This work introduces a class of rejection-free Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) samplers, named the Bouncy Hybrid Sampler, which unifies several existing methods from the literature. Examples include the Bouncy Particle Sampler of Peters and de With (2012), Bouchard-Cote et al. (2015) and the Hamiltonian MCMC. Following the introduced general framework, we derive a new sampler called the Quadratic Bouncy Hybrid Sampler. We apply this novel sampler to the problem of sampling from a truncated Gaussian distribution.
As a special example of piecewise deterministic Markov process, bouncy particle sampler is a rejection-free, irreversible Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm and can draw samples from target distribution efficiently. We generalize bouncy particle sampler in terms of its transition dynamics. In BPS, the transition dynamic at event time is deterministic, but in GBPS, it is random. With the help of this randomness, GBPS can overcome the reducibility problem in BPS without refreshement.
The Bouncy Particle Sampler is a novel rejection-free non-reversible sampler for differentiable probability distributions over continuous variables. We generalize the algorithm to piecewise differentiable distributions and apply it to generic binary distributions using a piecewise differentiable augmentation. We illustrate the new algorithm in a binary Markov Random Field example, and compare it to binary Hamiltonian Monte Carlo. Our results suggest that binary BPS samplers are better for easy to mix distributions.
Non-reversible Markov chain Monte Carlo schemes based on piecewise deterministic Markov processes have been recently introduced in applied probability, automatic control, physics and statistics. Although these algorithms demonstrate experimentally good performance and are accordingly increasingly used in a wide range of applications, geometric ergodicity results for such schemes have only been established so far under very restrictive assumptions. We give here verifiable conditions on the target distribution under which the Bouncy Particle Sampler algorithm introduced in \cite{P_dW_12} is geom…
We propose a novel blocked version of the continuous-time bouncy particle sampler of [Bouchard-Côté et al., 2018] which is applicable to any differentiable probability density. This alternative implementation is motivated by blocked Gibbs sampling for state space models [Singh et al., 2017] and leads to significant improvement in terms of effective sample size per second, and furthermore, allows for significant parallelization of the resulting algorithm. The new algorithms are particularly efficient for latent state inference in high-dimensional state space models, where blocking in both space…
Most Markov chain Monte Carlo methods operate in discrete time and are reversible with respect to the target probability. Nevertheless, it is now understood that the use of non-reversible Markov chains can be beneficial in many contexts. In particular, the recently-proposed Bouncy Particle Sampler leverages a continuous-time and non-reversible Markov process and empirically shows state-of-the-art performances when used to explore certain probability densities; however, its implementation typically requires the computation of local upper bounds on the gradient of the log target density. We pres…
MCMC using $\textit{bouncy}$ Hamiltonian dynamics: A unifying framework for Hamiltonian Monte Carlo and piecewise deterministic Markov process samplers
The Bouncy Particle Sampler is a Markov chain Monte Carlo method based on a nonreversible piecewise deterministic Markov process. In this scheme, a particle explores the state space of interest by evolving according to a linear dynamics which is altered by bouncing on the hyperplane tangent to the gradient of the negative log-target density at the arrival times of an inhomogeneous Poisson Process (PP) and by randomly perturbing its velocity at the arrival times of an homogeneous PP. Under regularity conditions, we show here that the process corresponding to the first component of the particle …
University of Massachusetts Amherst（马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校）；University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学）
Sampling the parameters of high-dimensional Continuous Time Markov Chains (CTMC) is a challenging problem with important applications in many fields of applied statistics. In this work a recently proposed type of non-reversible rejection-free Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampler, the Bouncy Particle Sampler (BPS), is brought to bear to this problem. BPS has demonstrated its favorable computational efficiency compared with state-of-the-art MCMC algorithms, however to date applications to real-data scenario were scarce. An important aspect of the practical implementation of BPS is the simulat…
Bouncy particle sampler with infinite exchanging parallel tempering
Center for Mathematics and Data Science, Gunma University（数学与数据科学中心，gunma大学）；Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ibaraki University（科学与工程研究生院，ibaraki大学）
We explore a general framework in Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling where sequential proposals are tried as a candidate for the next state of the Markov chain. This sequential-proposal framework can be applied to various existing MCMC methods, including Metropolis-Hastings algorithms using random proposals and methods that use deterministic proposals such as Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) or the bouncy particle sampler. Sequential-proposal MCMC methods construct the same Markov chains as those constructed by the delayed rejection method under certain circumstances. In the context of HMC,…
Markov chain Monte Carlo methods have become standard tools in statistics to sample from complex probability measures. Many available techniques rely on discrete-time reversible Markov chains whose transition kernels build up over the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. We explore and propose several original extensions of an alternative approach introduced recently in Peters and de With (2012) where the target distribution of interest is explored using a continuous-time Markov process. In the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, a trial move to a region of lower target density, equivalently "higher ener…
The Bouncy Particle sampler (BPS) and the Zig-Zag sampler (ZZS) are continuous time, non-reversible Monte Carlo methods based on piecewise deterministic Markov processes. Experiments show that the speed of convergence of these samplers can be affected by the shape of the target distribution, as for instance in the case of anisotropic targets. We propose an adaptive scheme that iteratively learns all or part of the covariance matrix of the target and takes advantage of the obtained information to modify the underlying process with the aim of increasing the speed of convergence. Moreover, we def…
