This paper is concerned with a Bayesian approach to testing hypotheses in statistical inverse problems. Based on the posterior distribution $Π\left(\cdot |Y = y\right)$, we want to infer whether a feature $\langleφ, u^\dagger\rangle$ of the unknown quantity of interest $u^\dagger$ is positive. This can be done by the so-called maximum a posteriori test. We provide a frequentistic analysis of this test's properties such as level and power, and prove that it is a regularized test in the sense of Kretschmann et al. (2024). Furthermore we provide lower bounds for its power under classical spectral source conditions in case of Gaussian priors. Numerical simulations illustrate its superior performance both in moderately and severely ill-posed situations.
The Bayesian solution to a statistical inverse problem can be summarised by a mode of the posterior distribution, i.e. a MAP estimator. The MAP estimator essentially coincides with the (regularised) variational solution to the inverse problem, seen as minimisation of the Onsager-Machlup functional of the posterior measure. An open problem in the stability analysis of inverse problems is to establish a relationship between the convergence properties of solutions obtained by the variational approach and by the Bayesian approach. To address this problem, we propose a general convergence theory fo…
We consider the inverse problem of recovering an unknown functional parameter $u$ in a separable Banach space, from a noisy observation $y$ of its image through a known possibly non-linear ill-posed map ${\mathcal G}$. The data $y$ is finite-dimensional and the noise is Gaussian. We adopt a Bayesian approach to the problem and consider Besov space priors (see Lassas et al. 2009), which are well-known for their edge-preserving and sparsity-promoting properties and have recently attracted wide attention especially in the medical imaging community. Our key result is to show that in this non-param…
A demanding challenge in Bayesian inversion is to efficiently characterize the posterior distribution. This task is problematic especially in high-dimensional non-Gaussian problems, where the structure of the posterior can be very chaotic and difficult to analyse. Current inverse problem literature often approaches the problem by considering suitable point estimators for the task. Typically the choice is made between the maximum a posteriori (MAP) or the conditional mean (CM) estimate. The benefits of either choice are not well-understood from the perspective of infinite-dimensional theory. Mo…
The Bayesian methods for linear inverse problems is studied using hierarchical Gaussian models. The problems are considered with different discretizations, and we analyze the phenomena which appear when the discretization becomes finer. A hierarchical solution method for signal restoration problems is introduced and studied with arbitrarily fine discretization. We show that the maximum a posteriori estimate converges to a minimizer of the Mumford--Shah functional, up to a subsequence. A new result regarding the existence of a minimizer of the Mumford--Shah functional is proved. Moreover, we st…
Solutions to inverse problems that are ill-conditioned or ill-posed may have significant intrinsic uncertainty. Unfortunately, analysing and quantifying this uncertainty is very challenging, particularly in high-dimensional problems. As a result, while most modern mathematical imaging methods produce impressive point estimation results, they are generally unable to quantify the uncertainty in the solutions delivered. This paper presents a new general methodology for approximating Bayesian high-posterior-density credibility regions in inverse problems that are convex and potentially very high-d…
In this paper, we aim to design robust estimation techniques based on the compound-Gaussian (CG) process and adapted for calibration of radio interferometers. The motivation beyond this is due to the presence of outliers leading to an unrealistic traditional Gaussian noise assumption. Consequently, to achieve robustness, we adopt a maximum a posteriori (MAP) approach which exploits Bayesian statistics and follows a sequential updating procedure here. The proposed algorithm is applied in a multi-frequency scenario in order to enhance the estimation and correction of perturbation effects. Numeri…
In this article, we propose a novel Bayesian multiple testing formulation for model and variable selection in inverse setups, judiciously embedding the idea of inverse reference distributions proposed by Bhattacharya (2013) in a mixture framework consisting of the competing models. We develop the theory and methods in the general context encompassing parametric and nonparametric competing models, dependent data, as well as misspecifications. Our investigation shows that asymptotically the multiple testing procedure almost surely selects the best possible inverse model that minimizes the minimu…
We propose a Bayesian inference framework to estimate uncertainties in inverse scattering problems. Given the observed data, the forward model and their uncertainties, we find the posterior distribution over a finite parameter field representing the objects. To construct the prior distribution we use a topological sensitivity analysis. We demonstrate the approach on the Bayesian solution of 2D inverse problems in light and acoustic holography with synthetic data. Statistical information on objects such as their center location, diameter size, orientation, as well as material properties, are ex…
Maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation, like all Bayesian methods, depends on prior assumptions. These assumptions are often chosen to promote specific features in the recovered estimate. The form of the chosen prior determines the shape of the posterior distribution, thus the behavior of the estimator and complexity of the associated optimization problem. Here, we consider a family of Gaussian hierarchical models with generalized gamma hyperpriors designed to promote sparsity in linear inverse problems. By varying the hyperparameters, we move continuously between priors that act as smoothed $\…
