Definition
In applied mathematics, the "Gittins index" is a real scalar value associated to the state of a stochastic process with a reward function and with a probability of termination. It is a measure of the reward that can be achieved by the process evolving from that state on, under the probability that it will be terminated in future. The "index policy" induced by the Gittins index, consisting of choosing at any time the stochastic process with the currently highest Gittins index, is the solution of some stopping problems such as the one of dynamic allocation, where a decision-maker has to maximize the total reward by distributing a limited amount of effort to a number of competing projects, each returning a stochastic reward. If the projects are independent from each other and only one project at a time may evolve, the problem is called multi-armed bandit and the Gittins index policy is optimal. If multiple projects can evolve, the problem is called Restless bandit and the Gittins index policy is a known good heuristic but no optimal solution exists in general. In fact, in general this problem is NP-complete and it is generally accepted that no feasible solution can be found.
Read more about this topic: Gittins Index
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“According to our social pyramid, all men who feel displaced racially, culturally, and/or because of economic hardships will turn on those whom they feel they can order and humiliate, usually women, children, and animals—just as they have been ordered and humiliated by those privileged few who are in power. However, this definition does not explain why there are privileged men who behave this way toward women.”
—Ana Castillo (b. 1953)
“Beauty, like all other qualities presented to human experience, is relative; and the definition of it becomes unmeaning and useless in proportion to its abstractness. To define beauty not in the most abstract, but in the most concrete terms possible, not to find a universal formula for it, but the formula which expresses most adequately this or that special manifestation of it, is the aim of the true student of aesthetics.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“I’m beginning to think that the proper definition of “Man” is “an animal that writes letters.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)