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Main Authors: Lelièvre, Tony, Pavliotis, Grigorios A., Robin, Geneviève, Santet, Régis, Stoltz, Gabriel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.12087
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author Lelièvre, Tony
Pavliotis, Grigorios A.
Robin, Geneviève
Santet, Régis
Stoltz, Gabriel
author_facet Lelièvre, Tony
Pavliotis, Grigorios A.
Robin, Geneviève
Santet, Régis
Stoltz, Gabriel
contents Overdamped Langevin dynamics are reversible stochastic differential equations which are commonly used to sample probability measures in high-dimensional spaces, such as the ones appearing in computational statistical physics and Bayesian inference. By varying the diffusion coefficient, there are in fact infinitely many overdamped Langevin dynamics which are reversible with respect to the target probability measure at hand. This suggests to optimize the diffusion coefficient in order to increase the convergence rate of the dynamics, as measured by the spectral gap of the generator associated with the stochastic differential equation. We analytically study this problem here, obtaining in particular necessary conditions on the optimal diffusion coefficient. We also derive an explicit expression of the optimal diffusion in some appropriate homogenized limit. Numerical results, both relying on discretizations of the spectral gap problem and Monte Carlo simulations of the stochastic dynamics, demonstrate the increased quality of the sampling arising from an appropriate choice of the diffusion coefficient.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_12087
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimizing the diffusion coefficient of overdamped Langevin dynamics
Lelièvre, Tony
Pavliotis, Grigorios A.
Robin, Geneviève
Santet, Régis
Stoltz, Gabriel
Numerical Analysis
Overdamped Langevin dynamics are reversible stochastic differential equations which are commonly used to sample probability measures in high-dimensional spaces, such as the ones appearing in computational statistical physics and Bayesian inference. By varying the diffusion coefficient, there are in fact infinitely many overdamped Langevin dynamics which are reversible with respect to the target probability measure at hand. This suggests to optimize the diffusion coefficient in order to increase the convergence rate of the dynamics, as measured by the spectral gap of the generator associated with the stochastic differential equation. We analytically study this problem here, obtaining in particular necessary conditions on the optimal diffusion coefficient. We also derive an explicit expression of the optimal diffusion in some appropriate homogenized limit. Numerical results, both relying on discretizations of the spectral gap problem and Monte Carlo simulations of the stochastic dynamics, demonstrate the increased quality of the sampling arising from an appropriate choice of the diffusion coefficient.
title Optimizing the diffusion coefficient of overdamped Langevin dynamics
topic Numerical Analysis
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.12087