2021/02/19 by Junxiong Jia, Jia, Junxiong, Peijun Li +3 · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Mathematics · #49N45 #62F15 #65L09 #FOS: Mathematics #Groundwater flow and contamination studies #Markov Chains and Monte Carlo Methods #Numerical Analysis (math.NA) #Numerical methods in inverse problems
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2102.09741
openalex publication_date 2021/02/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this paper, we propose an infinite-dimensional version of the Stein variational gradient descent (iSVGD) method for solving Bayesian inverse problems. The method can generate approximate samples from posteriors efficiently. Based on the concepts of operator-valued kernels and vector-valued reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, a rigorous definition is given for the infinite-dimensional objects, e.g., the Stein operator, which are proved to be the limit of finite-dimensional ones. Moreover, a more efficient iSVGD with preconditioning operators is constructed by generalizing the change of variables formula and introducing a regularity parameter. The proposed algorithms are applied to an inverse problem of the steady state Darcy flow equation. Numerical results confirm our theoretical findings and demonstrate the potential applications of the proposed approach in the posterior sampling of large-scale nonlinear statistical inverse problems.