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Main Authors: Li, Kaiyu, Yang, Yiming, Cheng, Xiaoyuan, He, Yi, Sun, Zhuo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.12996
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author Li, Kaiyu
Yang, Yiming
Cheng, Xiaoyuan
He, Yi
Sun, Zhuo
author_facet Li, Kaiyu
Yang, Yiming
Cheng, Xiaoyuan
He, Yi
Sun, Zhuo
contents Control variates are variance reduction techniques for Monte Carlo estimators. They play a critical role in improving Monte Carlo estimators in scientific and machine learning applications that involve computationally expensive integrals. We introduce multilevel control functionals (MLCFs), a novel and widely applicable extension of control variates that combines non-parametric Stein-based control variates with multi-fidelity methods. We show that when the integrand and the density are smooth, and when the dimensionality is not very high, MLCFs enjoy a faster convergence rate. We provide both theoretical analysis and empirical assessments on differential equation examples, including Bayesian inference for ecological models, to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach. Furthermore, we extend MLCFs for variational inference, and demonstrate improved performance empirically through Bayesian neural network examples.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_12996
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multilevel Control Functional
Li, Kaiyu
Yang, Yiming
Cheng, Xiaoyuan
He, Yi
Sun, Zhuo
Methodology
Control variates are variance reduction techniques for Monte Carlo estimators. They play a critical role in improving Monte Carlo estimators in scientific and machine learning applications that involve computationally expensive integrals. We introduce multilevel control functionals (MLCFs), a novel and widely applicable extension of control variates that combines non-parametric Stein-based control variates with multi-fidelity methods. We show that when the integrand and the density are smooth, and when the dimensionality is not very high, MLCFs enjoy a faster convergence rate. We provide both theoretical analysis and empirical assessments on differential equation examples, including Bayesian inference for ecological models, to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach. Furthermore, we extend MLCFs for variational inference, and demonstrate improved performance empirically through Bayesian neural network examples.
title Multilevel Control Functional
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.12996