Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) is a successful generic inference method in probabilistic programming, but in its ordinary formulation it needs gradients and finite-dimensional parameter spaces. In Haskell, lazy evaluation lets probabilistic programs express stochastic processes and other non-parametric Bayesian models over implicit infinite-dimensional spaces. This paper develops new formulations of gradient-based HMC for this infinite-dimensional setting, via lazy evaluation. For automatic differentiation, we provide an analysis based on a new notion of “piecewise analytic under cylindrical analytic partition” (PACAP), to show that even if a program is infinite-dimensional and defined lazily, the gradient of the likelihood function is finitely supported. For the Monte Carlo method itself, we develop several HMC variants and a No-U-Turn Sampler that operate over the infinite-dimensional parameter space but are still productive because of lazy evaluation. Experiments cover Gaussian mixture clustering, random walks, and piecewise-constant regression with Poisson-process changepoints.

Tue 25 Aug

Displayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change

15:30 - 17:00
Types, Semantics, and Probabilistic ProgrammingICFP Papers at IP126 Auditorium
Chair(s): Leonidas Lampropoulos University of Maryland at College Park
15:30
18m
Talk
Another Type Inference Algorithm for First-class Implicit Polymorphism
ICFP Papers
J. Garrett Morris University of Iowa
DOI
15:48
18m
Talk
Same Coeffect, Different Base: Connecting Two Dominant Approaches to Graded Types
ICFP Papers
Vilem-Benjamin Liepelt University of Kent, UK, Danielle Marshall University of Glasgow, Dominic Orchard University of Cambridge; University of Kent
DOI
16:06
18m
Talk
Towards a Higher-Order Bialgebraic Denotational Semantics
ICFP Papers
Sergey Goncharov University of Birmingham, Marco Peressotti University of Southern Denmark, Stelios Tsampas University of Southern Denmark, Henning Urbat University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Stefano Volpe University of Southern Denmark
DOI
16:24
18m
Talk
LazyHMC: Hamiltonian Monte Carlo simulation for lazy, infinite dimensional probabilistic programs
ICFP Papers
Maria-Nicoleta Craciun University of Oxford, C.-H. Luke Ong NTU, Tom Schrijvers KU Leuven, Sam Staton University of Oxford
DOI
16:42
18m
Talk
Imprecise Probabilistic Programming, Precisely (Functional Pearl)
ICFP Papers
Jack Liell-Cock University of Oxford, Sam Staton University of Oxford
DOI