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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wells, Michael L., Lahouel, Kamel, Jedynak, Bruno
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11622
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author Wells, Michael L.
Lahouel, Kamel
Jedynak, Bruno
author_facet Wells, Michael L.
Lahouel, Kamel
Jedynak, Bruno
contents We present a novel kernel-based method for learning multivariate stochastic differential equations (SDEs). The method follows a two-step procedure: we first estimate the drift term function, then the (matrix-valued) diffusion function given the drift. Occupation kernels are integral functionals on a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) that aggregate information over a trajectory. Our approach leverages vector-valued occupation kernels for estimating the drift component of the stochastic process. For diffusion estimation, we extend this framework by introducing operator-valued occupation kernels, enabling the estimation of an auxiliary matrix-valued function as a positive semi-definite operator, from which we readily derive the diffusion estimate. This enables us to avoid common challenges in SDE learning, such as intractable likelihoods, by optimizing a reconstruction-error-based objective. We propose a simple learning procedure that retains strong predictive accuracy while using Fenchel duality to promote efficiency. We validate the method on simulated benchmarks and a real-world dataset of Amyloid imaging in healthy and Alzheimer's disease subjects.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_11622
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Stochastic Occupation Kernel (SOCK) Method for Learning Stochastic Differential Equations
Wells, Michael L.
Lahouel, Kamel
Jedynak, Bruno
Machine Learning
65C20, 46E22, 46N10, 62J07, 60H10
We present a novel kernel-based method for learning multivariate stochastic differential equations (SDEs). The method follows a two-step procedure: we first estimate the drift term function, then the (matrix-valued) diffusion function given the drift. Occupation kernels are integral functionals on a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) that aggregate information over a trajectory. Our approach leverages vector-valued occupation kernels for estimating the drift component of the stochastic process. For diffusion estimation, we extend this framework by introducing operator-valued occupation kernels, enabling the estimation of an auxiliary matrix-valued function as a positive semi-definite operator, from which we readily derive the diffusion estimate. This enables us to avoid common challenges in SDE learning, such as intractable likelihoods, by optimizing a reconstruction-error-based objective. We propose a simple learning procedure that retains strong predictive accuracy while using Fenchel duality to promote efficiency. We validate the method on simulated benchmarks and a real-world dataset of Amyloid imaging in healthy and Alzheimer's disease subjects.
title The Stochastic Occupation Kernel (SOCK) Method for Learning Stochastic Differential Equations
topic Machine Learning
65C20, 46E22, 46N10, 62J07, 60H10
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11622