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Main Authors: Neil, Ethan T., Sitison, Jacob W.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2022
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.14983
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author Neil, Ethan T.
Sitison, Jacob W.
author_facet Neil, Ethan T.
Sitison, Jacob W.
contents Bayesian model averaging is a practical method for dealing with uncertainty due to model specification. Use of this technique requires the estimation of model probability weights. In this work, we revisit the derivation of estimators for these model weights. Use of the Kullback-Leibler divergence as a starting point leads naturally to a number of alternative information criteria suitable for Bayesian model weight estimation. We explore three such criteria, known to the statistics literature before, in detail: a Bayesian analogue of the Akaike information criterion which we call the BAIC, the Bayesian predictive information criterion (BPIC), and the posterior predictive information criterion (PPIC). We compare the use of these information criteria in numerical analysis problems common in lattice field theory calculations. We find that the PPIC has the most appealing theoretical properties and can give the best performance in terms of model-averaging uncertainty, particularly in the presence of noisy data, while the BAIC is a simple and reliable alternative.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2208_14983
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Improved information criteria for Bayesian model averaging in lattice field theory
Neil, Ethan T.
Sitison, Jacob W.
Methodology
High Energy Physics - Lattice
Bayesian model averaging is a practical method for dealing with uncertainty due to model specification. Use of this technique requires the estimation of model probability weights. In this work, we revisit the derivation of estimators for these model weights. Use of the Kullback-Leibler divergence as a starting point leads naturally to a number of alternative information criteria suitable for Bayesian model weight estimation. We explore three such criteria, known to the statistics literature before, in detail: a Bayesian analogue of the Akaike information criterion which we call the BAIC, the Bayesian predictive information criterion (BPIC), and the posterior predictive information criterion (PPIC). We compare the use of these information criteria in numerical analysis problems common in lattice field theory calculations. We find that the PPIC has the most appealing theoretical properties and can give the best performance in terms of model-averaging uncertainty, particularly in the presence of noisy data, while the BAIC is a simple and reliable alternative.
title Improved information criteria for Bayesian model averaging in lattice field theory
topic Methodology
High Energy Physics - Lattice
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.14983