Related papers: Weak Convergence Rates of Population versus Single…
In this paper, we quantitative convergence in $W_2$ for a family of Langevin-like stochastic processes that includes stochastic gradient descent and related gradient-based algorithms. Under certain regularity assumptions, we show that the…
This paper addresses the problem of Monte Carlo approximation of posterior probability distributions. In particular, we have considered a recently proposed technique known as population Monte Carlo (PMC), which is based on an iterative…
To deal with very large datasets a mini-batch version of the Monte Carlo Markov Chain Stochastic Approximation Expectation-Maximization algorithm for general latent variable models is proposed. For exponential models the algorithm is shown…
Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is a flexible approach to approximate sampling from intractable probability distributions, with a rich theoretical foundation and comprising a wealth of exemplar algorithms. While the qualitative correctness…
Stochastic gradient descent type methods are ubiquitous in machine learning, but they are only applicable to the optimization of differentiable functions. Proximal algorithms are more general and applicable to nonsmooth functions. We…
Chance constrained programming (CCP) refers to a type of optimization problem with uncertain constraints that are satisfied with at least a prescribed probability level. In this work, we study the sample average approximation (SAA) of…
Exact approximations of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms are a general emerging class of sampling algorithms. One of the main ideas behind exact approximations consists of replacing intractable quantities required to run standard…
Estimating the log-likelihood gradient with respect to the parameters of a Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) typically requires sampling using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques. To save computation time, the Markov chains are only…
We study a distributed consensus-based stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithm and show that the rate of convergence involves the spectral properties of two matrices: the standard spectral gap of a weight matrix from the network…
Motivated in part by understanding average case analysis of fundamental algorithms in computer science, and in part by the wide array of network data available over the last decade, a variety of random graph models, with corresponding…
This article develops general conditions for weak convergence of adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo processes and is shown to imply a weak law of large numbers for bounded Lipschitz continuous functions. This allows an estimation theory for…
We analyse sequential Markov coalescent algorithms for populations with demographic structure: for a bottleneck model, a population-divergence model, and for a two-island model with migration. The sequential Markov coalescent method is an…
We propose a new class of learning algorithms that combines variational approximation and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation. Naive algorithms that use the variational approximation as proposal distribution can perform poorly…
We consider the problem of minimizing a sum of $n$ functions over a convex parameter set $\mathcal{C} \subset \mathbb{R}^p$ where $n\gg p\gg 1$. In this regime, algorithms which utilize sub-sampling techniques are known to be effective. In…
Recently network analysis has gained more and more attentions in statistics, as well as in computer science, probability, and applied mathematics. Community detection for the stochastic block model (SBM) is probably the most studied topic…
We study the convergence rate of randomly truncated stochastic algorithms, which consist in the truncation of the standard Robbins-Monro procedure on an increasing sequence of compact sets. Such a truncation is often required in practice to…
We study the convergence rate of randomly truncated stochastic algorithms, which consist in the truncation of the standard Robbins-Monro procedure on an increasing sequence of compact sets. Such a truncation is often required in practice to…
Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is a powerful tool for sampling from complex probability distributions. Despite its versatility, MCMC often suffers from strong autocorrelation and the negative sign problem, leading to slowing down the…
Stochastic policies (also known as relaxed controls) are widely used in continuous-time reinforcement learning algorithms. However, executing a stochastic policy and evaluating its performance in a continuous-time environment remain open…
This short note investigates convergence of adaptive MCMC algorithms, i.e.\ algorithms which modify the Markov chain update probabilities on the fly. We focus on the Containment condition introduced in \cite{roberts2007coupling}. We show…