6,470 research outputs found
The Ginibre ensemble and Gaussian analytic functions
We show that as changes, the characteristic polynomial of the
random matrix with i.i.d. complex Gaussian entries can be described recursively
through a process analogous to P\'olya's urn scheme. As a result, we get a
random analytic function in the limit, which is given by a mixture of Gaussian
analytic functions. This gives another reason why the zeros of Gaussian
analytic functions and the Ginibre ensemble exhibit similar local repulsion,
but different global behavior. Our approach gives new explicit formulas for the
limiting analytic function.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figur
The conquest of U.S. inflation: learning and robustness to model uncertainty
Previous studies have interpreted the rise and fall of U.S. inflation after World War II in terms of the Fed's changing views about the natural rate hypothesis but have left an important question unanswered. Why was the Fed so slow to implement the low-inflation policy recommended by a natural rate model even after economists had developed statistical evidence strongly in its favor? Our answer features model uncertainty. Each period a central bank sets the systematic part of the inflation rate in light of updated probabilities that it assigns to three competing models of the Phillips curve. Cautious behavior induced by model uncertainty can explain why the central bank presided over the inflation of the 1970s even after the data had convinced it to place much the highest probability on the natural rate model. JEL Classification: E31, E58, E65anticipated utility, Bayes' law, natural unemployment rate, Phillips curve, Robustness
Temperature chaos in a replica symmetry broken spin glass model - A hierarchical model with temperature chaos -
Temperature chaos is an extreme sensitivity of the equilibrium state to a
change of temperature. It arises in several disordered systems that are
described by the so called scaling theory of spin glasses, while it seems to be
absent in mean field models. We consider a model spin glass on a tree and show
that although it has mean field behavior with replica symmetry breaking, it
manifestly has ``strong'' temperature chaos. We also show why chaos appears
only very slowly with system size.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, the text is slightly change
Sequential Monte Carlo Methods for System Identification
One of the key challenges in identifying nonlinear and possibly non-Gaussian
state space models (SSMs) is the intractability of estimating the system state.
Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods, such as the particle filter (introduced
more than two decades ago), provide numerical solutions to the nonlinear state
estimation problems arising in SSMs. When combined with additional
identification techniques, these algorithms provide solid solutions to the
nonlinear system identification problem. We describe two general strategies for
creating such combinations and discuss why SMC is a natural tool for
implementing these strategies.Comment: In proceedings of the 17th IFAC Symposium on System Identification
(SYSID). Added cover pag
A new index of financial conditions
We use factor augmented vector autoregressive models with time-varying coefficients and stochastic volatility to construct a financial conditions index that can accurately track expectations about growth in key US macroeconomic variables. Time-variation in the model’s parameters allows for the weights attached to each financial variable in the index to evolve over time. Furthermore, we develop methods for dynamic model averaging or selection which allow the financial variables entering into the financial conditions index to change over time. We discuss why such extensions of the existing literature are important and show them to be so in an empirical application involving a wide range of financial variables
Vertically symmetric alternating sign matrices and a multivariate Laurent polynomial identity
In 2007, the first author gave an alternative proof of the refined
alternating sign matrix theorem by introducing a linear equation system that
determines the refined ASM numbers uniquely. Computer experiments suggest that
the numbers appearing in a conjecture concerning the number of vertically
symmetric alternating sign matrices with respect to the position of the first 1
in the second row of the matrix establish the solution of a linear equation
system similar to the one for the ordinary refined ASM numbers. In this paper
we show how our attempt to prove this fact naturally leads to a more general
conjectural multivariate Laurent polynomial identity. Remarkably, in contrast
to the ordinary refined ASM numbers, we need to extend the combinatorial
interpretation of the numbers to parameters which are not contained in the
combinatorial admissible domain. Some partial results towards proving the
conjectured multivariate Laurent polynomial identity and additional motivation
why to study it are presented as well
A vector partition function for the multiplicities of sl_k(C)
We use Gelfand-Tsetlin diagrams to write down the weight multiplicity
function for the Lie algebra sl_k(C) (type A_{k-1}) as a single partition
function. This allows us to apply known results about partition functions to
derive interesting properties of the weight diagrams. We relate this
description to that of the Duistermaat-Heckman measure from symplectic
geometry, which gives a large-scale limit way to look at multiplicity diagrams.
We also provide an explanation for why the weight polynomials in the boundary
regions of the weight diagrams exhibit a number of linear factors. Using
symplectic geometry, we prove that the partition of the permutahedron into
domains of polynomiality of the Duistermaat-Heckman function is the same as
that for the weight multiplicity function, and give an elementary proof of this
for sl_4(C) (A_3).Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures and diagrams; submitted to Journal of Algebr
Extreme State Aggregation Beyond MDPs
We consider a Reinforcement Learning setup where an agent interacts with an
environment in observation-reward-action cycles without any (esp.\ MDP)
assumptions on the environment. State aggregation and more generally feature
reinforcement learning is concerned with mapping histories/raw-states to
reduced/aggregated states. The idea behind both is that the resulting reduced
process (approximately) forms a small stationary finite-state MDP, which can
then be efficiently solved or learnt. We considerably generalize existing
aggregation results by showing that even if the reduced process is not an MDP,
the (q-)value functions and (optimal) policies of an associated MDP with same
state-space size solve the original problem, as long as the solution can
approximately be represented as a function of the reduced states. This implies
an upper bound on the required state space size that holds uniformly for all RL
problems. It may also explain why RL algorithms designed for MDPs sometimes
perform well beyond MDPs.Comment: 28 LaTeX pages. 8 Theorem
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