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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Langmore, Ian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.23141
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author Langmore, Ian
author_facet Langmore, Ian
contents Positive semi-definite kernels are used to induce pseudo-metrics, or ``distances'', between measures. We write these as an expected quadratic variation of, or expected inner product between, a random field and the difference of measures. This alternate viewpoint offers important intuition and interesting connections to existing forms. Metric distances leading to convenient finite sample estimates are shown to be induced by fields with dense support, stationary increments, and scale invariance. The main example of this is energy distance. We show that the common generalization preserving continuity is induced by fractional Brownian motion. We induce an alternate generalization with the Gaussian free field, formally extending the Cramér-von Mises distance. Pathwise properties give intuition about practical aspects of each. This is demonstrated through signal to noise ratio studies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_23141
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Random Field Representations of Kernel Distances
Langmore, Ian
Probability
Functional Analysis
Statistics Theory
60G60 (Primary) 60B11, 62G10, 60G22 (Secondary)
G.3
Positive semi-definite kernels are used to induce pseudo-metrics, or ``distances'', between measures. We write these as an expected quadratic variation of, or expected inner product between, a random field and the difference of measures. This alternate viewpoint offers important intuition and interesting connections to existing forms. Metric distances leading to convenient finite sample estimates are shown to be induced by fields with dense support, stationary increments, and scale invariance. The main example of this is energy distance. We show that the common generalization preserving continuity is induced by fractional Brownian motion. We induce an alternate generalization with the Gaussian free field, formally extending the Cramér-von Mises distance. Pathwise properties give intuition about practical aspects of each. This is demonstrated through signal to noise ratio studies.
title Random Field Representations of Kernel Distances
topic Probability
Functional Analysis
Statistics Theory
60G60 (Primary) 60B11, 62G10, 60G22 (Secondary)
G.3
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.23141