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arXiv · 2603.02576

Wasserstein Proximal Policy Gradient

Zhaoyu Zhu·Shuhan Zhang·Rui Gao·Shuang Li
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Abstract

We study policy gradient methods for continuous-action, entropy-regularized reinforcement learning through the lens of Wasserstein geometry. Starting from a Wasserstein proximal update, we derive Wasserstein Proximal Policy Gradient (WPPG) via an operator-splitting scheme that alternates an optimal transport update with a heat step implemented by Gaussian convolution. This formulation avoids evaluating the policy's log density or its gradient, making the method directly applicable to expressive implicit stochastic policies specified as pushforward maps. We establish a global linear convergence rate for WPPG, covering both exact policy evaluation and actor-critic implementations with controlled approximation error. Empirically, WPPG is simple to implement and attains competitive performance on standard continuous-control benchmarks.

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Zhaoyu Zhu, Shuhan Zhang, Rui Gao, Shuang Li. 2026-03-03. Wasserstein Proximal Policy Gradient. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02576

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