Organizations: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China · School of Mathematical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China · School of Mathematics and Statistics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, People’s Republic of China · Department of Mathematics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America
First order Langevin algorithms for constrained sampling in machine learning, such as projected Langevin Monte Carlo which are based on discretizations of reflected Langevin dynamics, require differentiable log densities that limits their applicability. This paper introduces reflected anchored Langevin dynamics (RALD), a reflected diffusion that converges to non-differentiable targets on constrained domains. The method uses a smooth anchored reference potential and multiplies the drift and noise covariance of its reflected Langevin dynamics by the same state dependent scaling factor. Its Euler-Maruyama discretization with projection gives reflected anchored Langevin Monte Carlo (RALMC) algorithm. We prove explicit convergence bounds and iteration complexity for RALMC in the 2-Wasserstein distance to the target distribution. Numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the theoretical predictions and the empirical performance of the method.
Figures & tables
Figure 1 : Conditional one step crossing at a density bottleneck. The layer B separates the two high density regions D− and D+ . Starting from a fixed x∈B , both algorithms are evaluated on the same event of landing in D+ . The point y∗ represents a closest point of D+ to x (it need not belong to D+ when D+ is open), so the distance is rx=dist(x,D+) . Because D+⊂int(C) , projection does not change this landing event.
Figure 2 : Visualized final sampled density plots for the first 2 dimensions in ball constraint
Figure 3 : Convergence of RALMC and PLMC in W2 distance for a truncated Laplace distribution within a ball constraint
Figure 4 : Cross sections of the target truncated Gaussian mixture model along the first two dimensions
Figure 5 : Performance of RALMC with a constant potential and PLMC, measured by the W2 distance to the target Gaussian mixture model, for different stepsizes η over 1000 epochs.
Stepsize
Method
# of Entered D+
Enter epoch
1×10−4
RALMC-Const
293.00±12.36
712.15±14.13
PLMC
204.79±11.06
834.47±10.29
5×10−4
RALMC-Const
519.67±8.70
361.23±14.62
PLMC
427.95±11.95
503.66±15.44
1×10−3
RALMC-Const
581.70±4.21
219.32±10.62
PLMC
510.79±8.77
362.68±15.49
Table 1 : First enter performance from B={x∈C:−0.25≤x1≤0.25} to D+={x∈C:x1<−0.5} . Results are mean ± standard deviation over independent runs. Paths that do not enter D+ are censored at the terminal epoch.
Figure 6 : Performance on accuracy of constrained Bayesian logistic regression under different prior distributions through RALMC with Gaussian smoothing, RALMC with constant potential and PLMC for the test set of the MAGIC Gamma Telescope dataset using the stepsize η=1×10−6 in 200 epochs
Figure 7 : Performance on accuracy of constrained Bayesian logistic regression under different prior distributions through RALMC with Gaussian smoothing, RALMC with constant potential and PLMC for the test set of the MAGIC Gamma Telescope dataset using the stepsize η=5×10−4 in 100 epochs
Figure 8 : Performance on accuracy of constrained Bayesian logistic regression under different prior distributions through RALMC with Gaussian smoothing, RALMC with constant potential and PLMC for the test set of the Breast Cancer Wisconsin (Diagnostic) dataset using the stepsize η=1×10−4 in 200 epochs
Figure 9 : Performance on accuracy of constrained Bayesian logistic regression under different prior distributions through RALMC with Gaussian smoothing, RALMC with constant potential and PLMC for the test set of the Breast Cancer Wisconsin (Diagnostic) dataset using the stepsize η=2×10−2 in 100 epochs
We propose penalized nonreversible Langevin algorithms for sampling from π(x)∝e−f(x)1C(x), where C⊂Rd is a compact convex set. The algorithms combine a squared distance penalty with constant or compatible state dependent skew symmetric perturbations that preserve the penalized Gibbs distribution. For smooth, possibly nonconvex f, we derive nonasymptotic total variation bounds for the full gradient algorithm under a log Sobolev inequality. When unbiased stochastic gradients are available, we establish 2-Wasserstein bounds under global contraction and Lipschitz conditions on the full drift in an adapted quadratic metric. For a fixed penalty parameter, the error relative to the penalized Gibbs distribution decays exponentially to an O(η) neighborhood, where η is the stepsize. We also bound the discrepancy between the penalized Gibbs distribution and the constrained target. In a two dimensional quadratic model, we establish nonreversible acceleration by tuning the skew perturbation to the curvature imbalance induced by penalization. With the target accuracy and smaller curvature fixed and initial Wasserstein distances uniformly bounded, tuning the skew perturbation improves the sufficient Euler iteration bound from linear to logarithmic in the curvature ratio. Numerical experiments evaluate the algorithms on constrained Bayesian regression, classification, neural networks, and truncated sampling, and examine the acceleration mechanism in a stochastic quadratic model.
Pervez Ali, Weihao Dong, Xiaoyu Wang
Department of Mathematics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America · Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China · FinTech Thrust, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China
We propose Decentralized Proximal Stochastic Gradient Langevin Dynamics (DE-PSGLD), a decentralized Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm for sampling from a log-concave probability distribution constrained to a convex domain. Constraints are enforced through a shared proximal regularization based on the Moreau-Yosida envelope, enabling unconstrained updates while preserving consistency with the target constrained posterior. We establish non-asymptotic convergence guarantees in the 2-Wasserstein distance for both individual agent iterates and their network averages. Our analysis shows that DE-PSGLD converges to a regularized Gibbs distribution and quantifies the bias introduced by the proximal approximation. We evaluate DE-PSGLD for different sampling problems on synthetic and real datasets. As the first decentralized approach for constrained domains, our algorithm exhibits fast posterior concentration and high predictive accuracy.
Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, Lingjiong Zhu
Department of Mathematics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America
We establish near-linear accuracy bounds for the classical Moreau--Yosida unadjusted Langevin algorithm (MYULA). The target is π∝e−f−g, where f∈C2(Rd) is m-strongly convex with Lipschitz gradient and g is convex and globally Lipschitz. Under an explicit parameter-dependent step-size condition, we bound the invariant-measure bias relative to the Moreau-smoothed target by O(h), with only logarithmic dependence on the inverse smoothing parameter in the error coefficient. Combining this estimate with the Moreau approximation bias and Wasserstein contraction gives O(ε−1) iterations to make the Nth-iterate law μN satisfy mW2(μN,π)≤ε, for fixed model parameters and initialization. We bound the stationary error directly, without assuming third derivatives or a Lipschitz Hessian. Each iteration uses one gradient evaluation and one exact proximal evaluation. The key idea in our analysis is to convert a second-order stationary residual into a Wasserstein bound using a Poisson-based estimate.
Yuchen Xin, Zhihua Zhang
School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University