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On the Ergodicity, Bias and Asymptotic Normality of Randomized Midpoint Sampling Method

Machine Learning 2021-09-14 v2 Machine Learning Statistics Theory Computation Statistics Theory

Abstract

The randomized midpoint method, proposed by [SL19], has emerged as an optimal discretization procedure for simulating the continuous time Langevin diffusions. Focusing on the case of strong-convex and smooth potentials, in this paper, we analyze several probabilistic properties of the randomized midpoint discretization method for both overdamped and underdamped Langevin diffusions. We first characterize the stationary distribution of the discrete chain obtained with constant step-size discretization and show that it is biased away from the target distribution. Notably, the step-size needs to go to zero to obtain asymptotic unbiasedness. Next, we establish the asymptotic normality for numerical integration using the randomized midpoint method and highlight the relative advantages and disadvantages over other discretizations. Our results collectively provide several insights into the behavior of the randomized midpoint discretization method, including obtaining confidence intervals for numerical integrations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2011.03176,
  title  = {On the Ergodicity, Bias and Asymptotic Normality of Randomized Midpoint Sampling Method},
  author = {Ye He and Krishnakumar Balasubramanian and Murat A. Erdogdu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.03176},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

Corrected minor typos

R2 v1 2026-06-23T19:57:12.531Z