Consistency of Variational Inference for Nonlinear Inverse Problems of Partial Differential Equations

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Zu, Shaokang, Jia, Junxiong, Meng, Deyu
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866914312549826560
author Zu, Shaokang
Jia, Junxiong
Meng, Deyu
author_facet Zu, Shaokang
Jia, Junxiong
Meng, Deyu
contents We investigate the convergence rates of variational posterior distributions for statistical inverse problems involving nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). Departing from exact Bayesian inference, variational inference transforms the inference problem into an optimization problem by introducing variational sets. Based on a modified ``prior mass and testing'' framework, we propose general conditions for three categories of inverse problems: mildly ill-posed, severely ill-posed, and those with unknown model parameters. Concentrating on the widely utilized variational sets comprising the truncated Gaussian or the mean-field family, we demonstrate that for all three categories, the convergence rate can be decomposed into a true distribution term and a variational approximation term. Moreover, we illustrate that the true distribution term dominates the convergence rates, thereby substantiating the effectiveness of the variational inference method for inverse problems of PDEs. As specific examples, we examine a collection of non-linear inverse problems, including the Darcy flow problem, the inverse potential problem for a subdiffusion equation, and the inverse medium scattering problem. Besides, we show that our convergence rates are minimax optimal for these inverse problems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_18415
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Consistency of Variational Inference for Nonlinear Inverse Problems of Partial Differential Equations
Zu, Shaokang
Jia, Junxiong
Meng, Deyu
Statistics Theory
65N21, 62G20
We investigate the convergence rates of variational posterior distributions for statistical inverse problems involving nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). Departing from exact Bayesian inference, variational inference transforms the inference problem into an optimization problem by introducing variational sets. Based on a modified ``prior mass and testing'' framework, we propose general conditions for three categories of inverse problems: mildly ill-posed, severely ill-posed, and those with unknown model parameters. Concentrating on the widely utilized variational sets comprising the truncated Gaussian or the mean-field family, we demonstrate that for all three categories, the convergence rate can be decomposed into a true distribution term and a variational approximation term. Moreover, we illustrate that the true distribution term dominates the convergence rates, thereby substantiating the effectiveness of the variational inference method for inverse problems of PDEs. As specific examples, we examine a collection of non-linear inverse problems, including the Darcy flow problem, the inverse potential problem for a subdiffusion equation, and the inverse medium scattering problem. Besides, we show that our convergence rates are minimax optimal for these inverse problems.
title Consistency of Variational Inference for Nonlinear Inverse Problems of Partial Differential Equations
topic Statistics Theory
65N21, 62G20
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.18415