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Reinforcement learning improves the reasoning ability of large language models but remains costly and sample-inefficient, as many rollouts provide weak learning signals. Difficulty-aware data selection methods attempt to address this by…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-12 Yang Zhou , Can Jin , Zihan Dong , Zhepeng Wang , Yanting Yang , Shiyu Zhao , Lei Li , Runxue Bao , Yaochen Xie , Dimitris N. Metaxas

Many statistical models in cosmology can be simulated forwards but have intractable likelihood functions. Likelihood-free inference methods allow us to perform Bayesian inference from these models using only forward simulations, free from…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2018-04-11 Justin Alsing , Benjamin Wandelt , Stephen Feeney

This chapter will appear in the forthcoming Handbook of Approximate Bayesian Computation (2018). The conceptual and methodological framework that underpins approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) is targetted primarily towards problems in…

Computation · Statistics 2018-03-20 Christopher C Drovandi , Clara Grazian , Kerrie Mengersen , Christian Robert

Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) provides methods for Bayesian inference in simulation-based stochastic models which do not permit tractable likelihoods. We present a new ABC method which uses probabilistic neural emulator networks to…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2019-05-21 Jan-Matthis Lueckmann , Giacomo Bassetto , Theofanis Karaletsos , Jakob H. Macke

Parameter estimation, statistical tests and confidence sets are the cornerstones of classical statistics that allow scientists to make inferences about the underlying process that generated the observed data. A key question is whether one…

Methodology · Statistics 2020-12-11 Niccolò Dalmasso , Rafael Izbicki , Ann B. Lee

This paper develops a unified estimation framework, the Maximum Ideal Likelihood Estimation (MILE), for general parametric models with latent variables. Unlike traditional approaches relying on the marginal likelihood of the observed data,…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2025-10-08 Yizhou Cai , Ting Fung Ma

Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) is a popular likelihood-free inference method for models with intractable likelihood functions. As ABC methods usually rely on comparing summary statistics of observed and simulated data, the choice of…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-06-22 Ayush Bharti , Louis Filstroff , Samuel Kaski

Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) methods, which are applicable when the likelihood is difficult or impossible to calculate, are an active topic of current research. Most current ABC algorithms directly approximate the posterior…

Computation · Statistics 2012-12-10 Y. Fan , D. J. Nott , S. A. Sisson

Many modern statistical applications involve inference for complex stochastic models, where it is easy to simulate from the models, but impossible to calculate likelihoods. Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) is a method of inference for…

Methodology · Statistics 2015-03-14 Paul Fearnhead , Dennis Prangle

A computationally simple approach to inference in state space models is proposed, using approximate Bayesian computation (ABC). ABC avoids evaluation of an intractable likelihood by matching summary statistics for the observed data with…

Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) is a popular computational method for likelihood-free Bayesian inference. The term "likelihood-free" refers to problems where the likelihood is intractable to compute or estimate directly, but where it…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2014-07-21 Stuart Barber , Jochen Voss , Mark Webster

Likelihood-free inference involves inferring parameter values given observed data and a simulator model. The simulator is computer code which takes parameters, performs stochastic calculations, and outputs simulated data. In this work, we…

Computation · Statistics 2023-01-30 Dennis Prangle , Cecilia Viscardi

Likelihood-free inference (LFI) methods, such as approximate Bayesian computation, have become commonplace for conducting inference in complex models. Many approaches are based on summary statistics or discrepancies derived from synthetic…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-06-06 David T. Frazier , Christopher Drovandi , Lucas Kock , David J. Nott

In many fields of science, generalized likelihood ratio tests are established tools for statistical inference. At the same time, it has become increasingly common that a simulator (or generative model) is used to describe complex processes…

Applications · Statistics 2016-03-21 Kyle Cranmer , Juan Pavez , Gilles Louppe

Model selection in the presence of intractable likelihoods remains a central challenge in Bayesian inference. Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) provides a flexible likelihood-free framework, but its use for model choice is known to be…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-03-03 Clara Grazian

Likelihood-free methods are an essential tool for performing inference for implicit models which can be simulated from, but for which the corresponding likelihood is intractable. However, common likelihood-free methods do not scale well to…

Methodology · Statistics 2022-07-15 Christopher Drovandi , David J Nott , David T Frazier

The marginal likelihood, or evidence, plays a central role in Bayesian model selection, yet remains notoriously challenging to compute in likelihood-free settings. While Simulation-Based Inference (SBI) techniques such as Sequential Neural…

Computation · Statistics 2025-07-14 Paul Bastide , Arnaud Estoup , Jean-Michel Marin , Julien Stoehr

Many scientifically well-motivated statistical models in natural, engineering and environmental sciences are specified through a generative process, but in some cases it may not be possible to write down a likelihood for these models…

Computation · Statistics 2018-10-10 Sanjay Chaudhuri , Subhro Ghosh , David J. Nott , Kim Cuc Pham

Likelihood-free inference provides a rigorous approach to preform Bayesian analysis using forward simulations only. The main advantage of likelihood-free methods is its ability to account for complex physical processes and observational…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2022-02-09 Sut-Ieng Tam , Keiichi Umetsu , Adam Amara

Many areas of science rely on simulators that implicitly encode intractable likelihood functions of complex systems. Classical statistical methods are poorly suited for these so-called likelihood-free inference (LFI) settings, especially…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-11-28 Niccolò Dalmasso , Luca Masserano , David Zhao , Rafael Izbicki , Ann B. Lee