English

Irreversible Monte Carlo Algorithms for Efficient Sampling

Statistical Mechanics 2015-07-15 v2 Information Theory math.IT Probability Applications

Abstract

Equilibrium systems evolve according to Detailed Balance (DB). This principe guided development of the Monte-Carlo sampling techniques, of which Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithm is the famous representative. It is also known that DB is sufficient but not necessary. We construct irreversible deformation of a given reversible algorithm capable of dramatic improvement of sampling from known distribution. Our transformation modifies transition rates keeping the structure of transitions intact. To illustrate the general scheme we design an Irreversible version of Metropolis-Hastings (IMH) and test it on example of a spin cluster. Standard MH for the model suffers from the critical slowdown, while IMH is free from critical slowdown.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0809.0916,
  title  = {Irreversible Monte Carlo Algorithms for Efficient Sampling},
  author = {Konstantin S. Turitsyn and Michael Chertkov and Marija Vucelja},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0809.0916},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

4 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:17:06.513Z