An Algorithm for Computing the Limit Points of the Quasi-component of a Regular Chain

For a regular chain $R$, we propose an algorithm which computes the (non-trivial) limit points of the quasi-component of $R$, that is, the set $\bar{W(R)} \setminus W(R)$. Our procedure relies on Puiseux series expansions and does not require to compute a system of generators of the saturated ideal of $R$. We focus on the case where this saturated ideal has dimension one and we discuss extensions of this work in higher dimensions. We provide experimental results illustrating the benefits of our algorithms

Sequential quasi-Monte Carlo: Introduction for Non-Experts, Dimension Reduction, Application to Partly Observed Diffusion Processes

SMC (Sequential Monte Carlo) is a class of Monte Carlo algorithms for filtering and related sequential problems. Gerber and Chopin (2015) introduced SQMC (Sequential quasi-Monte Carlo), a QMC version of SMC. This paper has two objectives: (a) to introduce Sequential Monte Carlo to the QMC community, whose members are usually less familiar with state-space models and particle filtering; (b) to extend SQMC to the filtering of continuous-time state-space models, where the latent process is a diffusion. A recurring point in the paper will be the notion of dimension reduction, that is how to implement SQMC in such a way that it provides good performance despite the high dimension of the problem.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of MCMQMC 201

An Automata Theoretic Approach to the Zero-One Law for Regular Languages: Algorithmic and Logical Aspects

A zero-one language L is a regular language whose asymptotic probability converges to either zero or one. In this case, we say that L obeys the zero-one law. We prove that a regular language obeys the zero-one law if and only if its syntactic monoid has a zero element, by means of Eilenberg's variety theoretic approach. Our proof gives an effective automata characterisation of the zero-one law for regular languages, and it leads to a linear time algorithm for testing whether a given regular language is zero-one. In addition, we discuss the logical aspects of the zero-one law for regular languages.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2015, arXiv:1509.0685

Irredundant Triangular Decomposition

Triangular decomposition is a classic, widely used and well-developed way to represent algebraic varieties with many applications. In particular, there exist sharp degree bounds for a single triangular set in terms of intrinsic data of the variety it represents, and powerful randomized algorithms for computing triangular decompositions using Hensel lifting in the zero-dimensional case and for irreducible varieties. However, in the general case, most of the algorithms computing triangular decompositions produce embedded components, which makes it impossible to directly apply the intrinsic degree bounds. This, in turn, is an obstacle for efficiently applying Hensel lifting due to the higher degrees of the output polynomials and the lower probability of success. In this paper, we give an algorithm to compute an irredundant triangular decomposition of an arbitrary algebraic set $W$ defined by a set of polynomials in C[x_1, x_2, ..., x_n]. Using this irredundant triangular decomposition, we were able to give intrinsic degree bounds for the polynomials appearing in the triangular sets and apply Hensel lifting techniques. Our decomposition algorithm is randomized, and we analyze the probability of success

Construction of weakly CUD sequences for MCMC sampling

In Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling considerable thought goes into constructing random transitions. But those transitions are almost always driven by a simulated IID sequence. Recently it has been shown that replacing an IID sequence by a weakly completely uniformly distributed (WCUD) sequence leads to consistent estimation in finite state spaces. Unfortunately, few WCUD sequences are known. This paper gives general methods for proving that a sequence is WCUD, shows that some specific sequences are WCUD, and shows that certain operations on WCUD sequences yield new WCUD sequences. A numerical example on a 42 dimensional continuous Gibbs sampler found that some WCUD inputs sequences produced variance reductions ranging from tens to hundreds for posterior means of the parameters, compared to IID inputs.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-EJS162 the Electronic Journal of Statistics (http://www.i-journals.org/ejs/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Computing Limit Points of Quasi-components of Regular Chains and its Applications

