Related papers: Stein's method for comparison of univariate distri…
We propose a measure of the impact of any two choices of prior distributions by quantifying the Wasserstein distance between the respective resulting posterior distributions at any fixed sample size. We illustrate this measure on the…
We use Stein characterisations to derive new moment-type estimators for the parameters of several truncated multivariate distributions in the i.i.d. case; we also derive the asymptotic properties of these estimators. Our examples include…
We prove a general theorem to bound the total variation distance between the distribution of an integer valued random variable of interest and an appropriate discretized normal distribution. We apply the theorem to 2-runs in a sequence of…
We propose a Stein characterization of the Kummer distribution on (0, $\infty$). This result follows from our observation that the density of the Kummer distribution satisfies a certain differential equation, leading to a solution of the…
We extend Stein's lemma for averages that explicitly contain the Gaussian random variable at a power. We present two proofs for this extension of Stein's lemma, with the first being a rigorous proof by mathematical induction. The…
Let $M$ be a random matrix in the orthogonal group $\O_n$, distributed according to Haar measure, and let $A$ be a fixed $n\times n$ matrix over $\R$ such that $\tr(AA^t)=n$. Then the total variation distance of the random variable…
In this article, we discuss the basic ideas of a general procedure to adapt the Stein-Chen method to bound the distance between conditional distributions. From an integration-by-parts formula (IBPF), we derive a Stein operator whose…
Gradient-based approximate inference methods, such as Stein variational gradient descent (SVGD), provide simple and general-purpose inference engines for differentiable continuous distributions. However, existing forms of SVGD cannot be…
Stein's method is used to study discrete representations of multidimensional distributions that arise as approximations of states of quantum harmonic oscillators. These representations model how quantum effects result from the interaction…
We propose a general purpose variational inference algorithm that forms a natural counterpart of gradient descent for optimization. Our method iteratively transports a set of particles to match the target distribution, by applying a form of…
An important task in computational statistics and machine learning is to approximate a posterior distribution $p(x)$ with an empirical measure supported on a set of representative points $\{x_i\}_{i=1}^n$. This paper focuses on methods…
The gamma difference distribution is defined as the difference of two gamma distributions, with in general different shape and rate parameters. Starting with knowledge of the corresponding characteristic function, a second order linear…
We develop the tools necessary to use Stein's method for approximation by a Borel distribution, which we illustrate by considering the approximation of the number of customers served in the busy period of an M/G/1 queue. We further derive…
Consider a uniformly chosen random reduced decomposition of the longest element in the symmetric group. It is known that the location of the first transposition in this decomposition converges to the semicircle distribution. In this note we…
We develop a multidimensional Stein methodology for non-degenerate self-decomposable random vectors in $\mathbb{R}^d$ having finite first moment. Building on previous univariate findings, we solve an integro-partial differential Stein…
We provide an overview of some recent techniques involving the Malliavin calculus of variations and the so-called ``Stein's method'' for the Gaussian approximations of probability distributions. Special attention is devoted to establishing…
Stein's method of exchangeable pairs is examined through five examples in relation to Poisson and normal distribution approximation. In particular, in the case where the exchangeable pair is constructed from a reversible Markov chain, we…
We use Stein's method to provide non asymptotic $L^1$ bounds to the normal for functionals of associated point processes. As for supporting tools, we use the connection between association and $\alpha$-mixing properties that was recently…
Bayesian inference problems require sampling or approximating high-dimensional probability distributions. The focus of this paper is on the recently introduced Stein variational gradient descent methodology, a class of algorithms that rely…
For any discrete target distribution, we exploit the connection between Markov chains and Stein's method via the generator approach and express the solution of Stein's equation in terms of expected hitting time. This yields new upper bounds…