Related papers: Sequential Monte Carlo approximations of Wasserste…
Let $V_* : \mathbb{R}^d \to \mathbb{R}$ be some (possibly non-convex) potential function, and consider the probability measure $\pi \propto e^{-V_*}$. When $\pi$ exhibits multiple modes, it is known that sampling techniques based on…
Algorithms based on discretizing Langevin diffusion are popular tools for sampling from high-dimensional distributions. We develop novel connections between such Monte Carlo algorithms, the theory of Wasserstein gradient flow, and the…
We consider the problem of sampling from a probability distribution $\pi$. It is well known that this can be written as an optimisation problem over the space of probability distributions in which we aim to minimise the Kullback--Leibler…
We consider the problem of sampling from a probability distribution $\pi$ which admits a density w.r.t. a dominating measure. It is well known that this can be written as an optimisation problem over the space of probability distributions…
Otto's (2001) Wasserstein gradient flow of the exclusive KL divergence functional provides a powerful and mathematically principled perspective for analyzing learning and inference algorithms. In contrast, algorithms for the inclusive KL…
We propose a mathematically principled PDE gradient flow framework for distributionally robust optimization (DRO). Exploiting the recent advances in the intersection of Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling and gradient flow theory, we show…
Modern applications of Bayesian inference involve models that are sufficiently complex that the corresponding posterior distributions are intractable and must be approximated. The most common approximation is based on Markov chain Monte…
Sampling a target probability distribution with an unknown normalization constant is a fundamental challenge in computational science and engineering. Recent work shows that algorithms derived by considering gradient flows in the space of…
Optimization in the Bures-Wasserstein space has been gaining popularity in the machine learning community since it draws connections between variational inference and Wasserstein gradient flows. The variational inference objective function…
In this work, a novel sequential Monte Carlo filter is introduced which aims at efficient sampling of high-dimensional state spaces with a limited number of particles. Particles are pushed forward from the prior to the posterior density…
Minimizing functionals in the space of probability distributions can be done with Wasserstein gradient flows. To solve them numerically, a possible approach is to rely on the Jordan-Kinderlehrer-Otto (JKO) scheme which is analogous to the…
The purpose of this paper is to answer a few open questions in the interface of kernel methods and PDE gradient flows. Motivated by recent advances in machine learning, particularly in generative modeling and sampling, we present a rigorous…
We present a computationally efficient framework, called $\texttt{FlowDRO}$, for solving flow-based distributionally robust optimization (DRO) problems with Wasserstein uncertainty sets while aiming to find continuous worst-case…
The Fokker-Planck equation can be reformulated as a continuity equation, which naturally suggests using the associated velocity field in particle flow methods. While the resulting probability flow ODE offers appealing properties - such as…
This work considers the problem of sampling from a probability distribution known up to a normalization constant while satisfying a set of statistical constraints specified by the expected values of general nonlinear functions. This problem…
Distances between probability distributions that take into account the geometry of their sample space,like the Wasserstein or the Maximum Mean Discrepancy (MMD) distances have received a lot of attention in machine learning as they can, for…
Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC), also known as particle filters, has been widely accepted as a powerful computational tool for making inference with dynamical systems. A key step in SMC is resampling, which plays the role of steering the…
We present a novel approach to approximate Gaussian and mixture-of-Gaussians filtering. Our method relies on a variational approximation via a gradient-flow representation. The gradient flow is derived from a Kullback--Leibler discrepancy…
We study the problem of sampling from a distribution $\target$ using the Langevin Monte Carlo algorithm and provide rate of convergences for this algorithm in terms of Wasserstein distance of order $2$. Our result holds as long as the…
Bayesian inference has many advantages for complex models, but standard Monte Carlo methods for summarizing the posterior can be computationally demanding, and it is attractive to consider optimization-based variational methods. Our work…