2014 NIPS NeurIPS 2014

Positive Curvature and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo

Abstract

The Jacobi metric introduced in mathematical physics can be used to analyze Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC). In a geometrical setting, each step of HMC corresponds to a geodesic on a Riemannian manifold with a Jacobi metric. Our calculation of the sectional curvature of this HMC manifold allows us to see that it is positive in cases such as sampling from a high dimensional multivariate Gaussian. We show that positive curvature can be used to prove theoretical concentration results for HMC Markov chains.

🌉 Interdisciplinary Bridge — Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and Mathematics & Optimization
📈 Trend Setter — Markov Chain Monte Carlo
🧭 Keyword Pioneer — sectional curvature
🐣 Hot Topic Early Bird — markov chain
🐝 Cross-Pollinator — Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Computer Vision, Data Science & Analytics, Deep Learning, Healthcare & Medicine, Interdisciplinary, Knowledge & Reasoning, Machine Learning, Mathematics & Optimization, Natural Language Processing, Reinforcement Learning, Robotics, Security & Privacy, Speech & Audio