Variational mean-field algorithm for efficient inference in large systems of stochastic differential equations

Michail D. Vrettas, Manfred Opper, Dan Cornford

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This work introduces a Gaussian variational mean-field approximation for inference in dynamical systems which can be modeled by ordinary stochastic differential equations. This new approach allows one to express the variational free energy as a functional of the marginal moments of the approximating Gaussian process. A restriction of the moment equations to piecewise polynomial functions, over time, dramatically reduces the complexity of approximate inference for stochastic differential equation models and makes it comparable to that of discrete time hidden Markov models. The algorithm is demonstrated on state and parameter estimation for nonlinear problems with up to 1000 dimensional state vectors and compares the results empirically with various well-known inference methodologies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number012148
Number of pages15
JournalPhysical Review E
Volume91
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jan 2015

Bibliographical note

© American Physical Society

Funding: European FP7 grant under the GeoViQua project (Environment; 265178),
and under the CompLACS grant (ICT; 270327)

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