# Sparse Additive Off-Policy Evaluation for Reinforcement Learning with Potentially Limited Number of Trajectories

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.22595 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.22595/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in RL theory and sample complexity, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods.
- Builds on 1 of its 51 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Aug 2026.

## Placed in

- Deep reinforcement learning methods / [RL theory and sample complexity](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/rl-theory-and-sample-complexity/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Autoregressive Dynamics Models for Offline Policy Evaluation and Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.13877/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We develop a new framework for flexible, nonlinear, and interpretable off-policy evaluation for infinite-horizon reinforcement learning. To handle large state spaces and support transparent decision-making, we model the Q-function using a nonlinear function class with a sparse additive structure. We derive high-probability finite-sample error bounds for estimating the value function of a target policy and show that the bounds depend only logarithmically on the ambient dimension d, thereby alleviating the curse of dimensionality. In contrast to most existing theory for off-policy evaluation, which typically assumes access to many trajectories, our analysis guarantees accurate value estimation when either the number of trajectories or the time horizon is sufficiently large. In addition, we propose a group-sparsity-based feature screening procedure that identifies, with high probability, a reduced feature set containing all relevant covariates. Numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.