Identification of dominant polynomial-chaos modes is usually formulated as a sparse-regression problem on a sampled multivariate polynomial dictionary. We develop coded Hankel polynomial chaos (CH-PC), a complementary spectral formulation for dominant-mode identification. A finite generating transform converts PCE coefficients into a coefficient-generating polynomial, and evaluation along a geometric phase orbit produces a finite exponential sum. Its model order and spectral nodes are encoded by low-rank Hankel matrices, while coordinate phase shifts attach root-of-unity labels from which the full polynomial multi-indices are recovered. Coordinate-shifted probes are combined as common-node snapshots, and independent phase encodings provide redundant representations when a single spectral encoding is poorly conditioned. For finite observations, population, finite-data, and observed probes are kept distinct: sampling or quadrature error and observation error enter as separate Hankel perturbations, which are then connected to spectral stability, discrete decoding, and phase voting. For tensor-product candidate sets, the generating kernel factorizes into one-dimensional sums and can be evaluated without assembling the full multivariate PCE design matrix. Numerical experiments on sparse Legendre benchmarks and a stochastic Darcy problem illustrate exact recovery, noise stabilization, unknown-order identification by phase persistence, and dominant-mode recovery for a PDE-generated quantity of interest.
Vasos Arnaoutis, Eric Lutters, Bojana Rosićcs.LG cs.CE
In this paper, we present a generalized temporal-difference (TD) reinforcement learning framework based on the theory of conditional expectations. The value and action-value (Q-value) functions are treated as uncertain quantities, and their estimation is formulated as a stochastic inference problem. Unlike classical Kalman-based temporal-difference learning, which relies on linear-Gaussian assumptions, the proposed formulation is derived directly from the conditional expectation framework and naturally extends to nonlinear models and non-Gaussian probability distributions. The proposed method recursively estimates not only the conditional expectation of the value function but also its second probabilistic moment, thereby quantifying the uncertainty associated with the learned value function throughout the learning process. To obtain a computationally tractable algorithm, the stochastic problem is discretized using either polynomial chaos expansions or ensemble-based approximations, providing efficient representations of the underlying random variables. The proposed framework is demonstrated on two optimal control problems: a linear mass--spring--damper system and a nonlinear heat conduction problem in a closed cavity. The numerical examples illustrate the capability of the proposed method to accurately estimate both the value function and its associated uncertainty, while extending classical Kalman-based temporal-difference learning to a broader class of stochastic systems.