English

BayesCG As An Uncertainty Aware Version of CG

Numerical Analysis 2022-10-04 v4 Numerical Analysis

Abstract

The Bayesian Conjugate Gradient method (BayesCG) is a probabilistic generalization of the Conjugate Gradient method (CG) for solving linear systems with real symmetric positive definite coefficient matrices. Our CG-based implementation of BayesCG under a structure-exploiting prior distribution represents an 'uncertainty-aware' version of CG. Its output consists of CG iterates and posterior covariances that can be propagated to subsequent computations. The covariances have low-rank and are maintained in factored form. This allows easy generation of accurate samples to probe uncertainty in downstream computations. Numerical experiments confirm the effectiveness of the low-rank posterior covariances.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.03225,
  title  = {BayesCG As An Uncertainty Aware Version of CG},
  author = {Tim W. Reid and Ilse C. F. Ipsen and Jon Cockayne and Chris J. Oates},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.03225},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

34 Pages including supplementary material (main paper is 23 pages, supplement is 11 pages). Computer codes are available at https://github.com/treid5/ProbNumCG_Supp

R2 v1 2026-06-23T17:42:31.259Z