English

Monte Carlo sampling for stochastic weight functions

Statistical Mechanics 2018-05-24 v1 Computational Physics Methodology Machine Learning

Abstract

Conventional Monte Carlo simulations are stochastic in the sense that the acceptance of a trial move is decided by comparing a computed acceptance probability with a random number, uniformly distributed between 0 and 1. Here we consider the case that the weight determining the acceptance probability itself is fluctuating. This situation is common in many numerical studies. We show that it is possible to construct a rigorous Monte Carlo algorithm that visits points in state space with a probability proportional to their average weight. The same approach has the potential to transform the methodology of a certain class of high-throughput experiments or the analysis of noisy datasets.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1612.06131,
  title  = {Monte Carlo sampling for stochastic weight functions},
  author = {Daan Frenkel and K. Julian Schrenk and Stefano Martiniani},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.06131},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

7 pages, 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T17:28:01.142Z