Related papers: Does waste-recycling really improve Metropolis-Has…
The Metropolis algorithm involves producing a Markov chain to converge to a specified target density $\pi$. In order to improve its efficiency, we can use the Rejection-Free version of the Metropolis algorithm, which avoids the inefficiency…
Phase transitions appear all over science, and are familiar from everyday life, as water boiling, sugar melting into caramel or as nematic molecules turning smectic in liquid-crystal displays. The dynamics of phase transitions can be…
The Metropolis-within-Gibbs (MwG) algorithm is a widely used Markov Chain Monte Carlo method for sampling from high-dimensional distributions when exact conditional sampling is intractable. We study MwG with Random Walk Metropolis (RWM)…
A Kernel Adaptive Metropolis-Hastings algorithm is introduced, for the purpose of sampling from a target distribution with strongly nonlinear support. The algorithm embeds the trajectory of the Markov chain into a reproducing kernel Hilbert…
We investigate the properties of the Hybrid Monte-Carlo algorithm (HMC) in high dimensions. HMC develops a Markov chain reversible w.r.t. a given target distribution $\Pi$ by using separable Hamiltonian dynamics with potential $-\log\Pi$.…
The Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) method has been recognized as a powerful sampling tool in computational statistics. We show that performance of HMC can be significantly improved by incorporating importance sampling and an irreversible…
We study the integration of functions with respect to an unknown density. We compare the simple Monte Carlo method (which is almost optimal for a certain large class of inputs) and compare it with the Metropolis algorithm (based on a…
The majority of machine learning methods can be regarded as the minimization of an unavailable risk function. To optimize the latter, given samples provided in a streaming fashion, we define a general stochastic Newton algorithm and its…
We propose a novel Bayesian approach to the problem of variable selection in multiple linear regression models. In particular, we present a hierarchical setting which allows for direct specification of a-priori beliefs about the number of…
Monte Carlo methods represent the "de facto" standard for approximating complicated integrals involving multidimensional target distributions. In order to generate random realizations from the target distribution, Monte Carlo techniques use…
We explore a general framework in Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling where sequential proposals are tried as a candidate for the next state of the Markov chain. This sequential-proposal framework can be applied to various existing…
Importance sampling is a Monte Carlo method which designs estimators of expectations under a target distribution using weighted samples from a proposal distribution. When the target distribution is complex, such as multimodal distributions…
We consider a generalization of the standard Metropolis algorithm acceptance/rejection decision rule and numerically explore its properties using auxiliary field quantum Monte Carlo. The generalization involves a free parameter which, given…
We introduce a gradient-based learning method to automatically adapt Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) proposal distributions to intractable targets. We define a maximum entropy regularised objective function, referred to as generalised speed…
We propose a new algorithm for sampling the $N$-body density $|\Psi({\bf R})|^2/\int_{\mathbb{R}^{3N}} |\Psi|^2$ in the Variational Monte Carlo (VMC) framework. This algorithm is based upon a modified Ricci-Ciccotti discretization of the…
MontePython is a parameter inference package for cosmology. We present the latest development of the code over the past couple of years. We explain, in particular, two new ingredients both contributing to improve the performance of…
Pseudo-marginal Markov chain Monte Carlo methods for sampling from intractable distributions have gained recent interest and have been theoretically studied in considerable depth. Their main appeal is that they are exact, in the sense that…
Most applications of Bayesian Inference for parameter estimation and model selection in astrophysics involve the use of Monte Carlo techniques such as Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and nested sampling. However, these techniques are time…
Stochastic reaction network models are often used to explain and predict the dynamics of gene regulation in single cells. These models usually involve several parameters, such as the kinetic rates of chemical reactions, that are not…
We present a new multiple-try Metropolis-Hastings algorithm designed to be especially beneficial when a tailored proposal distribution is available. The algorithm is based on a given acyclic graph $G$, where one of the nodes in $G$, $k$…