51,133 research outputs found
Gradient-free Hamiltonian Monte Carlo with Efficient Kernel Exponential Families
We propose Kernel Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (KMC), a gradient-free adaptive
MCMC algorithm based on Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC). On target densities
where classical HMC is not an option due to intractable gradients, KMC
adaptively learns the target's gradient structure by fitting an exponential
family model in a Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space. Computational costs are
reduced by two novel efficient approximations to this gradient. While being
asymptotically exact, KMC mimics HMC in terms of sampling efficiency, and
offers substantial mixing improvements over state-of-the-art gradient free
samplers. We support our claims with experimental studies on both toy and
real-world applications, including Approximate Bayesian Computation and
exact-approximate MCMC.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure
Particle Efficient Importance Sampling
The efficient importance sampling (EIS) method is a general principle for the
numerical evaluation of high-dimensional integrals that uses the sequential
structure of target integrands to build variance minimising importance
samplers. Despite a number of successful applications in high dimensions, it is
well known that importance sampling strategies are subject to an exponential
growth in variance as the dimension of the integration increases. We solve this
problem by recognising that the EIS framework has an offline sequential Monte
Carlo interpretation. The particle EIS method is based on non-standard
resampling weights that take into account the look-ahead construction of the
importance sampler. We apply the method for a range of univariate and bivariate
stochastic volatility specifications. We also develop a new application of the
EIS approach to state space models with Student's t state innovations. Our
results show that the particle EIS method strongly outperforms both the
standard EIS method and particle filters for likelihood evaluation in high
dimensions. Moreover, the ratio between the variances of the particle EIS and
particle filter methods remains stable as the time series dimension increases.
We illustrate the efficiency of the method for Bayesian inference using the
particle marginal Metropolis-Hastings and importance sampling squared
algorithms
Hashing-Based-Estimators for Kernel Density in High Dimensions
Given a set of points and a kernel , the Kernel
Density Estimate at a point is defined as
. We study the problem
of designing a data structure that given a data set and a kernel function,
returns *approximations to the kernel density* of a query point in *sublinear
time*. We introduce a class of unbiased estimators for kernel density
implemented through locality-sensitive hashing, and give general theorems
bounding the variance of such estimators. These estimators give rise to
efficient data structures for estimating the kernel density in high dimensions
for a variety of commonly used kernels. Our work is the first to provide
data-structures with theoretical guarantees that improve upon simple random
sampling in high dimensions.Comment: A preliminary version of this paper appeared in FOCS 201
Ground states in the Many Interacting Worlds approach
Recently the Many-Interacting-Worlds (MIW) approach to a quantum theory
without wave functions was proposed. This approach leads quite naturally to
numerical integrators of the Schr\"odinger equation. It has been suggested that
such integrators may feature advantages over fixed-grid methods for higher
numbers of degrees of freedom. However, as yet, little is known about concrete
MIW models for more than one spatial dimension and/or more than one particle.
In this work we develop the MIW approach further to treat arbitrary degrees of
freedom, and provide a systematic study of a corresponding numerical
implementation for computing one-particle ground and excited states in one
dimension, and ground states in two spatial dimensions. With this step towards
the treatment of higher degrees of freedom we hope to stimulate their further
study.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure
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