collaborators

8 papers

cs.LG2026

Asymptotically Optimal Regret for Reinforcement Learning without Horizon Dependence

Runlong Zhou, Zihan Zhang, Maryam Fazel +1

We study horizon-free regret minimization for finite-horizon time-homogeneous tabular Markov decision processes with states, actions, horizon , and per-trajectory total…

cs.LG2026

Dynamics of Learning under User Choice: Overspecialization and Peer-Model Probing

Adhyyan Narang, Sarah Dean, Lillian J Ratliff +1

In many economically relevant contexts where machine learning is deployed, multiple platforms obtain data from the same pool of users, each of whom selects the platform that best s…

cs.LG2026

Understanding the Performance Gap in Preference Learning: A Dichotomy of RLHF and DPO

Ruizhe Shi, Minhak Song, Runlong Zhou +3

We present a fine-grained theoretical analysis of the performance gap between two-stage reinforcement learning from human feedback~(RLHF) and direct preference optimization~(DPO).…

cs.LG2026

Unregularized Linear Convergence in Zero-Sum Game from Preference Feedback

Shulun Chen, Runlong Zhou, Zihan Zhang +2

Aligning large language models (LLMs) with human preferences has proven effective for enhancing model capabilities, yet standard preference modeling using the Bradley-Terry model a…

cs.LG2025

Convergence Dynamics of Over-Parameterized Score Matching for a Single Gaussian

Yiran Zhang, Weihang Xu, Mo Zhou +2

Score matching has become a central training objective in modern generative modeling, particularly in diffusion models, where it is used to learn high-dimensional data distribution…

math.OC2025

Global Convergence of Four-Layer Matrix Factorization under Random Initialization

Minrui Luo, Weihang Xu, Xiang Gao +2

Gradient descent dynamics on the deep matrix factorization problem is extensively studied as a simplified theoretical model for deep neural networks. Although the convergence theor…