arXiv subjects

Wuchen Li

Publications and source records attributed to Wuchen Li.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Controlling Propagation of epidemics via mean-field control

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is changing and impacting lives on a global scale. In this paper, we introduce a mean-field game model in controlling the propagation of epidemics on a spatial domain. The control variable, the spatial velocity, is first introduced for the classical disease models, such as the SIR model. For this proposed model, we provide fast numerical algorithms based on proximal primal-dual methods. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed model illustrates how to separate infected patients in a spatial domain effectively.

math.OC↗

arXiv2020

Quantum statistical learning via Quantum Wasserstein natural gradient

In this article, we introduce a new approach towards the statistical learning problem $\operatorname{argmin}_{ρ(θ) \in \mathcal P_θ} W_{Q}^2 (ρ_{\star},ρ(θ))$ to approximate a target quantum state $ρ_{\star}$ by a set of parametrized quantum states $ρ(θ)$ in a quantum $L^2$-Wasserstein metric. We solve this estimation problem by considering Wasserstein natural gradient flows for density operators on finite-dimensional $C^*$ algebras. For continuous parametric models of density operators, we pull back the quantum Wasserstein metric such that the parameter space becomes a Riemannian manifold with quantum Wasserstein information matrix. Using a quantum analogue of the Benamou-Brenier formula, we derive a natural gradient flow on the parameter space. We also discuss certain continuous-variable quantum states by studying the transport of the associated Wigner probability distributions.

math-ph↗

arXiv2020

Wasserstein information matrix

We study information matrices for statistical models by the $L^2$-Wasserstein metric. We call them Wasserstein information matrices (WIMs), which are analogs of classical Fisher information matrices. We introduce Wasserstein score functions and study covariance operators in statistical models. Using them, we establish Wasserstein-Cramer-Rao bounds for estimations and explore their comparisons with classical results. We next consider the asymptotic behaviors and efficiency of estimators. We derive the on-line asymptotic efficiency for Wasserstein natural gradient. Besides, we study a Poincaré efficiency for Wasserstein natural gradient of maximal likelihood estimation. Several analytical examples of WIMs are presented, including location-scale families, independent families, and rectified linear unit (ReLU) generative models.

math.ST↗

arXiv2020

Information Newton's flow: second-order optimization method in probability space

We introduce a framework for Newton's flows in probability space with information metrics, named information Newton's flows. Here two information metrics are considered, including both the Fisher-Rao metric and the Wasserstein-2 metric. A known fact is that overdamped Langevin dynamics correspond to Wasserstein gradient flows of Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence. Extending this fact to Wasserstein Newton's flows, we derive Newton's Langevin dynamics. We provide examples of Newton's Langevin dynamics in both one-dimensional space and Gaussian families. For the numerical implementation, we design sampling efficient variational methods in affine models and reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) to approximate Wasserstein Newton's directions. We also establish convergence results of the proposed information Newton's method with approximated directions. Several numerical examples from Bayesian sampling problems are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

math.OC↗

arXiv2020

A mean field game inverse problem

Mean-field games arise in various fields including economics, engineering, and machine learning. They study strategic decision making in large populations where the individuals interact via certain mean-field quantities. The ground metrics and running costs of the games are of essential importance but are often unknown or only partially known. In this paper, we propose mean-field game inverse-problem models to reconstruct the ground metrics and interaction kernels in the running costs. The observations are the macro motions, to be specific, the density distribution, and the velocity field of the agents. They can be corrupted by noise to some extent. Our models are PDE constrained optimization problems, which are solvable by first-order primal-dual methods. Besides, we apply Bregman iterations to find the optimal model parameters. We numerically demonstrate that our model is both efficient and robust to noise.

math.OC↗

arXiv2020

Parametric Fokker-Planck equation

We derive the Fokker-Planck equation on the parametric space. It is the Wasserstein gradient flow of relative entropy on the statistical manifold. We pull back the PDE to a finite dimensional ODE on parameter space. Some analytical example and numerical examples are presented.

math.OC↗

arXiv2020

Computational methods for nonlocal mean field games with applications

We introduce a novel framework to model and solve mean-field game systems with nonlocal interactions. Our approach relies on kernel-based representations of mean-field interactions and feature-space expansions in the spirit of kernel methods in machine learning. We demonstrate the flexibility of our approach by modeling various interaction scenarios between agents. Additionally, our method yields a computationally efficient saddle-point reformulation of the original problem that is amenable to state-of-the-art convex optimization methods such as the primal-dual hybrid gradient method (PDHG). We also discuss potential applications of our methods to multi-agent trajectory planning problems.

math.OC↗

arXiv2020

Optimal transport natural gradient for statistical manifolds with continuous sample space

