Sequential Stochastic Optimization

Description

Sequential Stochastic Optimization provides mathematicians and applied researchers with a well-developed framework in which stochastic optimization problems can be formulated and solved. Offering much material that is either new or has never before appeared in book form, it lucidly presents a unified theory of optimal stopping and optimal sequential control of stochastic processes. This book has been carefully organized so that little prior knowledge of the subject is assumed; its only prerequisites are a standard graduate course in probability theory and some familiarity with discrete-parameter martingales.Major topics covered in Sequential Stochastic Optimization include: * Fundamental notions, such as essential supremum, stopping points, accessibility, martingales and supermartingales indexed by INd * Conditions which ensure the integrability of certain suprema of partial sums of arrays of independent random variables * The general theory of optimal stopping for processes indexed by Ind * Structural properties of information flows * Sequential sampling and the theory of optimal sequential control * Multi-armed bandits, Markov chains and optimal switching between random walks