Related papers: Block coupling and rapidly mixing k-heights
One of the most influential recent results in network analysis is that many natural networks exhibit a power-law or log-normal degree distribution. This has inspired numerous generative models that match this property. However, more recent…
The method of block coordinate gradient descent (BCD) has been a powerful method for large-scale optimization. This paper considers the BCD method that successively updates a series of blocks selected according to a Markov chain. This kind…
We present a novel approach to detecting and utilizing symmetries in probabilistic graphical models with two main contributions. First, we present a scalable approach to computing generating sets of permutation groups representing the…
We present a novel approach to detecting and utilizing symmetries in probabilistic graphical models with two main contributions. First, we present a scalable approach to computing generating sets of permutation groups representing the…
We study a colored generalization of the famous simple-switch Markov chain for sampling the set of graphs with a fixed degree sequence. Here we consider the space of graphs with colored vertices, in which we fix the degree sequence and…
The configuration model is a standard tool for uniformly generating random graphs with a specified degree sequence, and is often used as a null model to evaluate how much of an observed network's structure can be explained by its degree…
We survey existing techniques to bound the mixing time of Markov chains. The mixing time is related to a geometric parameter called conductance which is a measure of edge-expansion. Bounds on conductance are typically obtained by a…
A joint degree matrix (JDM) specifies the number of connections between nodes of given degrees in a graph, for all degree pairs and uniquely determines the degree sequence of the graph. We consider the space of all balanced realizations of…
We consider unsupervised estimation of mixtures of discrete graphical models, where the class variable corresponding to the mixture components is hidden and each mixture component over the observed variables can have a potentially different…
Monotonic surfaces spanning finite regions of $Z^d$ arise in many contexts, including DNA-based self-assembly, card-shuffling and lozenge tilings. One method that has been used to uniformly generate these surfaces is a Markov chain that…
We study the convergence rate to stationarity for a class of exchangeable partition-valued Markov chains called cut-and-paste chains. The law governing the transitions of a cut-and-paste chain are determined by products of i.i.d. stochastic…
Sampling uniform simple graphs with power-law degree distributions with degree exponent $\tau\in(2,3)$ is a non-trivial problem. We propose a method to sample uniform simple graphs that uses a constrained version of the configuration model…
Markov chains are one of the well-known tools for modeling and analyzing stochastic systems. At the same time, they are used for constructing random walks that can achieve a given stationary distribution. This paper is concerned with…
The problem of sampling from the stationary distribution of a Markov chain finds widespread applications in a variety of fields. The time required for a Markov chain to converge to its stationary distribution is known as the classical…
One of the simplest methods of generating a random graph with a given degree sequence is provided by the Monte Carlo Markov Chain method using switches. The switch Markov chain converges to the uniform distribution, but generally the rate…
Convergence diagnosis for Markov chain Monte Carlo is a matter of fundamental importance in computational statistics: it determines the resources allocated to a particular sampling problem and influences the practitioner's view of the…
Gibbs sampling is a common procedure used to fit finite mixture models. However, it is known to be slow to converge when exploring correlated regions of a parameter space and so blocking correlated parameters is sometimes implemented in…
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…
A Markov chain $X^i$ on a finite state space $S$ has transition matrix $P$ and initial state $i$. We may run the chains $(X^i: i\in S)$ in parallel, while insisting that any two such chains coalesce whenever they are simultaneously at the…
We consider Markovian models on graphs with local dynamics. We show that, under suitable conditions, such Markov chains exhibit both rapid convergence to equilibrium and strong concentration of measure in the stationary distribution. We…