Information Geometry and Sequential Monte Carlo

This paper explores the application of methods from information geometry to the sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) sampler. In particular the Riemannian manifold Metropolis-adjusted Langevin algorithm (mMALA) is adapted for the transition kernels in SMC. Similar to its function in Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, the mMALA is a fully adaptable kernel which allows for efficient sampling of high-dimensional and highly correlated parameter spaces. We set up the theoretical framework for its use in SMC with a focus on the application to the problem of sequential Bayesian inference for dynamical systems as modelled by sets of ordinary differential equations. In addition, we argue that defining the sequence of distributions on geodesics optimises the effective sample sizes in the SMC run. We illustrate the application of the methodology by inferring the parameters of simulated Lotka-Volterra and Fitzhugh-Nagumo models. In particular we demonstrate that compared to employing a standard adaptive random walk kernel, the SMC sampler with an information geometric kernel design attains a higher level of statistical robustness in the inferred parameters of the dynamical systems.

Considerate Approaches to Achieving Sufficiency for ABC model selection

For nearly any challenging scientific problem evaluation of the likelihood is problematic if not impossible. Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) allows us to employ the whole Bayesian formalism to problems where we can use simulations from a model, but cannot evaluate the likelihood directly. When summary statistics of real and simulated data are compared --- rather than the data directly --- information is lost, unless the summary statistics are sufficient. Here we employ an information-theoretical framework that can be used to construct (approximately) sufficient statistics by combining different statistics until the loss of information is minimized. Such sufficient sets of statistics are constructed for both parameter estimation and model selection problems. We apply our approach to a range of illustrative and real-world model selection problems.