Boltzmann machines are powerful distributions that have been shown to be an effective prior over binary latent variables in variational autoencoders (VAEs). However, previous methods for training discrete VAEs have used the evidence lower bound and not the tighter importance-weighted bound. We propose two approaches fo…
On-device research index
arXiv research
A locally-built, LLM-digested index of recent arXiv papers in quant finance, geometry/topology, and statistical ML — keyword search served straight from SQLite on this machine.
168,695 papers · 148 categories
Trend · papers per month
48 results for “variational relaxations”
The paper develops sum-of-squares relaxations for computing -divergences.
problem Computing -divergences from non-centered covariance matrices.
method Sum-of-squares relaxations for convex optimization.
result Sum-of-squares relaxations make computations tractable.
A new method for categorical variational inference using discrete normalizing flows.
problem Challenges in optimizing variational approximations for discrete latent variables.
method Differentiable reparameterization using a mixture of discrete normalizing flows.
result Improves optimization of evidence lower bound and reduces sensitivity to hyperparameters.
Paper improves variational inference on Boolean hypercube using quantum methods.
problem Improving variational inference for pairwise Markov random fields on the Boolean hypercube.
method Quantum relaxations of the Kullback-Leibler divergence for upper-bounds, primal-dual optimization, and greedy selection of hierarchies.
result Efficient algorithm and improved bounds for variational inference.
We consider a relaxed notion of energy of non-parametric codimension one surfaces that takes account of area, mean curvature, and Gauss curvature. It is given by the best value obtained by approximation with inscribed polyhedral surfaces. The BV and measure properties of functions with finite relaxed energy are studied…
This work interprets SFA through variational inference, relaxing linearity constraints.
problem Recover non-linear SFA from variational inference.
method Probabilistic interpretation of SFA through variational inference, relaxing linearity constraints.
result Reinterprets SFA as a variational framework, allowing slowness as a regularizer to reconstruction loss.
Learning in models with discrete latent variables is challenging due to high variance gradient estimators. Generally, approaches have relied on control variates to reduce the variance of the REINFORCE estimator. Recent work (Jang et al. 2016, Maddison et al. 2016) has taken a different approach, introducing a continuou…
Due to challenging applications such as collaborative filtering, the matrix completion problem has been widely studied in the past few years. Different approaches rely on different structure assumptions on the matrix in hand. Here, we focus on the completion of a (possibly) low-rank matrix with binary entries, the so-c…
The paper studies harmonic maps to the circle with complex singular sets.
problem Finding harmonic maps with prescribed singular sets in higher-dimensional spaces.
method Considered variational relaxations of the problem, showing energy convergence to a renormalised volume plus lower-order interaction energy.
result The energy of minimisers converges, after renormalisation, to the volume of the singular set plus a lower-order interaction energy.
New method relaxes TV distance for two-sample testing without distributional assumptions.
problem Challenges in certifying equality or providing tight bounds on TV distance for two distributions.
method Examined blurred total variation distance, a relaxation of TV distance.
result Provided theoretical guarantees for upper and lower bounds on blurred TV distance.
Estimate relaxation times in nonextensive systems using gradient flow for Tsallis entropy maximization.
problem Estimating relaxation times in financial market dynamics.
method Developing a method using EGF for maximizing Tsallis entropy.
result Longer relaxation times for nonextensive systems compared to Shannon entropy.
Defines weak normals for irregular curves in high-dimensional spaces.
problem Dealing with irregular curves in high-dimensional Euclidean spaces.
method Using sequences of inscribed polygonals and Gram-Schmidt procedure, introduces a relaxed notion of weak normals.
result Weak normals for irregular curves are the strong limit of approximating polygonals and agree with relaxed energy.
New method improves GP regression by relaxing variational assumption.
problem Improving variational Gaussian processes for better predictive performance.
method Relaxing the variational assumption to a more general distribution for optimization.
result New tighter evidence lower bound for GP regression.
CO-BED optimizes experiments using Bayesian methods and information theory.
problem Optimizing experiments in a context-dependent manner.
method Formalizes contextual optimization with Bayesian experimental design, employing information-theoretic principles and black-box variational methods.
result CO-BED provides a general solution for contextual optimization problems.
