Inhomogeneous Priors for Bayesian Inverse Problems

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Afkham, Babak Maboudi, Soto, Tomas, Karamehmedovic, Mirza, Roininen, Lassi
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866911431736164352
author Afkham, Babak Maboudi
Soto, Tomas
Karamehmedovic, Mirza
Roininen, Lassi
author_facet Afkham, Babak Maboudi
Soto, Tomas
Karamehmedovic, Mirza
Roininen, Lassi
contents Many inverse problems arising in engineering and applied sciences involve unknown quantities with pronounced spatial inhomogeneity, such as localized defects or spatially varying material properties, making reliable uncertainty quantification particularly challenging. While Bayesian inverse problem methodologies provide a principled framework for assessing reconstruction reliability, commonly used Gaussian priors, such as Whittle-Matern models, impose globally homogeneous assumptions that limit their ability to capture such structure in large-scale settings. We introduce a new class of inhomogeneous priors defined via convolution with white noise, yielding nonstationary Whittle-Matern-type random fields with a rigorous mathematical construction. These priors fit naturally within existing Bayesian well-posedness theory and enable efficient sampling by reducing prior realizations to the solution of a pseudo-differential equation, for which we develop numerical schemes with quantified approximation error. Numerical experiments in one-dimensional denoising and two-dimensional limited-angle X-ray tomography demonstrate significant improvements in reconstruction quality and uncertainty quantification, particularly in data-limited scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_07856
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Inhomogeneous Priors for Bayesian Inverse Problems
Afkham, Babak Maboudi
Soto, Tomas
Karamehmedovic, Mirza
Roininen, Lassi
Numerical Analysis
Probability
Statistics Theory
Many inverse problems arising in engineering and applied sciences involve unknown quantities with pronounced spatial inhomogeneity, such as localized defects or spatially varying material properties, making reliable uncertainty quantification particularly challenging. While Bayesian inverse problem methodologies provide a principled framework for assessing reconstruction reliability, commonly used Gaussian priors, such as Whittle-Matern models, impose globally homogeneous assumptions that limit their ability to capture such structure in large-scale settings. We introduce a new class of inhomogeneous priors defined via convolution with white noise, yielding nonstationary Whittle-Matern-type random fields with a rigorous mathematical construction. These priors fit naturally within existing Bayesian well-posedness theory and enable efficient sampling by reducing prior realizations to the solution of a pseudo-differential equation, for which we develop numerical schemes with quantified approximation error. Numerical experiments in one-dimensional denoising and two-dimensional limited-angle X-ray tomography demonstrate significant improvements in reconstruction quality and uncertainty quantification, particularly in data-limited scenarios.
title Inhomogeneous Priors for Bayesian Inverse Problems
topic Numerical Analysis
Probability
Statistics Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.07856