Nearly Minimax-Optimal Regret for Linear Contextual Bandits with Arbitrary Adaptive Action Sets

Abstract

We study stochastic linear contextual bandits with arbitrary action menus that may depend on the fixed parameter and the interaction history. We establish matching upper and lower bounds, up to logarithmic factors. Let $d$ be the dimension, $K$ be the menu size, and $T$ the time horizon. For $2\le K\le d$, we prove an upper bound $\widetilde O(K^{1/4}\sqrt{dT})$. When $T\ge d^2$, we further prove a lower bound $Ω(K^{1/4}\sqrt{dT})$. Thus, for $T\ge d^2$ and $2\le K\le d$, the upper and lower bounds match up to logarithmic factors, and the polynomial dependence on $K$ is optimal. Compared with the previous $\widetilde O(\sqrt{dKT})$ bound, our upper bound improves the dependence on $K$ by a factor of $K^{1/4}$. For $K\ge d$, we prove an upper bound $\widetilde O_{d,T}\left(\sqrt{dT}\min\{\sqrt d,(d\log K)^{1/4}\}\right)$ and a lower bound $Ω\left(\sqrt{dT}\min\left\{\sqrt d,\left(\frac{d\log K}{\log(2d)}\right)^{1/4}\right\}\right)$. Here, $\widetilde O_{d,T}$ omits logarithmic factors only in $d$ and $T$. In particular, for polynomially large $K\ge d$, the upper and lower bounds both scale as $d^{3/4}\sqrt T$ up to logarithmic factors, improving the standard $\widetilde O(d\sqrt T)$ rate by a factor of $d^{1/4}$. As $K$ grows further, the regret smoothly recovers the $d\sqrt T$ scale once $\log K$ reaches order $d$.