Related papers: Comparing the Efficiency of General State Space Re…
We review criteria for comparing the efficiency of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods with respect to the asymptotic variance of estimates of expectations of functions of state, and show how such criteria can justify ways of combining…
I show how any reversible Markov chain on a finite state space that is irreducible, and hence suitable for estimating expectations with respect to its invariant distribution, can be used to construct a non-reversible Markov chain on a…
There is a growing interest in the literature for adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo methods based on sequences of random transition kernels $\{P_n\}$ where the kernel $P_n$ is allowed to have an invariant distribution $\pi_n$ not…
We establish a domination principle for positive operators, which provides an upper bound on the essential spectral radius and yields quasi-compactness criteria on weighted supremum spaces with Lyapunov type functions and local domination.…
In this paper, we study the asymptotic variance of sample path averages for inhomogeneous Markov chains that evolve alternatingly according to two different $\pi$-reversible Markov transition kernels $P$ and $Q$. More specifically, our main…
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…
In this paper, we consider general Markov chains (MC), specified by the transition probability (kernel) $ P (x, E) $, finitely additive in the second argument. Such MC are studied within the framework of the functional operator treatment.…
Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is a class of algorithms to sample complex and high-dimensional probability distributions. The Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithm, the workhorse of MCMC, provides a simple recipe to construct reversible…
We introduce a unified operator-theoretic framework for analyzing mixing times of finite-state ergodic Markov chains that applies to both reversible and non-reversible dynamics. The central object in our analysis is the projected transition…
Let $P$ be a Markov kernel on a measurable space $\X$ and let $V:\X\r[1,+\infty)$. We provide various assumptions, based on drift conditions, under which $P$ is quasi-compact on the weighted-supremum Banach space $(\cB_V,\|\cdot\|_V)$ of…
A novel strategy that combines a given collection of $\pi$-reversible Markov kernels is proposed. At each Markov transition, one of the available kernels is selected via a state-dependent probability distribution. In contrast to random-scan…
Suppose $ E$ is a space with a null-recurrent Markov kernel $ P$. Furthermore, suppose there are infinite particles with variable weights on $ E$ performing a random walk following $ P$. Let $ X_{t}$ be a weighted functional of the position…
Markov chain Monte Carlo(MCMC) is a popular approach to sample from high dimensional distributions, and the asymptotic variance is a commonly used criterion to evaluate the performance. While most popular MCMC algorithms are reversible,…
We consider a pseudo-marginal Metropolis--Hastings kernel $P_m$ that is constructed using an average of $m$ exchangeable random variables, as well as an analogous kernel $P_s$ that averages $s<m$ of these same random variables. Using an…
The asymptotic variance is an important criterion to evaluate the performance of Markov chains, especially for the central limit theorems. We give the variational formulas for the asymptotic variance of discrete-time (non-reversible) Markov…
In this paper the relations between independence preserving (IP) involutions and reversible Markov kernels are investigated. We introduce an involutive augmentation H = (f, g_f) of a measurable function f and relate the IP property of H to…
We investigate the increase in efficiency of simulated and parallel tempering MCMC algorithms when using non-reversible updates to give them "momentum". By making a connection to a certain simple discrete Markov chain, we show that, under…
A common tool in the practice of Markov Chain Monte Carlo is to use approximating transition kernels to speed up computation when the desired kernel is slow to evaluate or intractable. A limited set of quantitative tools exist to assess the…
Let $\{X_n\}_{n\in\N}$ be a Markov chain on a measurable space $\X$ with transition kernel $P$ and let $V:\X\r[1,+\infty)$. The Markov kernel $P$ is here considered as a linear bounded operator on the weighted-supremum space $\cB_V$…
We present a new way of converting a reversible finite Markov chain into a non-reversible one, with a theoretical guarantee that the asymptotic variance of the MCMC estimator based on the non-reversible chain is reduced. The method is…