The Bouncy Particle Sampler is a novel rejection-free non-reversible sampler for differentiable probability distributions over continuous variables. We generalize the algorithm to piecewise differentiable distributions and apply it to generic binary distributions using a piecewise differentiable augmentation. We illust…
An infinite parallel tempering bouncy particle sampler improves sampling efficiency for multimodal distributions.
problem Sampling from complex posterior distributions with high accuracy and efficiency.
method Introduced an infinite parallel tempering bouncy particle sampler (BPS-PT) to accelerate convergence.
result Demonstrated improved sampling efficiency for multimodal distributions through numerical simulations.
We introduce a novel stochastic version of the non-reversible, rejection-free Bouncy Particle Sampler (BPS), a Markov process whose sample trajectories are piecewise linear. The algorithm is based on simulating first arrival times in a doubly stochastic Poisson process using the thinning method, and allows efficient sa…
PDMP samplers improve Bayesian PDE coefficient inference.
problem Efficient Bayesian inference in non-linear inverse problems with expensive likelihoods.
method Piecewise deterministic Markov process (PDMP) with surrogate-assisted thinning.
result PDMP samplers achieve higher accuracy and efficiency than traditional methods.
Sampling the parameters of high-dimensional Continuous Time Markov Chains (CTMC) is a challenging problem with important applications in many fields of applied statistics. In this work a recently proposed type of non-reversible rejection-free Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampler, the Bouncy Particle Sampler (BPS), i…
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 MCMC methods, including Metropolis-Hastings algorithms using random proposals and m…
New MCMC methods map high-dimensional problems to spheres for better mixing.
problem Mixing issues in high-dimensional distributions, especially heavy-tailed ones.
method Stereographic Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods that map high-dimensional problems to spheres.
result Uniformly ergodic samplers for various distributions, including heavy-tailed ones, with faster convergence in higher dimensions.
Generative models using PDMPs with explicit jump rates and kernels.
problem Creating efficient generative models for complex data distributions.
method Piecewise deterministic Markov processes (PDMPs) with explicit expressions for jump rates and kernels.
result Efficient training and simulation methods for PDMP-based generative models.
Improved state estimation in high-dimensional models using Zig-Zag Sampler.
problem Weight degeneracy in particle filtering methods for high-dimensional state space models.
method Discrete Zig-Zag Sampler applied within the Composite MH Kernel of SMCMC framework.
result Improves estimation accuracy and increases acceptance ratio in high-dimensional state estimation.
We introduce interacting particle Markov chain Monte Carlo (iPMCMC), a PMCMC method based on an interacting pool of standard and conditional sequential Monte Carlo samplers. Like related methods, iPMCMC is a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampler on an extended space. We present empirical results that show significant improv…
GPU-accelerated particle methods outperform neural samplers in LFT benchmarks.
problem High-dimensional multimodal sampling problems in lattice field theory.
method GPU-accelerated particle Monte Carlo methods (Sequential Monte Carlo and nested sampling).
result These methods match or outperform neural samplers in sample quality and wall-clock time.
A new method de-randomizes MCMC dynamics using the Stein operator.
problem Estimating complex target distributions in Bayesian inference.
method De-randomized kernel-based particle samplers that discretize the fiber-gradient Hamiltonian flow.
result GSVGD de-randomizes complex MCMC dynamics, maintaining high sample quality.
Study reveals convergence properties of SGD with random learning rate.
problem Analyzing convergence of SGD with random learning rate in non-convex optimization.
method Introduced Poisson SGD with random learning rate and used stationary distribution analysis.
result Poisson SGD converges to a stationary distribution and finds global minima in non-convex optimization.
New samplers minimize KL divergence for constrained and non-Euclidean geometries.
problem Efficient sampling from constrained and non-Euclidean distributions.
method Stein Variational Mirror Descent and Mirrored Stein Variational Gradient Descent.
result New samplers converge more rapidly and accurately than prior methods.
PDDS samples from unnormalized densities using iterative particle scheme.
problem Sampling from unnormalized probability densities.
method Iterative particle scheme with novel score matching loss.
result Asymptotically consistent estimates for multimodal and high-dimensional tasks.
