---
_id: '12511'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: "We consider the problem of formally verifying almost-sure (a.s.) asymptotic
    stability in discrete-time nonlinear stochastic control systems. While verifying
    stability in deterministic control systems is extensively studied in the literature,
    verifying stability in stochastic control systems is an open problem. The few
    existing works on this topic either consider only specialized forms of stochasticity
    or make restrictive assumptions on the system, rendering them inapplicable to
    learning algorithms with neural network policies. \r\n In this work, we present
    an approach for general nonlinear stochastic control problems with two novel aspects:
    (a) instead of classical stochastic extensions of Lyapunov functions, we use ranking
    supermartingales (RSMs) to certify a.s. asymptotic stability, and (b) we present
    a method for learning neural network RSMs. \r\n We prove that our approach guarantees
    a.s. asymptotic stability of the system and\r\n provides the first method to obtain
    bounds on the stabilization time, which stochastic Lyapunov functions do not.\r\n
    Finally, we validate our approach experimentally on a set of nonlinear stochastic
    reinforcement learning environments with neural network policies."
acknowledgement: "This work was supported in part by the ERC-2020-AdG 101020093, ERC
  CoG 863818 (FoRM-SMArt) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
  programme\r\nunder the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 665385."
article_processing_charge: No
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Mathias
  full_name: Lechner, Mathias
  id: 3DC22916-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Lechner
- first_name: Dorde
  full_name: Zikelic, Dorde
  id: 294AA7A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Zikelic
  orcid: 0000-0002-4681-1699
- first_name: Krishnendu
  full_name: Chatterjee, Krishnendu
  id: 2E5DCA20-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Chatterjee
  orcid: 0000-0002-4561-241X
- first_name: Thomas A
  full_name: Henzinger, Thomas A
  id: 40876CD8-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Henzinger
  orcid: 0000-0002-2985-7724
citation:
  ama: Lechner M, Zikelic D, Chatterjee K, Henzinger TA. Stability verification in
    stochastic control systems via neural network supermartingales. <i>Proceedings
    of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>. 2022;36(7):7326-7336. doi:<a
    href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v36i7.20695">10.1609/aaai.v36i7.20695</a>
  apa: Lechner, M., Zikelic, D., Chatterjee, K., &#38; Henzinger, T. A. (2022). Stability
    verification in stochastic control systems via neural network supermartingales.
    <i>Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>. Association
    for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v36i7.20695">https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v36i7.20695</a>
  chicago: Lechner, Mathias, Dorde Zikelic, Krishnendu Chatterjee, and Thomas A Henzinger.
    “Stability Verification in Stochastic Control Systems via Neural Network Supermartingales.”
    <i>Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>. Association
    for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, 2022. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v36i7.20695">https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v36i7.20695</a>.
  ieee: M. Lechner, D. Zikelic, K. Chatterjee, and T. A. Henzinger, “Stability verification
    in stochastic control systems via neural network supermartingales,” <i>Proceedings
    of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>, vol. 36, no. 7. Association
    for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, pp. 7326–7336, 2022.
  ista: Lechner M, Zikelic D, Chatterjee K, Henzinger TA. 2022. Stability verification
    in stochastic control systems via neural network supermartingales. Proceedings
    of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 36(7), 7326–7336.
  mla: Lechner, Mathias, et al. “Stability Verification in Stochastic Control Systems
    via Neural Network Supermartingales.” <i>Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on
    Artificial Intelligence</i>, vol. 36, no. 7, Association for the Advancement of
    Artificial Intelligence, 2022, pp. 7326–36, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v36i7.20695">10.1609/aaai.v36i7.20695</a>.
  short: M. Lechner, D. Zikelic, K. Chatterjee, T.A. Henzinger, Proceedings of the
    AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence 36 (2022) 7326–7336.
date_created: 2023-02-05T17:29:50Z
date_published: 2022-06-28T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2025-07-14T09:09:58Z
day: '28'
department:
- _id: ToHe
- _id: KrCh
doi: 10.1609/aaai.v36i7.20695
ec_funded: 1
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '2112.09495'
intvolume: '        36'
issue: '7'
keyword:
- General Medicine
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.09495
month: '06'
oa: 1
oa_version: Preprint
page: 7326-7336
project:
- _id: 62781420-2b32-11ec-9570-8d9b63373d4d
  call_identifier: H2020
  grant_number: '101020093'
  name: Vigilant Algorithmic Monitoring of Software
- _id: 0599E47C-7A3F-11EA-A408-12923DDC885E
  call_identifier: H2020
  grant_number: '863818'
  name: 'Formal Methods for Stochastic Models: Algorithms and Applications'
- _id: 2564DBCA-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425
  call_identifier: H2020
  grant_number: '665385'
  name: International IST Doctoral Program
publication: Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 2374-3468
  isbn:
  - '9781577358350'
  issn:
  - 2159-5399
publication_status: published
publisher: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
quality_controlled: '1'
related_material:
  record:
  - id: '14539'
    relation: dissertation_contains
    status: public
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Stability verification in stochastic control systems via neural network supermartingales
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 36
year: '2022'
...
