Gaussian Invariant Markov Chain Monte Carlo

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Titsias, Michalis K., Alexopoulos, Angelos, Liu, Siran, Dellaportas, Petros
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Titsias, Michalis K.
Alexopoulos, Angelos
Liu, Siran
Dellaportas, Petros
author_facet Titsias, Michalis K.
Alexopoulos, Angelos
Liu, Siran
Dellaportas, Petros
contents We develop sampling methods, which consist of Gaussian invariant versions of random walk Metropolis (RWM), Metropolis adjusted Langevin algorithm (MALA) and second order Hessian or Manifold MALA. Unlike standard RWM and MALA we show that Gaussian invariant sampling can lead to ergodic estimators with improved statistical efficiency. This is due to a remarkable property of Gaussian invariance that allows us to obtain exact analytical solutions to the Poisson equation for Gaussian targets. These solutions can be used to construct efficient and easy to use control variates for variance reduction of estimators under any intractable target. We demonstrate the new samplers and estimators in several examples, including high dimensional targets in latent Gaussian models where we compare against several advanced methods and obtain state-of-the-art results. We also provide theoretical results regarding geometric ergodicity, and an optimal scaling analysis that shows the dependence of the optimal acceptance rate on the Gaussianity of the target.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_21511
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Gaussian Invariant Markov Chain Monte Carlo
Titsias, Michalis K.
Alexopoulos, Angelos
Liu, Siran
Dellaportas, Petros
Machine Learning
Methodology
We develop sampling methods, which consist of Gaussian invariant versions of random walk Metropolis (RWM), Metropolis adjusted Langevin algorithm (MALA) and second order Hessian or Manifold MALA. Unlike standard RWM and MALA we show that Gaussian invariant sampling can lead to ergodic estimators with improved statistical efficiency. This is due to a remarkable property of Gaussian invariance that allows us to obtain exact analytical solutions to the Poisson equation for Gaussian targets. These solutions can be used to construct efficient and easy to use control variates for variance reduction of estimators under any intractable target. We demonstrate the new samplers and estimators in several examples, including high dimensional targets in latent Gaussian models where we compare against several advanced methods and obtain state-of-the-art results. We also provide theoretical results regarding geometric ergodicity, and an optimal scaling analysis that shows the dependence of the optimal acceptance rate on the Gaussianity of the target.
title Gaussian Invariant Markov Chain Monte Carlo
topic Machine Learning
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.21511