Related papers: Theoretical guarantees for neural control variates…

Calculating averages with respect to multimodal probability distributions is often necessary in applications. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to this end, which are based on time averages along a realization of a Markov process…

We introduce the Lyapunov approach to optimal control problems of average risk-sensitive Markov control processes with general risk maps. Motivated by applications in particular to behavioral economics, we consider possibly non-convex risk…

We propose cube thinning, a novel method for compressing the output of a MCMC (Markov chain Monte Carlo) algorithm when control variates are available. It amounts to resampling the initial MCMC sample (according to weights derived from…

Variational inference is increasingly being addressed with stochastic optimization. In this setting, the gradient's variance plays a crucial role in the optimization procedure, since high variance gradients lead to poor convergence. A…

We establish an ordering criterion for the asymptotic variances of two consistent Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimators: an importance sampling (IS) estimator, based on an approximate reversible chain and subsequent IS weighting, and a…

Handling uncertainty in model predictive control comes with various challenges, especially when considering state constraints under uncertainty. Most methods focus on either the conservative approach of robustly accounting for uncertainty…

We are interested in the analysis of very large continuous-time Markov chains (CTMCs) with many distinct rates. Such models arise naturally in the context of reliability analysis, e.g., of computer network performability analysis, of power…

We consider the constrained optimal control problem for the gradual-impulsive CTMDP model with the performance criteria being the expected total undiscounted costs (from the running cost and the cost from each time an impulse being…

This paper considers continuous-time block-monotone Markov chains (BMMCs) and their block-augmented truncations. We first introduce the block monotonicity and block-wise dominance relation for continuous-time Markov chains, and then provide…

Recently there is a large amount of work devoted to the study of Markov chain stochastic gradient methods (MC-SGMs) which mainly focus on their convergence analysis for solving minimization problems. In this paper, we provide a…

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new Markov chain Monte Carlo method and exhibit its efficiency by simulation and high-dimensional asymptotic theory. Key fact is that our algorithm has a reversible proposal transition kernel,…

Deriving Bayesian inference for exponential random graph models (ERGMs) is a challenging "doubly intractable" problem as the normalizing constants of the likelihood and posterior density are both intractable. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)…

Leveraging well-established MCMC strategies, we propose MCMC-interactive variational inference (MIVI) to not only estimate the posterior in a time constrained manner, but also facilitate the design of MCMC transitions. Constructing a…

This chapter describes several control variate methods for improving estimates of expectations from MCMC.

The development of efficient numerical methods for kinetic equations with stochastic parameters is a challenge due to the high dimensionality of the problem. Recently we introduced a multiscale control variate strategy which is capable to…

This paper aims to enhance the computational efficiency of safety verification of neural network control systems by developing a guaranteed neural network model reduction method. First, a concept of model reduction precision is proposed to…

Based on our recent research on neural heuristic quantization systems, we propose an emulation problem consistent with the neuromimetic paradigm. This optimal quantization problem can be solved with model predictive control (MPC) by…

Reversibility is a key property of Markov chains, central to algorithms such as Metropolis-Hastings and other MCMC methods. Yet many applications yield non-reversible chains, motivating the problem of approximating them by reversible ones…

We consider the problem of maximizing the expected average reward obtained over an infinite time horizon by $n$ weakly coupled Markov decision processes. Our setup is a substantial generalization of the multi-armed restless bandit problem…

Model predictive control (MPC) achieves stability and constraint satisfaction for general nonlinear systems, but requires computationally expensive online optimization. This paper studies approximations of such MPC controllers via neural…