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arXiv · 2012.13311

Variational Determinant Estimation with Spherical Normalizing Flows

Simon Passenheim·Emiel Hoogeboom
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Abstract

This paper introduces the Variational Determinant Estimator (VDE), a variational extension of the recently proposed determinant estimator discovered by arXiv:2005.06553v2. Our estimator significantly reduces the variance even for low sample sizes by combining (importance-weighted) variational inference and a family of normalizing flows which allow density estimation on hyperspheres. In the ideal case of a tight variational bound, the VDE becomes a zero variance estimator, and a single sample is sufficient for an exact (log) determinant estimate.

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Simon Passenheim, Emiel Hoogeboom. 2020-12-24. Variational Determinant Estimation with Spherical Normalizing Flows. https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.13311

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