Deep unfolding of MCMC kernels: scalable, modular & explainable GANs for high-dimensional posterior sampling

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Spence, Jonathan, Liaudat, Tobías I., Zygalakis, Konstantinos, Pereyra, Marcelo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866918353523703808
author Spence, Jonathan
Liaudat, Tobías I.
Zygalakis, Konstantinos
Pereyra, Marcelo
author_facet Spence, Jonathan
Liaudat, Tobías I.
Zygalakis, Konstantinos
Pereyra, Marcelo
contents Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are fundamental to Bayesian computation, but can be computationally intensive, especially in high-dimensional settings. Push-forward generative models, such as generative adversarial networks (GANs), variational auto-encoders and normalising flows offer a computationally efficient alternative for posterior sampling. However, push-forward models are opaque as they lack the modularity of Bayes Theorem, leading to poor generalisation with respect to changes in the likelihood function. In this work, we introduce a novel approach to GAN architecture design by applying deep unfolding to Langevin MCMC algorithms. This paradigm maps fixed-step iterative algorithms onto modular neural networks, yielding architectures that are both flexible and amenable to interpretation. Crucially, our design allows key model parameters to be specified at inference time, offering robustness to changes in the likelihood parameters. We train these unfolded samplers end-to-end using a supervised regularized Wasserstein GAN framework for posterior sampling. Through extensive Bayesian imaging experiments, we demonstrate that our proposed approach achieves high sampling accuracy and excellent computational efficiency, while retaining the physics consistency, adaptability and interpretability of classical MCMC strategies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_20758
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Deep unfolding of MCMC kernels: scalable, modular & explainable GANs for high-dimensional posterior sampling
Spence, Jonathan
Liaudat, Tobías I.
Zygalakis, Konstantinos
Pereyra, Marcelo
Machine Learning
65C60, 62F15
Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are fundamental to Bayesian computation, but can be computationally intensive, especially in high-dimensional settings. Push-forward generative models, such as generative adversarial networks (GANs), variational auto-encoders and normalising flows offer a computationally efficient alternative for posterior sampling. However, push-forward models are opaque as they lack the modularity of Bayes Theorem, leading to poor generalisation with respect to changes in the likelihood function. In this work, we introduce a novel approach to GAN architecture design by applying deep unfolding to Langevin MCMC algorithms. This paradigm maps fixed-step iterative algorithms onto modular neural networks, yielding architectures that are both flexible and amenable to interpretation. Crucially, our design allows key model parameters to be specified at inference time, offering robustness to changes in the likelihood parameters. We train these unfolded samplers end-to-end using a supervised regularized Wasserstein GAN framework for posterior sampling. Through extensive Bayesian imaging experiments, we demonstrate that our proposed approach achieves high sampling accuracy and excellent computational efficiency, while retaining the physics consistency, adaptability and interpretability of classical MCMC strategies.
title Deep unfolding of MCMC kernels: scalable, modular & explainable GANs for high-dimensional posterior sampling
topic Machine Learning
65C60, 62F15
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.20758