---
_id: '14186'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: "The goal of the unsupervised learning of disentangled representations is
    to\r\nseparate the independent explanatory factors of variation in the data without\r\naccess
    to supervision. In this paper, we summarize the results of Locatello et\r\nal.,
    2019, and focus on their implications for practitioners. We discuss the\r\ntheoretical
    result showing that the unsupervised learning of disentangled\r\nrepresentations
    is fundamentally impossible without inductive biases and the\r\npractical challenges
    it entails. Finally, we comment on our experimental\r\nfindings, highlighting
    the limitations of state-of-the-art approaches and\r\ndirections for future research."
article_processing_charge: No
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Francesco
  full_name: Locatello, Francesco
  id: 26cfd52f-2483-11ee-8040-88983bcc06d4
  last_name: Locatello
  orcid: 0000-0002-4850-0683
- first_name: Stefan
  full_name: Bauer, Stefan
  last_name: Bauer
- first_name: Mario
  full_name: Lucic, Mario
  last_name: Lucic
- first_name: Gunnar
  full_name: Rätsch, Gunnar
  last_name: Rätsch
- first_name: Sylvain
  full_name: Gelly, Sylvain
  last_name: Gelly
- first_name: Bernhard
  full_name: Schölkopf, Bernhard
  last_name: Schölkopf
- first_name: Olivier
  full_name: Bachem, Olivier
  last_name: Bachem
citation:
  ama: 'Locatello F, Bauer S, Lucic M, et al. A commentary on the unsupervised learning
    of disentangled representations. In: <i>The 34th AAAI Conference on Artificial
    Intelligence</i>. Vol 34. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence;
    2020:13681-13684. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i09.7120">10.1609/aaai.v34i09.7120</a>'
  apa: 'Locatello, F., Bauer, S., Lucic, M., Rätsch, G., Gelly, S., Schölkopf, B.,
    &#38; Bachem, O. (2020). A commentary on the unsupervised learning of disentangled
    representations. In <i>The 34th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>
    (Vol. 34, pp. 13681–13684). New York, NY, United States: Association for the Advancement
    of Artificial Intelligence. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i09.7120">https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i09.7120</a>'
  chicago: Locatello, Francesco, Stefan Bauer, Mario Lucic, Gunnar Rätsch, Sylvain
    Gelly, Bernhard Schölkopf, and Olivier Bachem. “A Commentary on the Unsupervised
    Learning of Disentangled Representations.” In <i>The 34th AAAI Conference on Artificial
    Intelligence</i>, 34:13681–84. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence,
    2020. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i09.7120">https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i09.7120</a>.
  ieee: F. Locatello <i>et al.</i>, “A commentary on the unsupervised learning of
    disentangled representations,” in <i>The 34th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>,
    New York, NY, United States, 2020, vol. 34, no. 9, pp. 13681–13684.
  ista: 'Locatello F, Bauer S, Lucic M, Rätsch G, Gelly S, Schölkopf B, Bachem O.
    2020. A commentary on the unsupervised learning of disentangled representations.
    The 34th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence. AAAI: Conference on Artificial
    Intelligence vol. 34, 13681–13684.'
  mla: Locatello, Francesco, et al. “A Commentary on the Unsupervised Learning of
    Disentangled Representations.” <i>The 34th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>,
    vol. 34, no. 9, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, 2020,
    pp. 13681–84, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i09.7120">10.1609/aaai.v34i09.7120</a>.
  short: F. Locatello, S. Bauer, M. Lucic, G. Rätsch, S. Gelly, B. Schölkopf, O. Bachem,
    in:, The 34th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Association for the
    Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, 2020, pp. 13681–13684.
conference:
  end_date: 2020-02-12
  location: New York, NY, United States
  name: 'AAAI: Conference on Artificial Intelligence'
  start_date: 2020-02-07
date_created: 2023-08-22T14:07:26Z
date_published: 2020-07-28T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2023-09-12T07:44:48Z
day: '28'
department:
- _id: FrLo
doi: 10.1609/aaai.v34i09.7120
extern: '1'
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '2007.14184'
intvolume: '        34'
issue: '9'
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.14184
month: '07'
oa: 1
oa_version: Preprint
page: 13681-13684
publication: The 34th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 2374-3468
  isbn:
  - '9781577358350'
publication_status: published
publisher: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: A commentary on the unsupervised learning of disentangled representations
type: conference
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 34
year: '2020'
...
