{"title":"Efficiency of reversible MCMC methods: elementary derivations and applications to composite methods","authors":"Radford M. Neal, Jeffrey S. Rosenthal","doi":"10.1017/jpr.2024.48","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"We review criteria for comparing the efficiency of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods with respect to the asymptotic variance of estimates of expectations of functions of state, and show how such criteria can justify ways of combining improvements to MCMC methods. We say that a chain on a finite state space with transition matrix <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> efficiency-dominates one with transition matrix <jats:italic>Q</jats:italic> if for every function of state it has lower (or equal) asymptotic variance. We give elementary proofs of some previous results regarding efficiency dominance, leading to a self-contained demonstration that a reversible chain with transition matrix <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> efficiency-dominates a reversible chain with transition matrix <jats:italic>Q</jats:italic> if and only if none of the eigenvalues of <jats:inline-formula> <jats:alternatives> <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\" mime-subtype=\"png\" xlink:href=\"S0021900224000482_inline1.png\"/> <jats:tex-math> $Q-P$ </jats:tex-math> </jats:alternatives> </jats:inline-formula> are negative. This allows us to conclude that modifying a reversible MCMC method to improve its efficiency will also improve the efficiency of a method that randomly chooses either this or some other reversible method, and to conclude that improving the efficiency of a reversible update for one component of state (as in Gibbs sampling) will improve the overall efficiency of a reversible method that combines this and other updates. It also explains how antithetic MCMC can be more efficient than independent and identically distributed sampling. We also establish conditions that can guarantee that a method is not efficiency-dominated by any other method.","PeriodicalId":50256,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Probability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Applied Probability","FirstCategoryId":"100","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/jpr.2024.48","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"STATISTICS & PROBABILITY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We review criteria for comparing the efficiency of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods with respect to the asymptotic variance of estimates of expectations of functions of state, and show how such criteria can justify ways of combining improvements to MCMC methods. We say that a chain on a finite state space with transition matrix P efficiency-dominates one with transition matrix Q if for every function of state it has lower (or equal) asymptotic variance. We give elementary proofs of some previous results regarding efficiency dominance, leading to a self-contained demonstration that a reversible chain with transition matrix P efficiency-dominates a reversible chain with transition matrix Q if and only if none of the eigenvalues of $Q-P$ are negative. This allows us to conclude that modifying a reversible MCMC method to improve its efficiency will also improve the efficiency of a method that randomly chooses either this or some other reversible method, and to conclude that improving the efficiency of a reversible update for one component of state (as in Gibbs sampling) will improve the overall efficiency of a reversible method that combines this and other updates. It also explains how antithetic MCMC can be more efficient than independent and identically distributed sampling. We also establish conditions that can guarantee that a method is not efficiency-dominated by any other method.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Applied Probability is the oldest journal devoted to the publication of research in the field of applied probability. It is an international journal published by the Applied Probability Trust, and it serves as a companion publication to the Advances in Applied Probability. Its wide audience includes leading researchers across the entire spectrum of applied probability, including biosciences applications, operations research, telecommunications, computer science, engineering, epidemiology, financial mathematics, the physical and social sciences, and any field where stochastic modeling is used.
A submission to Applied Probability represents a submission that may, at the Editor-in-Chief’s discretion, appear in either the Journal of Applied Probability or the Advances in Applied Probability. Typically, shorter papers appear in the Journal, with longer contributions appearing in the Advances.