Search Results
Stein variational gradient descent: Many-particle and long-time asymptotics
2021, Nüsken, Nikolas, Renger, D. R. Michiel
Stein variational gradient descent (SVGD) refers to a class of methods for Bayesian inference based on interacting particle systems. In this paper, we consider the originally proposed deterministic dynamics as well as a stochastic variant, each of which represent one of the two main paradigms in Bayesian computational statistics: emphvariational inference and emphMarkov chain Monte Carlo. As it turns out, these are tightly linked through a correspondence between gradient flow structures and large-deviation principles rooted in statistical physics. To expose this relationship, we develop the cotangent space construction for the Stein geometry, prove its basic properties, and determine the large-deviation functional governing the many-particle limit for the empirical measure. Moreover, we identify the emphStein-Fisher information (or emphkernelised Stein discrepancy) as its leading order contribution in the long-time and many-particle regime in the sense of $Gamma$-convergence, shedding some light on the finite-particle properties of SVGD. Finally, we establish a comparison principle between the Stein-Fisher information and RKHS-norms that might be of independent interest.
Lower large deviations for geometric functionals
2019, Hirsch, Christian, Jahnel, Benedikt, Tóbiás, András
This work develops a methodology for analyzing large-deviation lower tails associated with geometric functionals computed on a homogeneous Poisson point process. The technique applies to characteristics expressed in terms of stabilizing score functions exhibiting suitable monotonicity properties. We apply our results to clique counts in the random geometric graph, intrinsic volumes of Poisson--Voronoi cells, as well as power-weighted edge lengths in the random geometric, κ-nearest neighbor and relative neighborhood graph.
A large-deviations principle for all the cluster sizes of a sparse Erdős-Rényi graph
2021, Andreis, Luisa, König, Wolfgang, Patterson, Robert I. A.
[For Abstract, see PDF]
Branching random walks in random environment: A survey
2020, König, Wolfgang
We consider branching particle processes on discrete structures like the hypercube in a random fitness landscape (i.e., random branching/killing rates). The main question is about the location where the main part of the population sits at a late time, if the state space is large. For answering this, we take the expectation with respect to the migration (mutation) and the branching/killing (selection) mechanisms, for fixed rates. This is intimately connected with the parabolic Anderson model, the heat equation with random potential, a model that is of interest in mathematical physics because of the observed prominent effect of intermittency (local concentration of the mass of the solution in small islands). We present several advances in the investigation of this effect, also related to questions inspired from biology.
Orthogonality of fluxes in general nonlinear reaction networks
2019, Renger, D.R.Michiel, Zimmer, Johannes
We consider the chemical reaction networks and study currents in these systems. Reviewing recent decomposition of rate functionals from large deviation theory for Markov processes, we adapt these results for reaction networks. In particular, we state a suitable generalisation of orthogonality of forces in these systems, and derive an inequality that bounds the free energy loss and Fisher information by the rate functional.
The free energy of a box-version of the interacting Bose gas
2022, Collin, Orphée, Jahnel, Benedikt, König, Wolfgang
The interacting quantum Bose gas is a random ensemble of many Brownian bridges (cycles) of various lengths with interactions between any pair of legs of the cycles. It is one of the standard mathematical models in which a proof for the famous Bose--Einstein condensation phase transition is sought for. We introduce a simplified version of the model with an organisation of the particles in deterministic boxes instead of Brownian cycles as the marks of a reference Poisson point process (for simplicity, in Z d, instead of R d). We derive an explicit and interpretable variational formula in the thermodynamic limit for the limiting free energy of the canonical ensemble for any value of the particle density. This formula features all relevant physical quantities of the model, like the microscopic and the macroscopic particle densities, together with their mutual and self-energies and their entropies. The proof method comprises a two-step large-deviation approach for marked Poisson point processes and an explicit distinction into small and large marks. In the characteristic formula, each of the microscopic particles and the statistics of the macroscopic part of the configuration are seen explicitly; the latter receives the interpretation of the condensate. The formula enables us to prove a number of properties of the limiting free energy as a function of the particle density, like differentiability and explicit upper and lower bounds, and a qualitative picture below and above the critical threshold (if it is finite). This proves a modified saturation nature of the phase transition. However, we have not yet succeeded in proving the existence of this phase transition.
A large-deviations principle for all the components in a sparse inhomogeneous random graph
2021, Andreis, Luisa, König, Wolfgang, Langhammer, Heide, Patterson, Robert I. A.
We study an inhomogeneous sparse random graph, GN, on [N] = { 1,...,N } as introduced in a seminal paper [BJR07] by Bollobás, Janson and Riordan (2007): vertices have a type (here in a compact metric space S), and edges between different vertices occur randomly and independently over all vertex pairs, with a probability depending on the two vertex types. In the limit N → ∞ , we consider the sparse regime, where the average degree is O(1). We prove a large-deviations principle with explicit rate function for the statistics of the collection of all the connected components, registered according to their vertex type sets, and distinguished according to being microscopic (of finite size) or macroscopic (of size ≈ N). In doing so, we derive explicit logarithmic asymptotics for the probability that GN is connected. We present a full analysis of the rate function including its minimizers. From this analysis we deduce a number of limit laws, conditional and unconditional, which provide comprehensive information about all the microscopic and macroscopic components of GN. In particular, we recover the criterion for the existence of the phase transition given in [BJR07].
Anisothermal chemical reactions: Onsager--Machlup and macroscopic fluctuation theory
2021, Renger, D. R. Michiel
We study a micro and macroscopic model for chemical reactions with feedback between reactions and temperature of the solute. The first result concerns the quasipotential as the large-deviation rate of the microscopic invariant measure. The second result is an application of modern Onsager-Machlup theory to the pathwise large deviations, in case the system is in detailed balance. The third result is an application of macroscopic fluctuation theory to the reaction flux large deviations, in case the system is in complex balance.
Pathwise McKean--Vlasov theory with additive noise
2019, Coghi, Michele, Deuschel, Jean-Dominique, Friz, Peter, Maurelli, Mario
We take a pathwise approach to classical McKean-Vlasov stochastic differential equations with additive noise, as e.g. exposed in Sznitmann [34]. Our study was prompted by some concrete problems in battery modelling [19], and also by recent progress on rough-pathwise McKean-Vlasov theory, notably Cass--Lyons [9], and then Bailleul, Catellier and Delarue [4]. Such a ``pathwise McKean-Vlasov theory'' can be traced back to Tanaka [36]. This paper can be seen as an attempt to advertize the ideas, power and simplicity of the pathwise appproach, not so easily extracted from [4, 9, 36]. As novel applications we discuss mean field convergence without a priori independence and exchangeability assumption; common noise and reflecting boundaries. Last not least, we generalize Dawson--Gärtner large deviations to a non-Brownian noise setting.