Computing limit is a fundamental task in mathematics and different mathematical concepts are defined in terms of limit computations. Among these mathematical concepts, we are interested in three different types of limit computations: first, computing the limit points of solutions of polynomial systems represented by regular chains, second, computing tangent cones of space curves at their singular points which can be viewed as computing limit of secant lines, and third, computing the limit of real multivariate rational functions. For computing the limit of solutions of polynomial systems represented by regular chains, we present two different methods based on Puiseux series expansions and linear changes of coordinates. The first method, which is based on Puiseux series expansions, addresses the problem of computing real and complex limit points corresponding to regular chains of dimension one. The second method studies regular chains under changes of coordinates. It especially computes the limit points corresponding to regular chains of dimension higher than one for some cases. we consider strategies where these changes of coordinates can be either generic or guided by the input. For computing the Puiseux parametrizations corresponding to regular chains of dimension one, we rely on extended Hensel construction (EHC). The Extended Hensel Construction is a procedure which, for an input bivariate polynomial with complex coefficients, can serve the same purpose as the Newton-Puiseux algorithm, and, for the multivariate case, can be seen as an effective variant of Jung-Abhyankar Theorem. We show that the EHC requires only linear algebra and univariate polynomial arithmetic. We deduce complexity estimates and report on a software implementation together with experimental results. We also outline a method for computing the tangent cone of a space curve at any of its points. We rely on the theory of regular chains and Puiseux series expansions. Our approach is novel in that it explicitly constructs the tangent cone at arbitrary and possibly irrational points without using a Standard basis. We also present an algorithm for determining the existence of the limit of a real multivariate rational function q at a given point which is an isolated zero of the denominator of q. When the limit exists, the algorithm computes it, without making any assumption on the number of variables. A process, which extends the work of Cadavid, Molina and V´elez, reduces the multivariate setting to computing limits of bivariate rational functions. By using regular chain theory and triangular decomposition of semi-algebraic systems, we avoid the computation of singular loci and the decomposition of algebraic sets into irreducible components

The Auslander-Reiten Components in the Rhombic Picture

For an indecomposable module $M$ over a path algebra of a quiver of type $\widetilde{\mathbb A}_n$, the Gabriel-Roiter measure gives rise to four new numerical invariants; we call them the multiplicity, and the initial, periodic and final parts. We describe how these invariants for $M$ and for its dual specify the position of $M$ in the Auslander-Reiten quiver of the algebra.Comment: 29 pages; 6 figures; references added to Section 1 as per the referee's suggestions; to appear in Communications in Algebr

Consistency of Markov chain quasi-Monte Carlo on continuous state spaces

The random numbers driving Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation are usually modeled as independent U(0,1) random variables. Tribble [Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms using completely uniformly distributed driving sequences (2007) Stanford Univ.] reports substantial improvements when those random numbers are replaced by carefully balanced inputs from completely uniformly distributed sequences. The previous theoretical justification for using anything other than i.i.d. U(0,1) points shows consistency for estimated means, but only applies for discrete stationary distributions. We extend those results to some MCMC algorithms for continuous stationary distributions. The main motivation is the search for quasi-Monte Carlo versions of MCMC. As a side benefit, the results also establish consistency for the usual method of using pseudo-random numbers in place of random ones.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AOS831 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

A Simple and Efficient Algorithm for Nonlinear Model Predictive Control

We present PANOC, a new algorithm for solving optimal control problems arising in nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC). A usual approach to this type of problems is sequential quadratic programming (SQP), which requires the solution of a quadratic program at every iteration and, consequently, inner iterative procedures. As a result, when the problem is ill-conditioned or the prediction horizon is large, each outer iteration becomes computationally very expensive. We propose a line-search algorithm that combines forward-backward iterations (FB) and Newton-type steps over the recently introduced forward-backward envelope (FBE), a continuous, real-valued, exact merit function for the original problem. The curvature information of Newton-type methods enables asymptotic superlinear rates under mild assumptions at the limit point, and the proposed algorithm is based on very simple operations: access to first-order information of the cost and dynamics and low-cost direct linear algebra. No inner iterative procedure nor Hessian evaluation is required, making our approach computationally simpler than SQP methods. The low-memory requirements and simple implementation make our method particularly suited for embedded NMPC applications