This paper introduces a computational framework to incorporate flexible regularization techniques in ensemble Kalman methods for nonlinear inverse problems. The proposed methodology approximates the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate of a hierarchical Bayesian model characterized by a conditionally Gaussian prior and generalized gamma hyperpriors. Suitable choices of hyperparameters yield sparsity-promoting regularization. We propose an iterative algorithm for MAP estimation, which alternates between updating the unknown with an ensemble Kalman method and updating the hyperparameters in the r…
We consider the problem of learning by demonstration from agents acting in unknown stochastic Markov environments or games. Our aim is to estimate agent preferences in order to construct improved policies for the same task that the agents are trying to solve. To do so, we extend previous probabilistic approaches for inverse reinforcement learning in known MDPs to the case of unknown dynamics or opponents. We do this by deriving two simplified probabilistic models of the demonstrator's policy and utility. For tractability, we use maximum a posteriori estimation rather than full Bayesian inferen…
We consider the problem of learning by demonstration from agents acting in unknown stochastic Markov environments or games. Our aim is to estimate agent preferences in order to construct improved policies for the same task that the agents are trying to solve. To do so, we extend previous probabilistic approaches for inverse reinforcement learning in known MDPs to the case of unknown dynamics or opponents. We do this by deriving two simplified probabilistic models of the demonstrator's policy and utility. For tractability, we use maximum a posteriori estimation rather than full Bayesian inferen…
Covariance estimation and selection for multivariate datasets in a high-dimensional regime is a fundamental problem in modern statistics. Gaussian graphical models are a popular class of models used for this purpose. Current Bayesian methods for inverse covariance matrix estimation under Gaussian graphical models require the underlying graph and hence the ordering of variables to be known. However, in practice, such information on the true underlying model is often unavailable. We therefore propose a novel permutation-based Bayesian approach to tackle the unknown variable ordering issue. In pa…
Spatially inhomogeneous functions, which may be smooth in some regions and rough in other regions, are modelled naturally in a Bayesian manner using so-called Besov priors which are given by random wavelet expansions with Laplace-distributed coefficients. This paper studies theoretical guarantees for such prior measures - specifically, we examine their frequentist posterior contraction rates in the setting of non-linear inverse problems with Gaussian white noise. Our results are first derived under a general local Lipschitz assumption on the forward map. We then verify the assumption for two n…
The Best Estimate plus Uncertainty (BEPU) approach for nuclear systems modeling and simulation requires that the prediction uncertainty must be quantified in order to prove that the investigated design stays within acceptance criteria. A rigorous Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) process should simultaneously consider multiple sources of quantifiable uncertainties: (1) parameter uncertainty due to randomness or lack of knowledge; (2) experimental uncertainty due to measurement noise; (3) model uncertainty caused by missing/incomplete physics and numerical approximation errors, and (4) code uncer…
We present a randomized maximum a posteriori (rMAP) method for generating approximate samples of posteriors in high dimensional Bayesian inverse problems governed by large-scale forward problems. We derive the rMAP approach by: 1) casting the problem of computing the MAP point as a stochastic optimization problem; 2) interchanging optimization and expectation; and 3) approximating the expectation with a Monte Carlo method. For a specific randomized data and prior mean, rMAP reduces to the maximum likelihood approach (RML). It can also be viewed as an iterative stochastic Newton method. An anal…
We consider the nonparametric regression problem with multiple predictors and an additive error, where the regression function is assumed to be coordinatewise nondecreasing. We propose a Bayesian approach to make an inference on the multivariate monotone regression function, obtain the posterior contraction rate, and construct a universally consistent Bayesian testing procedure for multivariate monotonicity. To facilitate posterior analysis, we set aside the shape restrictions temporarily, and endow a prior on blockwise constant regression functions with heights independently normally distribu…
Mixtures of multivariate normal inverse Gaussian (MNIG) distributions can be used to cluster data that exhibit features such as skewness and heavy tails. However, for cluster analysis, using a traditional finite mixture model framework, either the number of components needs to be known $a$-$priori$ or needs to be estimated $a$-$posteriori$ using some model selection criterion after deriving results for a range of possible number of components. However, different model selection criteria can sometimes result in different number of components yielding uncertainty. Here, an infinite mixture model…
We propose a Bayesian uncertainty quantification method for large-scale imaging inverse problems. Our method applies to all Bayesian models that are log-concave, where maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) estimation is a convex optimization problem. The method is a framework to analyse the confidence in specific structures observed in MAP estimates (e.g., lesions in medical imaging, celestial sources in astronomical imaging), to enable using them as evidence to inform decisions and conclusions. Precisely, following Bayesian decision theory, we seek to assert the structures under scrutiny by performing a…