Regularized regression problems are ubiquitous in statistical modeling, signal processing, and machine learning. Sparse regression in particular has been instrumental in scientific model discovery, including compressed sensing applications, variable selection, and high-dimensional analysis. We propose a broad framework…
Improved hierarchical discrete VAEs for better stability and performance.
problem Training stable and efficient hierarchical discrete VAEs with numerous latent variables.
method Introducing Relaxed-Responsibility Vector-Quantisation to parameterise discrete latent variables in a hierarchical structure.
result Achieved state-of-the-art bits-per-dim results for various standard datasets.
We introduce a globally-convergent algorithm for optimizing the tree-reweighted (TRW) variational objective over the marginal polytope. The algorithm is based on the conditional gradient method (Frank-Wolfe) and moves pseudomarginals within the marginal polytope through repeated maximum a posteriori (MAP) calls. This m…
Let α(s) be an arc on a connected oriented surface S in E3, parameterized by arc length s, with torsion τ and length l. The total square torsion F of α is defined by T=\int_{0}^{l}τ^{2}ds\ $. . The arc α is called a relaxed elastic line of second kind if it is an extremal for the variational problem of minimizing the v…
Let be an arc on a connected oriented surface in Minkowski 3-space, parameterized by arc length , with torsion and length . The total square torsion of is defined by . The arc is called a relaxed elastic line of second kind if it is an extremal for the variational prob…
Paper relaxes differential privacy for correlated features, improving privacy-utility trade-off.
problem Standard differential privacy ignores feature correlation, leading to suboptimal privacy-utility balance.
method Introduces CorrDP framework that accounts for feature correlation, using total variation distance for quantification.
result CorrDP algorithms outperform standard DP in synthetic and real-world datasets with insensitive features.
In this paper, we consider the classical variational problem in the Galilean space. we develop the Euler-Lagrange equations for a elastic line on an oriented surface in the Galilean 3-dimensional space . Using the varia- tion method, we will try to give some characterization for the solution curve (the elastic lin…
Optimal neural network approximation for Wasserstein gradient direction via convex optimization.
problem Approximating Wasserstein gradient direction with limited data.
method Two-layer networks with squared-ReLU activations, SDP relaxation.
result Optimal approximation of Wasserstein gradient direction in two-layer networks.
Differentiable relaxation for inferring partial orders from noisy linear data.
problem Inference of partial orders from linear data with noisy observations.
method Introducing a differentiable relaxation to model noisy linear extensions, replacing discontinuous precedence and feasibility with smooth surrogates.
result Smooth posterior that preserves partial-order semantics, supports gradient-based inference, and converges to hard likelihood.
DisARM improves gradient estimation for binary latent variables.
problem Challenges in training models with discrete latent variables.
method Uses antithetic sampling over continuous augmentation.
result DisARM consistently outperforms ARM and baseline methods in log-likelihood and variance.
DD-VAE uses deterministic decoding for better latent code utilization in discrete data.
problem Inflexible decoders in VAEs lead to poor utilization of latent codes in discrete data.
method Proposed DD-VAE with deterministic decoding and new proposal distributions.
result DD-VAE improves latent code utilization and structure of learned manifold.
Generative models of graphs are well-known, but many existing models are limited in scalability and expressivity. We present a novel sequential graphical variational autoencoder operating directly on graphical representations of data. In our model, the encoding and decoding of a graph as is framed as a sequential decon…
Sequential coordinate ascent is more robust in high-dimensional linear regression.
problem Behavior difference between sequential and parallel coordinate ascent in variational inference.
method Comparison of sequential and parallel coordinate ascent algorithms in high-dimensional linear regression.
result Sequential algorithm converges under more relaxed conditions than parallel algorithm.
In many applications we seek to maximize an expectation with respect to a distribution over discrete variables. Estimating gradients of such objectives with respect to the distribution parameters is a challenging problem. We analyze existing solutions including finite-difference (FD) estimators and continuous relaxatio…
Beta process is the standard nonparametric Bayesian prior for latent factor model. In this paper, we derive a structured mean-field variational inference algorithm for a beta process non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) model with Poisson likelihood. Unlike the linear Gaussian model, which is well-studied in the non…
We present a framework for learning disentangled and interpretable jointly continuous and discrete representations in an unsupervised manner. By augmenting the continuous latent distribution of variational autoencoders with a relaxed discrete distribution and controlling the amount of information encoded in each latent…
A new generative model relaxes the bijectivity requirement for invertible flows.
problem Challenges of invertible flow-based models in scaling to large datasets.
method Proposes a generative model based on relaxed injective probability flows.
result Improves sample quality over VAEs and AEs.