Technische Universiteit Delft（代尔夫特理工大学）；Osaka University（大阪大学）；University of Warwick（华威大学）
This paper introduces the Boomerang Sampler as a novel class of continuous-time non-reversible Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms. The methodology begins by representing the target density as a density, $e^{-U}$, with respect to a prescribed (usually) Gaussian measure and constructs a continuous trajectory consisting of a piecewise elliptical path. The method moves from one elliptical orbit to another according to a rate function which can be written in terms of $U$. We demonstrate that the method is easy to implement and demonstrate empirically that it can out-perform existing benchmark piec…
We introduce a novel stochastic version of the non-reversible, rejection-free Bouncy Particle Sampler (BPS), a Markov process whose sample trajectories are piecewise linear. The algorithm is based on simulating first arrival times in a doubly stochastic Poisson process using the thinning method, and allows efficient sampling of Bayesian posteriors in big datasets. We prove that in the BPS no bias is introduced by noisy evaluations of the log-likelihood gradient. On the other hand, we argue that efficiency considerations favor a small, controllable bias in the construction of the thinning propo…
In this work, we establish $\mathrm{L}^2$-exponential convergence for a broad class of Piecewise Deterministic Markov Processes recently proposed in the context of Markov Process Monte Carlo methods and covering in particular the Randomized Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, the Zig-Zag process and the Bouncy Particle Sampler. The kernel of the symmetric part of the generator of such processes is non-trivial, and we follow the ideas recently introduced by (Dolbeault et al., 2009, 2015) to develop a rigorous framework for hypocoercivity in a fairly general and unifying set-up, while deriving tractable es…
We establish $L^2$-exponential convergence rate for three popular piecewise deterministic Markov processes for sampling: the randomized Hamiltonian Monte Carlo method, the zigzag process, and the bouncy particle sampler. Our analysis is based on a variational framework for hypocoercivity, which combines a Poincaré-type inequality in time-augmented state space and a standard $L^2$ energy estimate. Our analysis provides explicit convergence rate estimates, which are more quantitative than existing results.
There has been substantial interest in developing Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms based on piecewise-deterministic Markov processes. However existing algorithms can only be used if the target distribution of interest is differentiable everywhere. The key to adapting these algorithms so that they can sample from to densities with discontinuities is defining appropriate dynamics for the process when it hits a discontinuity. We present a simple condition for the transition of the process at a discontinuity which can be used to extend any existing sampler for smooth densities, and give specifi…
We show fundamental properties of the Markov semigroup of recently proposed MCMC algorithms based on Piecewise-deterministic Markov processes (PDMPs) such as the Bouncy Particle Sampler, the Zig-Zag process or the Randomized Hamiltonian Monte Carlo method. Under assumptions typically satisfied in MCMC settings, we prove that PDMPs are Feller and that their generator admits the space of infinitely differentiable functions with compact support as a core. As we illustrate via martingale problems and a simplified proof of the invariance of target distributions, these results provide a fundamental …
We unify slice sampling and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) sampling, demonstrating their connection via the Hamiltonian-Jacobi equation from Hamiltonian mechanics. This insight enables extension of HMC and slice sampling to a broader family of samplers, called Monomial Gamma Samplers (MGS). We provide a theoretical analysis of the mixing performance of such samplers, proving that in the limit of a single parameter, the MGS draws decorrelated samples from the desired target distribution. We further show that as this parameter tends toward this limit, performance gains are achieved at a cost of i…
A complete recipe of measure-preserving diffusions in Euclidean space was recently derived unifying several MCMC algorithms into a single framework. In this paper, we develop a geometric theory that improves and generalises this construction to any manifold. We thereby demonstrate that the completeness result is a direct consequence of the topology of the underlying manifold and the geometry induced by the target measure $P$; there is no need to introduce other structures such as a Riemannian metric, local coordinates, or a reference measure. Instead, our framework relies on the intrinsic geom…
École Polytechnique（巴黎综合理工学院）；Institut Polytechnique de Paris（巴黎理工学院）；INRIA（法国国家信息与自动化研究所）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；Ecole Normale Supérieure（巴黎高等师范学院）；PSL Research University（巴黎文理研究大学）；MBZUAI（穆罕默德·本·扎耶德人工智能大学）
Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT)（数学科学研究所（ICMAT））；SAMSI, Duke University（杜克大学统计与应用数学研究所（SAMSI））；Duke University（杜克大学）
We propose a unifying view of two different Bayesian inference algorithms, Stochastic Gradient Markov Chain Monte Carlo (SG-MCMC) and Stein Variational Gradient Descent (SVGD), leading to improved and efficient novel sampling schemes. We show that SVGD combined with a noise term can be framed as a multiple chain SG-MCMC method. Instead of treating each parallel chain independently from others, our proposed algorithm implements a repulsive force between particles, avoiding collapse and facilitating a better exploration of the parameter space. We also show how the addition of this noise term is …
A challenging problem in probabilistic programming is to develop inference algorithms that work for arbitrary programs in a universal probabilistic programming language (PPL). We present the nonparametric involutive Markov chain Monte Carlo (NP-iMCMC) algorithm as a method for constructing MCMC inference algorithms for nonparametric models expressible in universal PPLs. Building on the unifying involutive MCMC framework, and by providing a general procedure for driving state movement between dimensions, we show that NP-iMCMC can generalise numerous existing iMCMC algorithms to work on nonparam…