Using observation data to estimate unknown parameters in computational models is broadly important. This task is often challenging because solutions are non-unique due to the complexity of the model and limited observation data. However, the parameters or states of the model are often known to satisfy additional constraints beyond the model. Thus, we propose an approach to improve parameter estimation in such inverse problems by incorporating constraints in a Bayesian inference framework. Constraints are imposed by constructing a likelihood function based on fitness of the solution to the cons…
In this paper, we develop Bayes and maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) approaches to monotonicity testing. In order to simplify this problem, we consider a simple white Gaussian noise model and with the help of the Haar transform we reduce it to the equivalent problem of testing positivity of the Haar coefficients. This approach permits, in particular, to understand links between monotonicity testing and sparse vectors detection, to construct new tests, and to prove their optimality without supplementary assumptions. The main idea in our construction of multi-level tests is based on some i…
We consider the estimation of quadratic functionals in a Gaussian sequence model where the eigenvalues are supposed to be unknown and accessible through noisy observations only. Imposing smoothness assumptions both on the signal and the sequence of eigenvalues, we develop a minimax theory for this problem. We propose a truncated series estimator and show that it attains the optimal rate of convergence if the truncation parameter is chosen appropriately. Consequences for testing problems in inverse problems are equally discussed: in particular, the minimax rates of testing for signal detection …
We investigate minimax testing for detecting local signals or linear combinations of such signals when only indirect data is available. Naturally, in the presence of noise, signals that are too small cannot be reliably detected. In a Gaussian white noise model, we discuss upper and lower bounds for the minimal size of the signal such that testing with small error probabilities is possible. In certain situations we are able to characterize the asymptotic minimax detection boundary. Our results are applied to inverse problems such as numerical differentiation, deconvolution and the inversion of …
We consider a Gaussian sequence model that contains ill-posed inverse problems as special cases. We assume that the associated operator is partially unknown in the sense that its singular functions are known and the corresponding singular values are unknown but observed with Gaussian noise. For the considered model, we study the minimax goodness-of-fit testing problem. Working with certain ellipsoids in the space of squared-summable sequences of real numbers, with a ball of positive radius removed, we obtain lower and upper bounds for the minimax separation radius in the non-asymptotic framewo…
In the inverse Gaussian sequence space model with additional noisy observations of the operator, we derive nonasymptotic minimax radii of testing for ellipsoid-type alternatives simultaneously for both the signal detection problem (testing against zero) and the goodness-of-fit testing problem (testing against a prescribed sequence) without any regularity assumption on the null hypothesis. The radii are the maximum of two terms, each of which only depends on one of the noise levels. Interestingly, the term involving the noise level of the operator explicitly depends on the null hypothesis and v…
This paper is devoted to multi-dimensional inverse problems. In this setting, we address a goodness-of-fit testing problem. We investigate the separation rates associated to different kinds of smoothness assumptions and different degrees of ill-posedness.
We study the well-known problem of estimating a sparse $n$-dimensional unknown mean vector $θ= (θ_1, ..., θ_n)$ with entries corrupted by Gaussian white noise. In the Bayesian framework, continuous shrinkage priors which can be expressed as scale-mixture normal densities are popular for obtaining sparse estimates of $θ$. In this article, we introduce a new fully Bayesian scale-mixture prior known as the inverse gamma-gamma (IGG) prior. We prove that the posterior distribution contracts around the true $θ$ at (near) minimax rate under very mild conditions. In the process, we prove that the suff…
This paper extends the successful maxiset paradigm from function estimation to signal detection in inverse problems. In this context, the maxisets do not have the same shape compared to the classical estimation framework. Nevertheless, we introduce a robustified version of these maxisets, allowing to exhibit tail conditions on the signals of interest. Under this novel paradigm we are able to compare direct and indirect testing procedures.
We derive a maximum a posteriori estimator for the linear observation model, where the signal and noise covariance matrices are both uncertain. The uncertainties are treated probabilistically by modeling the covariance matrices with prior inverse-Wishart distributions. The nonconvex problem of jointly estimating the signal of interest and the covariance matrices is tackled by a computationally efficient fixed-point iteration as well as an approximate variational Bayes solution. The statistical performance of estimators is compared numerically to state-of-the-art estimators from the literature …
We develop tests of the hypothesis of no effect for selected predictors in regression, without assuming a model for the conditional distribution of the response given the predictors. Predictor effects need not be limited to the mean function and smoothing is not required. The general approach is based on sufficient dimension reduction, the idea being to replace the predictor vector with a lower-dimensional version without loss of information on the regression. Methodology using sliced inverse regression is developed in detail.
In the framework of quantum optics, we study the problem of goodness-of-fit testing in a severely ill-posed inverse problem. A novel testing procedure is introduced and its rates of convergence are investigated under various smoothness assumptions. The procedure is derived from a projection-type estimator, where the projection is done in $\mathbb{L}_2$ distance on some suitably chosen pattern functions. The proposed methodology is illustrated with simulated data sets.
