Mean-Field Langevin Diffusions with Density-dependent Temperature

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Huang, Yu-Jui, Malik, Zachariah
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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_version_ 1866915455530172416
author Huang, Yu-Jui
Malik, Zachariah
author_facet Huang, Yu-Jui
Malik, Zachariah
contents In the context of non-convex optimization, we let the temperature of a Langevin diffusion to depend on the diffusion's own density function. The rationale is that the induced density captures to some extent the landscape imposed by the non-convex function to be minimized, such that a density-dependent temperature provides location-wise random perturbation that may better react to, for instance, the location and depth of local minimizers. As the Langevin dynamics is now self-regulated by its own density, it forms a mean-field stochastic differential equation (SDE) of the Nemytskii type, distinct from the standard McKean-Vlasov equations. Relying on Wasserstein subdifferential calculus, we first show that the corresponding (nonlinear) Fokker-Planck equation has a unique solution. Next, a weak solution to the SDE is constructed from the solution to the Fokker-Planck equation, by Trevisan's superposition principle. As time goes to infinity, we further show that the induced density converges to an invariant distribution, which admits an explicit formula in terms of the Lambert $W$ function. A numerical example suggests that the density-dependent temperature can simultaneously improve the accuracy of and rate of convergence to the estimate of global minimizers.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_20958
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mean-Field Langevin Diffusions with Density-dependent Temperature
Huang, Yu-Jui
Malik, Zachariah
Optimization and Control
Machine Learning
Probability
60J60, 60H10, 90C26
In the context of non-convex optimization, we let the temperature of a Langevin diffusion to depend on the diffusion's own density function. The rationale is that the induced density captures to some extent the landscape imposed by the non-convex function to be minimized, such that a density-dependent temperature provides location-wise random perturbation that may better react to, for instance, the location and depth of local minimizers. As the Langevin dynamics is now self-regulated by its own density, it forms a mean-field stochastic differential equation (SDE) of the Nemytskii type, distinct from the standard McKean-Vlasov equations. Relying on Wasserstein subdifferential calculus, we first show that the corresponding (nonlinear) Fokker-Planck equation has a unique solution. Next, a weak solution to the SDE is constructed from the solution to the Fokker-Planck equation, by Trevisan's superposition principle. As time goes to infinity, we further show that the induced density converges to an invariant distribution, which admits an explicit formula in terms of the Lambert $W$ function. A numerical example suggests that the density-dependent temperature can simultaneously improve the accuracy of and rate of convergence to the estimate of global minimizers.
title Mean-Field Langevin Diffusions with Density-dependent Temperature
topic Optimization and Control
Machine Learning
Probability
60J60, 60H10, 90C26
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.20958