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Efficient Multimodal Sampling via Tempered Distribution Flow

delete2023-05-26
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OA
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Yixuan Qiu
X
Xiao Wang *
DOI:10.1080/01621459.2023.2198059delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Sampling from high-dimensional distributions is a fundamental problem in statistical research and practice. However, great challenges emerge when the target density function is unnormalized and contains isolated modes. We tackle this difficulty by fitting an invertible transformation mapping, called a transport map, between a reference probability measure and the target distribution, so that sampling from the target distribution can be achieved by pushing forward a reference sample through the transport map. We theoretically analyze the limitations of existing transport-based sampling methods using the Wasserstein gradient flow theory, and propose a new method called TemperFlow that addresses the multimodality issue. TemperFlow adaptively learns a sequence of tempered distributions to progressively approach the target distribution, and we prove that it overcomes the limitations of existing methods. Various experiments demonstrate the superior performance of this novel sampler compared to traditional methods, and we show its applications in modern deep learning tasks such as image generation. The programming code for the numerical experiments is available in the supplementary material.
Keywords:
Deep neural network
Gradient flow
Markov chain Monte Carlo
Normalizing flow
Parallel tempering

Journal

J
Journal of the American Statistical Association
IF:
3
Papers:
5.1K
Citations:
4.8W

Organization

Purdue University System cover
Purdue University System
Scholars:
3.9W
Papers: 3.6W
Citations: 66
S
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Scholars:
2.0K
Papers: 2.5K
Citations: 4.0K