Additive regression trees are flexible non-parametric models and popular off-the-shelf tools for real-world non-linear regression. In application domains, such as bioinformatics, where there is also demand for probabilistic predictions with measures of uncertainty, the Bayesian additive regression trees (BART) model, i…
Interacting particle methods are increasingly used to sample from complex and high-dimensional distributions. These stochastic particle integration techniques can be interpreted as an universal acceptance-rejection sequential particle sampler equipped with adaptive and interacting recycling mechanisms. Practically, the…
New PG samplers improve inference in coupled state-space models.
problem Bayesian inference from multiple time series with shared parameters.
method Marginalized Particle Gibbs samplers for coupled state-space models.
result Improved parameter inference through shared information.
Generative ParVI learns flexible sampling from posterior distributions.
problem Avoiding arbitrary parametric assumptions in variational inference.
method Neural sampler trained with functional gradient of KL-divergence.
result GPVI outperforms previous generative ParVI methods and is competitive with other approaches.
Bayesian feature allocation models are a popular tool for modelling data with a combinatorial latent structure. Exact inference in these models is generally intractable and so practitioners typically apply Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods for posterior inference. The most widely used MCMC strategies rely on an e…
New methods improve sampling from complex dynamical models.
problem Sampling from high-dimensional, non-linear latent dynamical models is computationally challenging.
method Introduce auxiliary MCMC and Particle Gibbs samplers with improved performance and parallelisation.
result Enhanced samplers maintain performance in high-dimensional latent spaces and support parallelisation.
Infinite Hidden Markov Models (iHMM's) are an attractive, nonparametric generalization of the classical Hidden Markov Model which can automatically infer the number of hidden states in the system. However, due to the infinite-dimensional nature of transition dynamics performing inference in the iHMM is difficult. In th…
BNEM improves Boltzmann sampler efficiency.
problem Generating IID samples from Boltzmann distributions efficiently.
method Bootstrapped Noised Energy Matching (NEM) combined with diffusion-based learning and bootstrapping.
result BNEM achieves state-of-the-art performance with improved robustness.
Introduce a variance-weighted batch distribution for diverse sampling in diffusion models.
problem Independent sampling in diffusion models.
method Introduce a variance-weighted batch distribution.
result Sampler with a transparent probabilistic target.
A key limitation of sampling algorithms for approximate inference is that it is difficult to quantify their approximation error. Widely used sampling schemes, such as sequential importance sampling with resampling and Metropolis-Hastings, produce output samples drawn from a distribution that may be far from the target …
Paper proposes a new method for sampling from complex distributions.
problem Sampling from unnormalised density functions in complex distributions.
method Combines amortised and particle-based methods with reinforcement learning.
result Improves sampling from complex distributions compared to existing methods.
iDEM generates samples from Boltzmann densities without data.
problem Generating statistically independent samples from unnormalized distributions.
method Iterative algorithm using energy and gradient for diffusion-based sampler training.
result iDEM achieves state-of-the-art performance and trains faster than existing methods.
This paper analyzes error bounds for biased SMC samplers in conditional sampling.
problem Analyzing error bounds for biased SMC samplers in conditional sampling.
method Develops a non-asymptotic error analysis for SMC samplers with biased mutation kernels.
result Derives the first non-asymptotic error bound for conditional sampling with score-based diffusion models.
REGS samples from unnormalized distributions using gradient flow and neural networks.
problem Sampling from unnormalized distributions with high accuracy and efficiency.
method REGS is a particle method that iteratively transforms samples from a reference distribution to match an unnormalized target distribution using Wasserstein gradient flow and neural networks.
result REGS outperforms state-of-the-art methods in sampling from challenging multimodal distributions and real datasets.
dSMC improves parallel processing of state-space models.
problem Processing multiple observations efficiently in state-space models.
method A parallel-in-time particle smoother that reduces complexity to log(T).
result dSMC achieves O(log(T)) time complexity on parallel architectures.
New method trains neural samplers to sample from multi-modal distributions efficiently.
problem Mode-seeking behavior of reverse KL divergence hinders effective sampling from multi-modal target distributions.
method Minimizing reverse diffusive KL divergence along diffusion trajectories of model and target densities.
result Demonstrated enhanced sampling performance across various multi-modal distributions.
Improved particle filters for estimating model parameters using differentiable resampling.
problem Inability to differentiate sampling and resampling steps in particle filters.
method Extended reparameterisation trick to include stochastic input, enabling differentiation. Used p-MCMC and NUTS for parameter estimation.
result NUTS improves mixing of Markov chain and produces more accurate results in less time.
