2017 COLT COLT 2017

Sampling from a log-concave distribution with compact support with proximal Langevin Monte Carlo

Abstract

This paper presents a detailed theoretical analysis of the Langevin Monte Carlo sampling algorithm recently introduced in Durmus et al. (Efficient Bayesian computation by proximal Markov chain Monte Carlo: when Langevin meets Moreau, 2016) when applied to log-concave probability distributions that are restricted to a convex body $K$. This method relies on a regularisation procedure involving the Moreau-Yosida envelope of the indicator function associated with $K$. Explicit convergence bounds in total variation norm and in Wasserstein distance of order $1$ are established. In particular, we show that the complexity of this algorithm given a first order oracle is polynomial in the dimension of the state space. Finally, some numerical experiments are presented to compare our method with competing MCMC approaches from the literature.

🌉 Interdisciplinary Bridge — Machine Learning and Mathematics & Optimization
🧭 Keyword Pioneer — proximal langevin monte carlo
🐣 Hot Topic Early Bird — wasserstein distance
🐝 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