Related papers: The Coupling/Minorization/Drift Approach to Markov…

The use of heuristics to assess the convergence and compress the output of Markov chain Monte Carlo can be sub-optimal in terms of the empirical approximations that are produced. Typically a number of the initial states are attributed to…

We introduce a unified framework to estimate the convergence of Markov chains to equilibrium in Wasserstein distance. The framework can provide convergence bounds with rates ranging from polynomial to exponential, all derived from a…

We prove the existence of limiting distributions for a large class of Markov chains on a general state space in a random environment. We assume suitable versions of the standard drift and minorization conditions. In particular, the system…

Lecture notes (in French) of a master 2 level course in applied mathematics. Contents: Part I. Markov chains on a countable space. 1. Examples 2. Summary of basic properties. 3. Spectral theory and speed of convergence. 4. Lyapunov…

In this paper we develop a general framework for constructing and analysing coupled Markov chain Monte Carlo samplers, allowing for both (possibly degenerate) diffusion and piecewise deterministic Markov processes. For many performance…

We introduce a framework to approximate a Markov Decision Process that stands on two pillars: state aggregation -- as the algorithmic infrastructure; and central-limit-theorem-type approximations -- as the mathematical underpinning of…

One-shot coupling is a method of bounding the convergence rate between two copies of a Markov chain in total variation distance, which was first introduced by Roberts and Rosenthal and generalized by Madras and Sezer. The method is divided…

We give computable bounds on the rate of convergence of the transition probabilities to the stationary distribution for a certain class of geometrically ergodic Markov chains. Our results are different from earlier estimates of Meyn and…

Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is one of the most useful approaches to scientific computing because of its flexible construction, ease of use and generality. Indeed, MCMC is indispensable for performing Bayesian analysis. Two critical…

Adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms, which automatically tune their parameters based on past samples, have proved extremely useful in practice. The self-tuning mechanism makes them `non-Markovian', which means that their…

Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms are often used for approximate inference inside learning, but their slow mixing can be difficult to diagnose and the approximations can seriously degrade learning. To alleviate these issues, we…

The goal of this paper is to give a short and self contained proof of general bounds for subgeometric rates of convergence, under practical conditions. The main result whose proof, based on coupling, provides an intuitive understanding of…

Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods provide consistent of integrals as the number of iterations goes to infinity. MCMC estimators are generally biased after any fixed number of iterations. We propose to remove this bias by using…

Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms are used to simulate from complex statistical distributions by way of a local exploration of these distributions. This local feature avoids heavy requests on understanding the nature of the target, but it…

The convergence, convergence rate and expected hitting time play fundamental roles in the analysis of randomised search heuristics. This paper presents a unified Markov chain approach to studying them. Using the approach, the sufficient and…

We demonstrate the use of a variational method to determine a quantitative lower bound on the rate of convergence of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms as a function of the target density and proposal density. The bound relies on…

Couplings play a central role in contemporary Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and in the analysis of their convergence to stationarity. In most cases, a coupling must induce relatively fast meeting between chains to ensure good…

Improved rates of convergence for ergodic homogeneous Markov chains are studied. In comparison to the earlier papers the setting is also generalised to the case without a unique dominated measure. Examples are provided where the new bound…

Couplings play a central role in the analysis of Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms and appear increasingly often in the algorithms themselves, e.g. in convergence diagnostics, parallelization, and variance reduction techniques. Existing…

Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods such as Gibbs sampling are finding widespread use in applied statistics and machine learning. These often lead to difficult computational problems, which are increasingly being solved on parallel and…