1,887 research outputs found
On the Bernstein-von Mises phenomenon for nonparametric Bayes procedures
We continue the investigation of Bernstein-von Mises theorems for
nonparametric Bayes procedures from [Ann. Statist. 41 (2013) 1999-2028]. We
introduce multiscale spaces on which nonparametric priors and posteriors are
naturally defined, and prove Bernstein-von Mises theorems for a variety of
priors in the setting of Gaussian nonparametric regression and in the i.i.d.
sampling model. From these results we deduce several applications where
posterior-based inference coincides with efficient frequentist procedures,
including Donsker- and Kolmogorov-Smirnov theorems for the random posterior
cumulative distribution functions. We also show that multiscale posterior
credible bands for the regression or density function are optimal frequentist
confidence bands.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AOS1246 the Annals of
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Recovering edges in ill-posed inverse problems: optimality of curvelet frames
We consider a model problem of recovering a function from noisy Radon data. The function to be recovered is assumed smooth apart from a discontinuity along a curve, that is, an edge. We use the continuum white-noise model, with noise level .
Traditional linear methods for solving such inverse problems behave poorly in the presence of edges. Qualitatively, the reconstructions are blurred near the edges; quantitatively, they give in our model mean squared errors (MSEs) that tend to zero with noise level only as as . A recent innovation--nonlinear shrinkage in the wavelet domain--visually improves edge sharpness and improves MSE convergence to . However, as we show here, this rate is not optimal.
In fact, essentially optimal performance is obtained by deploying the recently-introduced tight frames of curvelets in this setting. Curvelets are smooth, highly anisotropic elements ideally suited for detecting and synthesizing curved edges. To deploy them in the Radon setting, we construct a curvelet-based biorthogonal decomposition of the Radon operator and build "curvelet shrinkage" estimators based on thresholding of the noisy curvelet coefficients. In effect, the estimator detects edges at certain locations and orientations in the Radon domain and automatically synthesizes edges at corresponding locations and directions in the original domain.
We prove that the curvelet shrinkage can be tuned so that the estimator will attain, within logarithmic factors, the MSE as noise level . This rate of convergence holds uniformly over a class of functions which are except for discontinuities along curves, and (except for log terms) is the minimax rate for that class. Our approach is an instance of a general strategy which should apply in other inverse problems; we sketch a deconvolution example
Adaptive Bernstein-von Mises theorems in Gaussian white noise
We investigate Bernstein-von Mises theorems for adaptive nonparametric
Bayesian procedures in the canonical Gaussian white noise model. We consider
both a Hilbert space and multiscale setting with applications in and
respectively. This provides a theoretical justification for plug-in
procedures, for example the use of certain credible sets for sufficiently
smooth linear functionals. We use this general approach to construct optimal
frequentist confidence sets based on the posterior distribution. We also
provide simulations to numerically illustrate our approach and obtain a visual
representation of the geometries involved.Comment: 48 pages, 5 figure
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