax Optimality of the Probability Flow ODE for Diffusion Models

Changxiao Cai, Gen Li

Score-based diffusion models have become a foundational paradigm for modern generative modeling, demonstrating exceptional capability in generating samples from complex high-dimens…

stat.ML2024

Minimax-optimal trust-aware multi-armed bandits

Changxiao Cai, Jiacheng Zhang

Multi-armed bandit (MAB) algorithms have achieved significant success in sequential decision-making applications, under the premise that humans perfectly implement the recommended…

cs.LG2024

Provable Acceleration for Diffusion Models under Minimal Assumptions

Gen Li, Changxiao Cai

Score-based diffusion models, while achieving minimax optimality for sampling, are often hampered by slow sampling speeds due to the high computational burden of score function eva…

stat.ML2022★ 1 cited

Transfer Learning for Contextual Multi-armed Bandits

Changxiao Cai, T. Tony Cai, Hongzhe Li

Motivated by a range of applications, we study in this paper the problem of transfer learning for nonparametric contextual multi-armed bandits under the covariate shift model, wher…

math.ST2021★ 4 cited

Minimax Estimation of Linear Functions of Eigenvectors in the Face of Small Eigen-Gaps

Gen Li, Changxiao Cai, H. Vincent Poor +1

Eigenvector perturbation analysis plays a vital role in various data science applications. A large body of prior works, however, focused on establishing eigenvector pert…

stat.ML2021★ 17 cited

Is Q-Learning Minimax Optimal? A Tight Sample Complexity Analysis

Gen Li, Changxiao Cai, Yuxin Chen +2

Q-learning, which seeks to learn the optimal Q-function of a Markov decision process (MDP) in a model-free fashion, lies at the heart of reinforcement learning. When it comes to th…

stat.ML2020★ 10 cited

Uncertainty quantification for nonconvex tensor completion: Confidence intervals, heteroscedasticity and optimality

Changxiao Cai, H. Vincent Poor, Yuxin Chen

We study the distribution and uncertainty of nonconvex optimization for noisy tensor completion -- the problem of estimating a low-rank tensor given incomplete and corrupted observ…

cs.LG2019

Nonconvex Low-Rank Tensor Completion from Noisy Data

Changxiao Cai, Gen Li, H. Vincent Poor +1

We study a noisy tensor completion problem of broad practical interest, namely, the reconstruction of a low-rank tensor from highly incomplete and randomly corrupted observations o…

math.ST2019★ 6 cited

Subspace Estimation from Unbalanced and Incomplete Data Matrices: Statistical Guarantees

Changxiao Cai, Gen Li, Yuejie Chi +2

This paper is concerned with estimating the column space of an unknown low-rank matrix , given noisy and partial observatio…

quant-ph2005★ 1 cited

The coordinate transformation and the exact solutions of the Schrödinger equation with position-dependent effective mass

Guo-Xing Ju, Chang-Ying Cai, Yang Xiang +1

Using the coordinate transformation method, we solve the one-dimensional Schrödinger equation with position-dependent mass(PDM). The explicit expressions for the potentials, energy…