Related papers: Minimax Rate-Optimal Estimation of Divergences bet…
We study density estimation in Kullback-Leibler divergence: given an i.i.d. sample from an unknown density $p^\star$, the goal is to construct an estimator $\widehat{p}$ such that $\mathrm{KL}(p^\star,\widehat{p})$ is small with high…
The book is structured into four main chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the foundational concepts of divergence measures, including the well-known Kullback-Leibler divergence and its limitations. It then presents a detailed exploration of…
The aim of this paper is to introduce new statistical criterions for estimation, suitable for inference in models with common continuous support. This proposal is in the direct line of a renewed interest for divergence based inference tools…
This paper addresses an estimation problem of an additive functional of $\phi$, which is defined as $\theta(P;\phi)=\sum_{i=1}^k\phi(p_i)$, given $n$ i.i.d. random samples drawn from a discrete distribution $P=(p_1,...,p_k)$ with alphabet…
We consider the problem of estimating the mean of a distribution supported by the $k$-dimensional probability simplex in the setting where an $\varepsilon$ fraction of observations are subject to adversarial corruption. A simple particular…
This paper studies the estimation of low-rank Markov chains from empirical trajectories. We propose a non-convex estimator based on rank-constrained likelihood maximization. Statistical upper bounds are provided for the Kullback-Leiber…
This short note is on a property of the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence which indicates that independent Gaussian distributions minimize the KL divergence from given independent Gaussian distributions. The primary purpose of this note is…
The Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence is a foundational measure for comparing probability distributions. Yet in multivariate settings, its single value often obscures the underlying reasons for divergence, conflating mismatches in individual…
We consider the problem of constructing a least conservative estimator of the expected value $\mu$ of a non-negative heavy-tailed random variable. We require that the probability of overestimating the expected value $\mu$ is kept…
In this paper, we consider estimators for an additive functional of $\phi$, which is defined as $\theta(P;\phi)=\sum_{i=1}^k\phi(p_i)$, from $n$ i.i.d. random samples drawn from a discrete distribution $P=(p_1,...,p_k)$ with alphabet size…
We study the approximation of arbitrary distributions $P$ on $d$-dimensional space by distributions with log-concave density. Approximation means minimizing a Kullback--Leibler-type functional. We show that such an approximation exists if…
Statistical divergences (SDs), which quantify the dissimilarity between probability distributions, are a basic constituent of statistical inference and machine learning. A modern method for estimating those divergences relies on…
Nonparametric estimation of nonlocal interaction kernels is crucial in various applications involving interacting particle systems. The inference challenge, situated at the nexus of statistical learning and inverse problems, arises from the…
In this paper, we establish optimal rates of adaptive estimation of a vector in the multi-reference alignment model, a problem with important applications in fields such as signal processing, image processing, and computer vision, among…
The families of $f$-divergences (e.g. the Kullback-Leibler divergence) and Integral Probability Metrics (e.g. total variation distance or maximum mean discrepancies) are widely used to quantify the similarity between probability…
This paper provides a unified perspective for the Kullback-Leibler (KL)-divergence and the integral probability metrics (IPMs) from the perspective of maximum likelihood density-ratio estimation (DRE). Both the KL-divergence and the IPMs…
We consider divergence-based high order discretizations of an $L^2$-based first order system least squares formulation of a second order elliptic equation with Robin boundary conditions. For smooth geometries, we show optimal convergence…
Many applications, including natural language processing, sensor networks, collaborative filtering, and federated learning, call for estimating discrete distributions from data collected in batches, some of which may be untrustworthy,…
This paper proposes a new family of lower and upper bounds on the minimum mean squared error (MMSE). The key idea is to minimize/maximize the MMSE subject to the constraint that the joint distribution of the input-output statistics lies in…
This paper presents a state estimation approach for an uncertain linear equation with a non-invertible operator in Hilbert space. The approach addresses linear equations with uncertain deterministic input and noise in the measurements,…