A Tutorial on Concentration Bounds for System Identification

We provide a brief tutorial on the use of concentration inequalities as they apply to system identification of state-space parameters of linear time invariant systems, with a focus on the fully observed setting. We draw upon tools from the theories of large-deviations and self-normalized martingales, and provide both data-dependent and independent bounds on the learning rate. I. INTRODUCTION A key feature in modern reinforcement learning is the ability to provide high-probability guarantees on the finite-data/time behavior of an algorithm acting on a system. The enabling technical tools used in providing such guarantees are concentration of measure results, which should be interpreted as quantitative versions of the strong law of large numbers. This paper provides a brief introduction to such tools, as motivated by the identification of linear-time-invariant (LTI) systems.