In this paper we discuss a reduced basis method for linear evolution PDEs, which is based on the application of the Laplace transform. The main advantage of this approach consists in the fact that, differently from time stepping methods, like Runge-Kutta integrators, the Laplace transform allows to compute the solution directly at a given instant, which can be done by approximating the contour integral associated to the inverse Laplace transform by a suitable quadrature formula. In terms of the reduced basis methodology, this determines a significant improvement in the reduction phase - like the one based on the classical proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) - since the number of vectors to which the decomposition applies is drastically reduced as it does not contain all intermediate solutions generated along an integration grid by a time stepping method. We show the effectiveness of the method by some illustrative parabolic PDEs arising from finance and also provide some evidence that the method we propose, when applied to a simple advection equation, does not suffer the problem of slow decay of singular values which instead affects methods based on time integration of the Cauchy problem arising from space discretization.
Einmahl, de Haan and Zhou (2016, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B, 78(1), 31-51) recently introduced a stochastic model that allows for heteroscedasticity of extremes. The model is extended to the situation where the observations are serially dependent, which is crucial for many practical applications. We prove a local limit theorem for a kernel estimator for the scedasis function, and a functional limit theorem for an estimator for the integrated scedasis function. We further prove consistency of a bootstrap scheme that allows to test for the null hypothesis that the extremes are homoscedastic. Finally, we propose an estimator for the extremal index governing the dynamics of the extremes and prove its consistency. All results are illustrated by Monte Carlo simulations. An important intermediate result concerns the sequential tail empirical process under serial dependence.
In Statistical Relational Artificial Intelligence, a branch of AI and machine learning which combines the logical and statistical schools of AI, one uses the concept {\em para\-metrized probabilistic graphical model (PPGM)} to model (conditional) dependencies between random variables and to make probabilistic inferences about events on a space of "possible worlds". The set of possible worlds with underlying domain $D$ (a set of objects) can be represented by the set $\mathbf{W}_D$ of all first-order structures (for a suitable signature) with domain $D$. Using a formal logic we can describe events on $\mathbf{W}_D$. By combining a logic and a PPGM we can also define a probability distribution $\mathbb{P}_D$ on $\mathbf{W}_D$ and use it to compute the probability of an event. We consider a logic, denoted $PLA$, with truth values in the unit interval, which uses aggregation functions, such as arithmetic mean, geometric mean, maximum and minimum instead of quantifiers. However we face the problem of computational efficiency and this problem is an obstacle to the wider use of methods from Statistical Relational AI in practical applications. We address this problem by proving that the described probability will, under certain assumptions on the PPGM and the sentence $\varphi$, converge as the size of $D$ tends to infinity. The convergence result is obtained by showing that every formula $\varphi(x_1, \ldots, x_k)$ which contains only "admissible" aggregation functions (e.g. arithmetic and geometric mean, max and min) is asymptotically equivalent to a formula $\psi(x_1, \ldots, x_k)$ without aggregation functions.
We introduce and analyze various Regularized Combined Field Integral Equations (CFIER) formulations of time-harmonic Navier equations in media with piece-wise constant material properties. These formulations can be derived systematically starting from suitable coercive approximations of Dirichlet-to-Neumann operators (DtN), and we present a periodic pseudodifferential calculus framework within which the well posedness of CIER formulations can be established. We also use the DtN approximations to derive and analyze Optimized Schwarz (OS) methods for the solution of elastodynamics transmission problems. The pseudodifferential calculus we develop in this paper relies on careful singularity splittings of the kernels of Navier boundary integral operators which is also the basis of high-order Nystr\"om quadratures for their discretizations. Based on these high-order discretizations we investigate the rate of convergence of iterative solvers applied to CFIER and OS formulations of scattering and transmission problems. We present a variety of numerical results that illustrate that the CFIER methodology leads to important computational savings over the classical CFIE one, whenever iterative solvers are used for the solution of the ensuing discretized boundary integral equations. Finally, we show that the OS methods are competitive in the high-frequency high-contrast regime.
We consider statistical models arising from the common set of solutions to a sparse polynomial system with general coefficients. The maximum likelihood degree counts the number of critical points of the likelihood function restricted to the model. We prove the maximum likelihood degree of a sparse polynomial system is determined by its Newton polytopes and equals the mixed volume of a related Lagrange system of equations.
In this paper, we develop a Monte Carlo method for solving PDEs involving an integral fractional Laplacian (IFL) in multiple dimensions. We first construct a new Feynman-Kac representation based on the Green function for the fractional Laplacian operator on the unit ball in arbitrary dimensions. Inspired by the "walk-on-spheres" algorithm proposed in [24], we extend our algorithm for solving fractional PDEs in the complex domain. Then, we can compute the expectation of a multi-dimensional random variable with a known density function to obtain the numerical solution efficiently. The proposed algorithm finds it remarkably efficient in solving fractional PDEs: it only needs to evaluate the integrals of expectation form over a series of inside ball tangent boundaries with the known Green function. Moreover, we carry out the error estimates of the proposed method for the $n$-dimensional unit ball. Finally, ample numerical results are presented to demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of this approach for fractional PDEs in unit disk and complex domains, and even in ten-dimensional unit balls.
