Related papers: Fast Mixing Markov Chains for Strongly Rayleigh Me…
We prove a strong law of large numbers for a class of strongly mixing processes. Our result rests on recent advances in understanding of concentration of measure. It is simple to apply and gives finite-sample (as opposed to asymptotic)…
It has previously been hypothesized, and supported with some experimental evidence, that deeper representations, when well trained, tend to do a better job at disentangling the underlying factors of variation. We study the following related…
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…
We address the problem of estimating the mixing time of a Markov chain from a single trajectory of observations. Unlike most previous works which employed Hilbert space methods to estimate spectral gaps, we opt for an approach based on…
We prove finite sample complexities for sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) algorithms which require only local mixing times of the associated Markov kernels. Our bounds are particularly useful when the target distribution is multimodal and global…
For many probability distributions of interest, it is quite difficult to obtain samples efficiently. Often, Markov chains are employed to obtain approximately random samples from these distributions. The primary drawback to traditional…
Many problems in the physical sciences, machine learning, and statistical inference necessitate sampling from a high-dimensional, multi-modal probability distribution. Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms, the ubiquitous tool for this…
In this work, we study how to efficiently obtain perfect samples from a discrete distribution $\mathcal{D}$ given access only to pairwise comparisons of elements of its support. Specifically, we assume access to samples $(x, S)$, where $S$…
Monte Carlo experiments produce samples in order to estimate features of a given distribution. However, simultaneous estimation of means and quantiles has received little attention, despite being common practice. In this setting we…
Piecewise Deterministic Markov Processes (PDMPs) are studied in a general framework. First, different constructions are proven to be equivalent. Second, we introduce a coupling between two PDMPs following the same differential flow which…
Gibbs sampling is a common procedure used to fit finite mixture models. However, it is known to be slow to converge when exploring correlated regions of a parameter space and so blocking correlated parameters is sometimes implemented in…
Constraints can be interpreted in a broad sense as any kind of explicit restriction over the parameters. While some constraints are defined directly on the parameter space, when they are instead defined by known behaviour on the model,…
We consider the problem of inference in discrete probabilistic models, that is, distributions over subsets of a finite ground set. These encompass a range of well-known models in machine learning, such as determinantal point processes and…
We (claim to) prove the extremely surprising fact that NP=RP. It is achieved by creating a Fully Polynomial-Time Randomized Approximation Scheme (FPRAS) for approximately counting the number of independent sets in bounded degree graphs,…
The Metropolis-Hastings method is often used to construct a Markov chain with a given $\pi$ as its stationary distribution. The method works even if $\pi$ is known only up to an intractable constant of proportionality. Polynomial time…
Computing the marginal likelihood or evidence is one of the core challenges in Bayesian analysis. While there are many established methods for estimating this quantity, they predominantly rely on using a large number of posterior samples…
In this paper, we consider the Markov-Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach for random sampling of combinatorial objects. The running time of such an algorithm depends on the total mixing time of the underlying Markov chain and is unknown in…
We consider the problem of closeness testing for two discrete distributions in the practically relevant setting of \emph{unequal} sized samples drawn from each of them. Specifically, given a target error parameter $\varepsilon > 0$, $m_1$…
This paper is concerned with the study of the stability of dynamical systems evolving on time scales. We first {formalize the notion of matrix measures on time scales, prove some of their key properties and make use of this notion to study…
In this paper, we study dependence coefficients for copula-based Markov chains. We provide new tools to check the convergence rates of mixing coefficients of copula-based Markov chains. We study Markov chains generated by the…