Radial Neighbors for Provably Accurate Scalable Approximations of Gaussian Processes

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhu, Yichen, Peruzzi, Michele, Li, Cheng, Dunson, David B.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2022
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author Zhu, Yichen
Peruzzi, Michele
Li, Cheng
Dunson, David B.
author_facet Zhu, Yichen
Peruzzi, Michele
Li, Cheng
Dunson, David B.
contents In geostatistical problems with massive sample size, Gaussian processes can be approximated using sparse directed acyclic graphs to achieve scalable $O(n)$ computational complexity. In these models, data at each location are typically assumed conditionally dependent on a small set of parents which usually include a subset of the nearest neighbors. These methodologies often exhibit excellent empirical performance, but the lack of theoretical validation leads to unclear guidance in specifying the underlying graphical model and sensitivity to graph choice. We address these issues by introducing radial neighbors Gaussian processes (RadGP), a class of Gaussian processes based on directed acyclic graphs in which directed edges connect every location to all of its neighbors within a predetermined radius. We prove that any radial neighbors Gaussian process can accurately approximate the corresponding unrestricted Gaussian process in Wasserstein-2 distance, with an error rate determined by the approximation radius, the spatial covariance function, and the spatial dispersion of samples. We offer further empirical validation of our approach via applications on simulated and real world data showing excellent performance in both prior and posterior approximations to the original Gaussian process.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2211_14692
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Radial Neighbors for Provably Accurate Scalable Approximations of Gaussian Processes
Zhu, Yichen
Peruzzi, Michele
Li, Cheng
Dunson, David B.
Statistics Theory
Methodology
In geostatistical problems with massive sample size, Gaussian processes can be approximated using sparse directed acyclic graphs to achieve scalable $O(n)$ computational complexity. In these models, data at each location are typically assumed conditionally dependent on a small set of parents which usually include a subset of the nearest neighbors. These methodologies often exhibit excellent empirical performance, but the lack of theoretical validation leads to unclear guidance in specifying the underlying graphical model and sensitivity to graph choice. We address these issues by introducing radial neighbors Gaussian processes (RadGP), a class of Gaussian processes based on directed acyclic graphs in which directed edges connect every location to all of its neighbors within a predetermined radius. We prove that any radial neighbors Gaussian process can accurately approximate the corresponding unrestricted Gaussian process in Wasserstein-2 distance, with an error rate determined by the approximation radius, the spatial covariance function, and the spatial dispersion of samples. We offer further empirical validation of our approach via applications on simulated and real world data showing excellent performance in both prior and posterior approximations to the original Gaussian process.
title Radial Neighbors for Provably Accurate Scalable Approximations of Gaussian Processes
topic Statistics Theory
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.14692