We study the Wasserstein natural gradient in parametric statistical models with continuous sample spaces. Our approach is to pull back the $L^2$-Wasserstein metric tensor in the probability density space to a parameter space, equipping the latter with a positive definite metric tensor, under which it becomes a Riemannian manifold, named the Wasserstein statistical manifold. In general, it is not a totally geodesic sub-manifold of the density space, and therefore its geodesics will differ from the Wasserstein geodesics, except for the well-known Gaussian distribution case, a fact which can also be validated under our framework. We use the sub-manifold geometry to derive a gradient flow and natural gradient descent method in the parameter space. When parametrized densities lie in $\bR$, the induced metric tensor establishes an explicit formula. In optimization problems, we observe that the natural gradient descent outperforms the standard gradient descent when the Wasserstein distance is the objective function. In such a case, we prove that the resulting algorithm behaves similarly to the Newton method in the asymptotic regime. The proof calculates the exact Hessian formula for the Wasserstein distance, which further motivates another preconditioner for the optimization process. To the end, we present examples to illustrate the effectiveness of the natural gradient in several parametric statistical models, including the Gaussian measure, Gaussian mixture, Gamma distribution, and Laplace distribution.

math.OC↗

arXiv2020

Transport information geometry I: Riemannian calculus on probability simplex

We formulate the Riemannian calculus of the probability set embedded with $L^2$-Wasserstein metric. This is an initial work of transport information geometry. Our investigation starts with the probability simplex (probability manifold) supported on vertices of a finite graph. The main idea is to embed the probability manifold as a submanifold of the positive measure space with a nonlinear metric tensor. Here the nonlinearity comes from the linear weighted Laplacian operator. By this viewpoint, we establish torsion-free Christoffel symbols, Levi-Civita connections, curvature tensors and volume forms in the probability manifold by Euclidean coordinates. As a consequence, the Jacobi equation, Laplace-Beltrami and Hessian operators on the probability manifold are derived. These geometric computations are also provided in the infinite-dimensional density space (density manifold) supported on a finite-dimensional manifold. In particular, an identity is given connecting the Baker-{É}mery $Γ_2$ operator (carr{é} du champ it{é}r{é}) by connecting Fisher-Rao information metric and optimal transport metric. Several examples are demonstrated.

math.DG↗

arXiv2020

A Machine Learning Framework for Solving High-Dimensional Mean Field Game and Mean Field Control Problems

Mean field games (MFG) and mean field control (MFC) are critical classes of multi-agent models for efficient analysis of massive populations of interacting agents. Their areas of application span topics in economics, finance, game theory, industrial engineering, crowd motion, and more. In this paper, we provide a flexible machine learning framework for the numerical solution of potential MFG and MFC models. State-of-the-art numerical methods for solving such problems utilize spatial discretization that leads to a curse-of-dimensionality. We approximately solve high-dimensional problems by combining Lagrangian and Eulerian viewpoints and leveraging recent advances from machine learning. More precisely, we work with a Lagrangian formulation of the problem and enforce the underlying Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation that is derived from the Eulerian formulation. Finally, a tailored neural network parameterization of the MFG/MFC solution helps us avoid any spatial discretization. Our numerical results include the approximate solution of 100-dimensional instances of optimal transport and crowd motion problems on a standard work station and a validation using an Eulerian solver in two dimensions. These results open the door to much-anticipated applications of MFG and MFC models that were beyond reach with existing numerical methods.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2020

Kernelized Wasserstein Natural Gradient

Many machine learning problems can be expressed as the optimization of some cost functional over a parametric family of probability distributions. It is often beneficial to solve such optimization problems using natural gradient methods. These methods are invariant to the parametrization of the family, and thus can yield more effective optimization. Unfortunately, computing the natural gradient is challenging as it requires inverting a high dimensional matrix at each iteration. We propose a general framework to approximate the natural gradient for the Wasserstein metric, by leveraging a dual formulation of the metric restricted to a Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space. Our approach leads to an estimator for gradient direction that can trade-off accuracy and computational cost, with theoretical guarantees. We verify its accuracy on simple examples, and show the advantage of using such an estimator in classification tasks on Cifar10 and Cifar100 empirically.