A key challenge for gradient based optimization methods in model-free reinforcement learning is to develop an approach that is sample efficient and has low variance. In this work, we apply Kronecker-factored curvature estimation technique (KFAC) to a recently proposed gradient estimator for control variate optimization…
VaSST uses soft symbolic trees for probabilistic symbolic regression.
problem Efficiently recover symbolic expressions from noisy data.
method Variational inference with soft symbolic trees.
result Superior performance in structural recovery and predictive accuracy.
PIVID infers DAG structures from data using variational inference and permutations.
problem Estimating the structure of Bayesian networks from observational data.
method PIVID uses variational inference and continuous relaxations of discrete distributions to infer a distribution over permutations and DAGs.
result PIVID outperforms deterministic and Bayesian approaches in estimating DAG structures from data.
Reparameterization of variational auto-encoders with continuous random variables is an effective method for reducing the variance of their gradient estimates. In the discrete case, one can perform reparametrization using the Gumbel-Max trick, but the resulting objective relies on an operation and is non-dif…
Using the theory of group action, we first introduce the concept of the automorphism group of an exponential family or a graphical model, thus formalizing the general notion of symmetry of a probabilistic model. This automorphism group provides a precise mathematical framework for lifted inference in the general expone…
Unified framework for fair regression in aware and unaware settings.
problem Lack of principled methods for fair regression in unawareness settings.
method Formulated as an optimal transport problem, unifying aware and unaware settings.
result Characterizes optimal prediction functions via optimal transport maps under different penalties.
Two non-local asymptotic invariants of magnetic fields for the ideal magnetohydrodynamics are introduced. The velocity of variation of the invariants for a non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics with a small magnetic dissipation is estimated. By means of the invariants the spectra of electromagnetic fields are investigated. A …
Training of discrete latent variable models remains challenging because passing gradient information through discrete units is difficult. We propose a new class of smoothing transformations based on a mixture of two overlapping distributions, and show that the proposed transformation can be used for training binary lat…
Paper develops efficient variational inference for sparse deep learning with theoretical guarantees.
problem Sparse deep learning's challenge of huge storage consumption and sparse structure recovery.
method Bayesian treatment with spike-and-slab priors and continuous relaxation of Bernoulli distribution for computationally efficient variational inferences.
result Provides variational posterior contraction rate, justifying consistency of the proposed method.
VSI model predicts survival distributions efficiently.
problem Predicting time-to-event distributions in clinical applications.
method Variational framework for non-parametric distribution estimation.
result Improved performance over competing solutions.
GCVAE improves disentanglement in VAEs while balancing reconstruction error.
problem Improving disentanglement in VAEs while maintaining low reconstruction error.
method Introduces three controllable Lagrangian hyperparameters to optimize reconstruction and KL divergence loss.
result GCVAE outperforms state-of-the-art models in disentanglement while balancing reconstruction.
We derive streamlined mean field variational Bayes algorithms for fitting linear mixed models with crossed random effects. In the most general situation, where the dimensions of the crossed groups are arbitrarily large, streamlining is hindered by lack of sparseness in the underlying least squares system. Because of th…
Paper tightens variational GP approximations for large datasets.
problem Scaling Gaussian processes to large datasets.
method Relaxing the standard assumption about inducing points' posterior matching the prior, leading to a tighter variational approximation.
result The proposed approximation consistently matches or outperforms standard sparse variational GPs while maintaining computational cost.
Practitioners of Bayesian statistics have long depended on Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to obtain samples from intractable posterior distributions. Unfortunately, MCMC algorithms are typically serial, and do not scale to the large datasets typical of modern machine learning. The recently proposed consensus Monte Car…
Proposes a robust VIB approach using soft labels and mutual info estimation.
problem Improving robustness of VIB to adversarial perturbations.
method Refines categorical class information with soft labels from a reference network, relaxes Gaussian posterior assumption.
result Significantly outperforms benchmarked models on MNIST and CIFAR-10.
A new framework for sparse regression models with slow variations.
problem Parameter estimation for sparse regression models with slow variations.
method Formulated as a mixed-integer optimization problem, then reformulated as a binary convex optimization problem with a novel relaxation technique.
result Efficiently solves the problem to provable optimality using a cutting plane-type algorithm.
Modern neural network training relies on piece-wise (sub-)differentiable functions in order to use backpropagation to update model parameters. In this work, we introduce a novel method to allow simple non-differentiable functions at intermediary layers of deep neural networks. We do so by training with a differentiable…