Machine learning and computational intelligence technologies gain more and more popularity as possible solution for issues related to the power grid. One of these issues, the power flow calculation, is an iterative method to compute the voltage magnitudes of the power grid's buses from power values. Machine learning and, especially, artificial neural networks were successfully used as surrogates for the power flow calculation. Artificial neural networks highly rely on the quality and size of the training data, but this aspect of the process is apparently often neglected in the works we found. However, since the availability of high quality historical data for power grids is limited, we propose the Correlation Sampling algorithm. We show that this approach is able to cover a larger area of the sampling space compared to different random sampling algorithms from the literature and a copula-based approach, while at the same time inter-dependencies of the inputs are taken into account, which, from the other algorithms, only the copula-based approach does.
We consider the question of adaptive data analysis within the framework of convex optimization. We ask how many samples are needed in order to compute $\epsilon$-accurate estimates of $O(1/\epsilon^2)$ gradients queried by gradient descent, and we provide two intermediate answers to this question. First, we show that for a general analyst (not necessarily gradient descent) $\Omega(1/\epsilon^3)$ samples are required. This rules out the possibility of a foolproof mechanism. Our construction builds upon a new lower bound (that may be of interest of its own right) for an analyst that may ask several non adaptive questions in a batch of fixed and known $T$ rounds of adaptivity and requires a fraction of true discoveries. We show that for such an analyst $\Omega (\sqrt{T}/\epsilon^2)$ samples are necessary. Second, we show that, under certain assumptions on the oracle, in an interaction with gradient descent $\tilde \Omega(1/\epsilon^{2.5})$ samples are necessary. Our assumptions are that the oracle has only \emph{first order access} and is \emph{post-hoc generalizing}. First order access means that it can only compute the gradients of the sampled function at points queried by the algorithm. Our assumption of \emph{post-hoc generalization} follows from existing lower bounds for statistical queries. More generally then, we provide a generic reduction from the standard setting of statistical queries to the problem of estimating gradients queried by gradient descent. These results are in contrast with classical bounds that show that with $O(1/\epsilon^2)$ samples one can optimize the population risk to accuracy of $O(\epsilon)$ but, as it turns out, with spurious gradients.
The metriplectic formalism is useful for describing complete dynamical systems which conserve energy and produce entropy. This creates challenges for model reduction, as the elimination of high-frequency information will generally not preserve the metriplectic structure which governs long-term stability of the system. Based on proper orthogonal decomposition, a provably convergent metriplectic reduced-order model is formulated which is guaranteed to maintain the algebraic structure necessary for energy conservation and entropy formation. Numerical results on benchmark problems show that the proposed method is remarkably stable, leading to improved accuracy over long time scales at a moderate increase in cost over naive methods.
The geometric high-order regularization methods such as mean curvature and Gaussian curvature, have been intensively studied during the last decades due to their abilities in preserving geometric properties including image edges, corners, and image contrast. However, the dilemma between restoration quality and computational efficiency is an essential roadblock for high-order methods. In this paper, we propose fast multi-grid algorithms for minimizing both mean curvature and Gaussian curvature energy functionals without sacrificing the accuracy for efficiency. Unlike the existing approaches based on operator splitting and the Augmented Lagrangian method (ALM), no artificial parameters are introduced in our formulation, which guarantees the robustness of the proposed algorithm. Meanwhile, we adopt the domain decomposition method to promote parallel computing and use the fine-to-coarse structure to accelerate the convergence. Numerical experiments are presented on both image denoising and CT reconstruction problem to demonstrate the ability to recover image texture and the efficiency of the proposed method.
In this paper we study the finite sample and asymptotic properties of various weighting estimators of the local average treatment effect (LATE), several of which are based on Abadie (2003)'s kappa theorem. Our framework presumes a binary endogenous explanatory variable ("treatment") and a binary instrumental variable, which may only be valid after conditioning on additional covariates. We argue that one of the Abadie estimators, which we show is weight normalized, is likely to dominate the others in many contexts. A notable exception is in settings with one-sided noncompliance, where certain unnormalized estimators have the advantage of being based on a denominator that is bounded away from zero. We use a simulation study and three empirical applications to illustrate our findings. In applications to causal effects of college education using the college proximity instrument (Card, 1995) and causal effects of childbearing using the sibling sex composition instrument (Angrist and Evans, 1998), the unnormalized estimates are clearly unreasonable, with "incorrect" signs, magnitudes, or both. Overall, our results suggest that (i) the relative performance of different kappa weighting estimators varies with features of the data-generating process; and that (ii) the normalized version of Tan (2006)'s estimator may be an attractive alternative in many contexts. Applied researchers with access to a binary instrumental variable should also consider covariate balancing or doubly robust estimators of the LATE.