stat.ML↗

arXiv2020

Generalized Unnormalized Optimal Transport and its fast algorithms

We introduce fast algorithms for generalized unnormalized optimal transport. To handle densities with different total mass, we consider a dynamic model, which mixes the $L^p$ optimal transport with $L^p$ distance. For $p=1$, we derive the corresponding $L^1$ generalized unnormalized Kantorovich formula. We further show that the problem becomes a simple $L^1$ minimization which is solved efficiently by a primal-dual algorithm. For $p=2$, we derive the $L^2$ generalized unnormalized Kantorovich formula, a new unnormalized Monge problem and the corresponding Monge-Ampère equation. Furthermore, we introduce a new unconstrained optimization formulation of the problem. The associated gradient flow is essentially related to an elliptic equation which can be solved efficiently. Here the proposed gradient descent procedure together with the Nesterov acceleration involves the Hamilton-Jacobi equation which arises from the KKT conditions. Several numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

math.NA↗

arXiv2019

Wasserstein Hamiltonian flows

We establish kinetic Hamiltonian flows in density space embedded with the $L^2$-Wasserstein metric tensor. We derive the Euler-Lagrange equation in density space, which introduces the associated Hamiltonian flows. We demonstrate that many classical equations, such as Vlasov equation, Schr{ö}dinger equation and Schr{ö}dinger bridge problem, can be rewritten as the formalism of Hamiltonian flows in density space.

math.DS↗

arXiv2019

Diffusion Hypercontractivity via Generalized Density Manifold

We prove a one-parameter family of diffusion hypercontractivity and present the associated Log-Sobolev, Poincare and Talagrand inequalities. A mean-field type Bakry-Emery iterative calculus and volume measure based integration formula (Yano's formula) are presented. Our results are based on the interpolation among divergence functional, generalized diffusion process, and generalized optimal transport metric. As a result, an inequality among Pearson divergence (P), negative Sobolev metric H^-1 and generalized Fisher information functional (I), named PH^{-1}I inequality, is derived.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2019

Interacting Langevin Diffusions: Gradient Structure And Ensemble Kalman Sampler

Solving inverse problems without the use of derivatives or adjoints of the forward model is highly desirable in many applications arising in science and engineering. In this paper, we propose a new version of such a methodology, a framework for its analysis, and numerical evidence of the practicality of the method proposed. Our starting point is an ensemble of over-damped Langevin diffusions which interact through a single preconditioner computed as the empirical ensemble covariance. We demonstrate that the nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation arising from the mean-field limit of the associated stochastic differential equation (SDE) has a novel gradient flow structure, built on the Wasserstein metric and the covariance matrix of the noisy flow. Using this structure, we investigate large time properties of the Fokker-Planck equation, showing that its invariant measure coincides with that of a single Langevin diffusion, and demonstrating exponential convergence to the invariant measure in a number of settings. We introduce a new noisy variant on ensemble Kalman inversion (EKI) algorithms found from the original SDE by replacing exact gradients with ensemble differences; this defines the ensemble Kalman sampler (EKS). Numerical results are presented which demonstrate its efficacy as a derivative-free approximate sampler for the Bayesian posterior arising from inverse problems.

math.DS↗

arXiv2019

Wasserstein Diffusion Tikhonov Regularization

We propose regularization strategies for learning discriminative models that are robust to in-class variations of the input data. We use the Wasserstein-2 geometry to capture semantically meaningful neighborhoods in the space of images, and define a corresponding input-dependent additive noise data augmentation model. Expanding and integrating the augmented loss yields an effective Tikhonov-type Wasserstein diffusion smoothness regularizer. This approach allows us to apply high levels of regularization and train functions that have low variability within classes but remain flexible across classes. We provide efficient methods for computing the regularizer at a negligible cost in comparison to training with adversarial data augmentation. Initial experiments demonstrate improvements in generalization performance under adversarial perturbations and also large in-class variations of the input data.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2019

Multilevel Optimal Transport: a Fast Approximation of Wasserstein-1 distances

We propose a fast algorithm for the calculation of the Wasserstein-1 distance, which is a particular type of optimal transport distance with homogeneous of degree one transport cost. Our algorithm is built on multilevel primal-dual algorithms. Several numerical examples and a complexity analysis are provided to demonstrate its computational speed. On some commonly used image examples of size $512\times512$, the proposed algorithm gives solutions within $0.2\sim 1.5$ seconds on a single CPU, which is much faster than the state-of-the-art algorithms.

stat.CO↗

arXiv2019

Fisher information regularization schemes for Wasserstein gradient flows

We propose a variational scheme for computing Wasserstein gradient flows. The scheme builds upon the Jordan--Kinderlehrer--Otto framework with the Benamou-Brenier's dynamic formulation of the quadratic Wasserstein metric and adds a regularization by the Fisher information. This regularization can be derived in terms of energy splitting and is closely related to the Schr{ö}dinger bridge problem. It improves the convexity of the variational problem and automatically preserves the non-negativity of the solution. As a result, it allows us to apply sequential quadratic programming to solve the sub-optimization problem. We further save the computational cost by showing that no additional time interpolation is needed in the underlying dynamic formulation of the Wasserstein-2 metric, and therefore, the dimension of the problem is vastly reduced. Several numerical examples, including porous media equation, nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation, aggregation diffusion equation, and Derrida-Lebowitz-Speer-Spohn equation, are provided. These examples demonstrate the simplicity and stableness of the proposed scheme.

math.NA↗