---
_id: '9197'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: In this paper we introduce and study all-pay bidding games, a class of two
    player, zero-sum games on graphs. The game proceeds as follows. We place a token
    on some vertex in the graph and assign budgets to the two players. Each turn,
    each player submits a sealed legal bid (non-negative and below their remaining
    budget), which is deducted from their budget and the highest bidder moves the
    token onto an adjacent vertex. The game ends once a sink is reached, and Player
    1 pays Player 2 the outcome that is associated with the sink. The players attempt
    to maximize their expected outcome. Our games model settings where effort (of
    no inherent value) needs to be invested in an ongoing and stateful manner. On
    the negative side, we show that even in simple games on DAGs, optimal strategies
    may require a distribution over bids with infinite support. A central quantity
    in bidding games is the ratio of the players budgets. On the positive side, we
    show a simple FPTAS for DAGs, that, for each budget ratio, outputs an approximation
    for the optimal strategy for that ratio. We also implement it, show that it performs
    well, and suggests interesting properties of these games. Then, given an outcome
    c, we show an algorithm for finding the necessary and sufficient initial ratio
    for guaranteeing outcome c with probability 1 and a strategy ensuring such. Finally,
    while the general case has not previously been studied, solving the specific game
    in which Player 1 wins iff he wins the first two auctions, has been long stated
    as an open question, which we solve.
acknowledgement: This research was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) under
  grants S11402-N23 (RiSE/SHiNE), Z211-N23 (Wittgenstein Award), and M 2369-N33 (Meitner
  fellowship).
article_processing_charge: No
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Guy
  full_name: Avni, Guy
  id: 463C8BC2-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Avni
  orcid: 0000-0001-5588-8287
- first_name: Rasmus
  full_name: Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus
  id: 3B699956-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Ibsen-Jensen
  orcid: 0000-0003-4783-0389
- first_name: Josef
  full_name: Tkadlec, Josef
  id: 3F24CCC8-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Tkadlec
  orcid: 0000-0002-1097-9684
citation:
  ama: Avni G, Ibsen-Jensen R, Tkadlec J. All-pay bidding games on graphs. <i>Proceedings
    of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>. 2020;34(02):1798-1805.
    doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i02.5546">10.1609/aaai.v34i02.5546</a>
  apa: 'Avni, G., Ibsen-Jensen, R., &#38; Tkadlec, J. (2020). All-pay bidding games
    on graphs. <i>Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>.
    New York, NY, United States: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
    <a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i02.5546">https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i02.5546</a>'
  chicago: Avni, Guy, Rasmus Ibsen-Jensen, and Josef Tkadlec. “All-Pay Bidding Games
    on Graphs.” <i>Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>.
    Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, 2020. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i02.5546">https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i02.5546</a>.
  ieee: G. Avni, R. Ibsen-Jensen, and J. Tkadlec, “All-pay bidding games on graphs,”
    <i>Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>, vol. 34,
    no. 02. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, pp. 1798–1805,
    2020.
  ista: Avni G, Ibsen-Jensen R, Tkadlec J. 2020. All-pay bidding games on graphs.
    Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 34(02), 1798–1805.
  mla: Avni, Guy, et al. “All-Pay Bidding Games on Graphs.” <i>Proceedings of the
    AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</i>, vol. 34, no. 02, Association for
    the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, 2020, pp. 1798–805, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v34i02.5546">10.1609/aaai.v34i02.5546</a>.
  short: G. Avni, R. Ibsen-Jensen, J. Tkadlec, Proceedings of the AAAI Conference
    on Artificial Intelligence 34 (2020) 1798–1805.
conference:
  end_date: 2020-02-12
  location: New York, NY, United States
  name: 'AAAI: Conference on Artificial Intelligence'
  start_date: 2020-02-07
date_created: 2021-02-25T09:05:18Z
date_published: 2020-04-03T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2023-09-05T12:40:00Z
day: '03'
department:
- _id: ToHe
- _id: KrCh
doi: 10.1609/aaai.v34i02.5546
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '1911.08360'
intvolume: '        34'
issue: '02'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '04'
oa_version: Preprint
page: 1798-1805
project:
- _id: 25F2ACDE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425
  call_identifier: FWF
  grant_number: S11402-N23
  name: Rigorous Systems Engineering
- _id: 25F42A32-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425
  call_identifier: FWF
  grant_number: Z211
  name: The Wittgenstein Prize
- _id: 264B3912-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425
  call_identifier: FWF
  grant_number: M02369
  name: Formal Methods meets Algorithmic Game Theory
publication: Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 2374-3468
  isbn:
  - '9781577358350'
  issn:
  - 2159-5399
publication_status: published
publisher: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: All-pay bidding games on graphs
type: journal_article
user_id: c635000d-4b10-11ee-a964-aac5a93f6ac1
volume: 34
year: '2020'
...
