Efficient first-order algorithms for large-scale, non-smooth maximum entropy models with application to wildfire science

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Langlois, Gabriel P., Buch, Jatan, Darbon, Jérôme
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Langlois, Gabriel P.
Buch, Jatan
Darbon, Jérôme
author_facet Langlois, Gabriel P.
Buch, Jatan
Darbon, Jérôme
contents Maximum entropy (Maxent) models are a class of statistical models that use the maximum entropy principle to estimate probability distributions from data. Due to the size of modern data sets, Maxent models need efficient optimization algorithms to scale well for big data applications. State-of-the-art algorithms for Maxent models, however, were not originally designed to handle big data sets; these algorithms either rely on technical devices that may yield unreliable numerical results, scale poorly, or require smoothness assumptions that many practical Maxent models lack. In this paper, we present novel optimization algorithms that overcome the shortcomings of state-of-the-art algorithms for training large-scale, non-smooth Maxent models. Our proposed first-order algorithms leverage the Kullback-Leibler divergence to train large-scale and non-smooth Maxent models efficiently. For Maxent models with discrete probability distribution of $n$ elements built from samples, each containing $m$ features, the stepsize parameters estimation and iterations in our algorithms scale on the order of $O(mn)$ operations and can be trivially parallelized. Moreover, the strong $\ell_{1}$ convexity of the Kullback--Leibler divergence allows for larger stepsize parameters, thereby speeding up the convergence rate of our algorithms. To illustrate the efficiency of our novel algorithms, we consider the problem of estimating probabilities of fire occurrences as a function of ecological features in the Western US MTBS-Interagency wildfire data set. Our numerical results show that our algorithms outperform the state of the arts by one order of magnitude and yield results that agree with physical models of wildfire occurrence and previous statistical analyses of wildfire drivers.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_06816
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Efficient first-order algorithms for large-scale, non-smooth maximum entropy models with application to wildfire science
Langlois, Gabriel P.
Buch, Jatan
Darbon, Jérôme
Machine Learning
Numerical Analysis
Optimization and Control
90C30, 90C06, 90C90, 62P12
G.1.6; G.3; J.2
Maximum entropy (Maxent) models are a class of statistical models that use the maximum entropy principle to estimate probability distributions from data. Due to the size of modern data sets, Maxent models need efficient optimization algorithms to scale well for big data applications. State-of-the-art algorithms for Maxent models, however, were not originally designed to handle big data sets; these algorithms either rely on technical devices that may yield unreliable numerical results, scale poorly, or require smoothness assumptions that many practical Maxent models lack. In this paper, we present novel optimization algorithms that overcome the shortcomings of state-of-the-art algorithms for training large-scale, non-smooth Maxent models. Our proposed first-order algorithms leverage the Kullback-Leibler divergence to train large-scale and non-smooth Maxent models efficiently. For Maxent models with discrete probability distribution of $n$ elements built from samples, each containing $m$ features, the stepsize parameters estimation and iterations in our algorithms scale on the order of $O(mn)$ operations and can be trivially parallelized. Moreover, the strong $\ell_{1}$ convexity of the Kullback--Leibler divergence allows for larger stepsize parameters, thereby speeding up the convergence rate of our algorithms. To illustrate the efficiency of our novel algorithms, we consider the problem of estimating probabilities of fire occurrences as a function of ecological features in the Western US MTBS-Interagency wildfire data set. Our numerical results show that our algorithms outperform the state of the arts by one order of magnitude and yield results that agree with physical models of wildfire occurrence and previous statistical analyses of wildfire drivers.
title Efficient first-order algorithms for large-scale, non-smooth maximum entropy models with application to wildfire science
topic Machine Learning
Numerical Analysis
Optimization and Control
90C30, 90C06, 90C90, 62P12
G.1.6; G.3; J.2
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.06816