Bayesian inference in state-space models is challenging due to high-dimensional state trajectories. A viable approach is particle Markov chain Monte Carlo, combining MCMC and sequential Monte Carlo to form "exact approximations" to otherwise intractable MCMC methods. The performance of the approximation is limited to t…
Particle MCMC is a class of algorithms that can be used to analyse state-space models. They use MCMC moves to update the parameters of the models, and particle filters to propose values for the path of the state-space model. Currently the default is to use random walk Metropolis to update the parameter values. We show …
New method uses zeroth-order queries to approximate proximal sampling efficiently.
problem Approximating proximal sampling with zeroth-order information.
method Direct simulation of heat flow dynamics, treating intermediate distribution as Gaussian mixture.
result Inherits exponential convergence under isoperimetric conditions, avoids rejection sampling.
Persistent sampling improves SMC efficiency by retaining and reusing particles.
problem High computational costs and particle impoverishment in SMC.
method Persistent sampling (PS) retains and reuses particles from all prior iterations, using multiple importance sampling and resampling from a mixture of historical distributions.
result PS achieves more accurate posterior approximations and lower variance in marginal likelihood estimates without additional likelihood evaluations.
TGD improves conditional sampling by concentrating computation on promising trajectories.
problem Efficiently training-free conditional sampling with diffusion priors.
method Tempered Guided Diffusion (TGD) using annealed sequential Monte Carlo.
result TGD yields a consistent particle approximation to the posterior as the number of particles grows.
A new method for generating samples without training, using smoothed score matching.
problem Generating samples efficiently and without training.
method Moment-matched score-smoothed overdamped Langevin dynamics (MM-SOLD).
result The method enables fast, robust, training-free sampling with competitive sample fidelity and diversity.
Particle Markov chain Monte Carlo (PMCMC) is a systematic way of combining the two main tools used for Monte Carlo statistical inference: sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). We present a novel PMCMC algorithm that we refer to as particle Gibbs with ancestor sampling (PGAS). PGAS provides t…
DAIS improves AIS by resampling, avoiding gradient issues.
problem Low effective sample size in DAIS.
method DAIS with resampling step to improve efficiency.
result Resampling step avoids gradient variance issues.
State-space models are successfully used in many areas of science, engineering and economics to model time series and dynamical systems. We present a fully Bayesian approach to inference \emph{and learning} (i.e. state estimation and system identification) in nonlinear nonparametric state-space models. We place a Gauss…
CRAFT improves on existing methods for sampling complex distributions.
problem Sampling from complex probability distributions.
method Combines SMC with variational inference using normalizing flows.
result Improves on Annealed Flow Transport Monte Carlo and MCMC-based Stochastic Normalizing Flows.
Enhances optimization and sampling methods using ensemble-based gradient inference.
problem Improving ensemble-based methods for optimization and sampling.
method Ensemble-based gradient inference (EGI) to extract higher-order derivatives from particle ensembles.
result Augmented algorithms outperform gradient-free variants, especially in multimodal and non-Gaussian settings.
Bayesian inference for biochemical reaction networks using jump-diffusion approximations.
problem Estimating hidden quantities in poorly characterized biochemical processes.
method Developed a Bayesian inference algorithm based on Markov chain Monte Carlo and sequential Monte Carlo methods.
result Numerical evaluation of the algorithm for a partially observed multi-scale birth-death process.
Improves inference-time alignment for diffusion models without updating weights.
problem Aligning diffusion models without updating weights for high-reward outputs.
method Trust-Region Iterative Twisted Sequential Monte Carlo (TRI-TSMC) for variance reduction and efficiency.
result Improves primary alignment objectives on text generation tasks.
New method for efficient conditional sampling from diffusion models.
problem Efficient conditional simulation from diffusion models.
method Explicit forward-backward bridging to express conditional simulation as an inference problem.
result Principled particle Gibbs and pseudo-marginal samplers for conditional distribution.
PASOA optimizes Bayesian design by improving SMC samplers and EIG.
problem Sequential design optimization for accurate parameter inference.
method Sequential optimization using contrastive estimation, SMC samplers, and tempering.
result PASOA optimizes design and inference with improved consistency.
State space models (SSM) have been widely applied for the analysis and visualization of large sequential datasets. Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) is a very popular particle-based method to sample latent states from intractable posteriors. However, SSM is significantly influenced by the choice of the proposal. Recently Ha…