Related papers: Algorithms for mean-field variational inference vi…
We develop a notion of projections between sets of probability measures using the geometric properties of the 2-Wasserstein space. It is designed for general multivariate probability measures, is computationally efficient to implement, and…
We propose a novel particle-based variational inference method designed to work with multimodal distributions. Our approach, referred to as Branched Stein Variational Gradient Descent (BSVGD), extends the classical Stein Variational…
Many core problems in robotics can be framed as constrained optimization problems. Often on these problems, the robotic system has uncertainty, or it would be advantageous to identify multiple high quality feasible solutions. To enable…
As a computational alternative to Markov chain Monte Carlo approaches, variational inference (VI) is becoming more and more popular for approximating intractable posterior distributions in large-scale Bayesian models due to its comparable…
We present a new algorithm for approximate inference in probabilistic programs, based on a stochastic gradient for variational programs. This method is efficient without restrictions on the probabilistic program; it is particularly…
In this paper, we propose an infinite-dimensional version of the Stein variational gradient descent (iSVGD) method for solving Bayesian inverse problems. The method can generate approximate samples from posteriors efficiently. Based on the…
This paper investigates the minimization of the expectation of piecewise polynomial loss functions over Wasserstein balls. This optimization problem often appears as a key sub-problem of distributionally robust optimization problems. We…
We study the contraction in Wasserstein distance of the coordinate ascent variational inference algorithm. This is shown to hold under a transport-information inequality at the fixed points and a functional smoothness condition. The results…
Semi-implicit variational inference (SIVI) enriches the expressiveness of variational families by utilizing a kernel and a mixing distribution to hierarchically define the variational distribution. Existing SIVI methods parameterize the…
Computable Stein discrepancies have been deployed for a variety of applications, ranging from sampler selection in posterior inference to approximate Bayesian inference to goodness-of-fit testing. Existing convergence-determining Stein…
There is extensive literature on accelerating first-order optimization methods in a Euclidean setting. Under which conditions such acceleration is feasible in Riemannian optimization problems is an active area of research. Motivated by the…
We study a class of optimization problems in the Wasserstein space (the space of probability measures) where the objective function is nonconvex along generalized geodesics. Specifically, the objective exhibits some difference-of-convex…
Minimizing a convex function of a measure with a sparsity-inducing penalty is a typical problem arising, e.g., in sparse spikes deconvolution or two-layer neural networks training. We show that this problem can be solved by discretizing the…
This work presents a new Distributionally Robust Optimization approach, using $p$-Wasserstein metrics, to analyze a stochastic program in a general context. The ambiguity set in this approach depends on the decision variable and is…
We establish the first mathematically rigorous link between Bayesian, variational Bayesian, and ensemble methods. A key step towards this it to reformulate the non-convex optimisation problem typically encountered in deep learning as a…
This paper introduces the concept of quasi $\alpha$-firmly nonexpansive mappings in Wasserstein spaces over $\mathbb R^d$ and analyzes properties of these mappings. We prove that for quasi $\alpha$-firmly nonexpansive mappings satisfying a…
We propose to align distributional data from the perspective of Wasserstein means. We raise the problem of regularizing Wasserstein means and propose several terms tailored to tackle different problems. Our formulation is based on the…
This article studies a general divide-and-conquer algorithm for approximating continuous one-dimensional probability distributions with finite mean. The article presents a numerical study that compares pre-existing approximation schemes…
Multiple marginal matching problem aims at learning mappings to match a source domain to multiple target domains and it has attracted great attention in many applications, such as multi-domain image translation. However, addressing this…
We introduce the observable Wasserstein distance, a framework for deriving lower bounds on the Wasserstein distance between probability measures on Polish metric spaces, designed to bypass the computational intractability of exact optimal…