Markov Chain Monte Carlo Simulations And Their Statistical Analysis

This book teaches modern Markov chain Monte Carlo (MC) simulation techniques step by step. The material should be accessible to advanced undergraduate students and is suitable for a course. It ranges from elementary statistics concepts (the theory behind MC simulations), through conventional Metropolis and heat bath algorithms, autocorrelations and the analysis of the performance of MC algorithms, to advanced topics including the multicanonical approach, cluster algorithms and parallel computing. Therefore, it is also of interest to researchers in the field. The book relates the theory directly to Web-based computer code. This allows readers to get quickly started with their own simulations and to verify many numerical examples easily. The present code is in Fortran 77, for which compilers are freely available. The principles taught are important for users of other programming languages, like C or C++.

This book teaches modern Markov chain Monte Carlo (MC) simulation techniques step by step. The material should be accessible to advanced undergraduate students and is suitable for a course. It ranges from elementary statistics concepts (the theory behind MC simulations), through conventional Metropolis and heat bath algorithms, autocorrelations and the analysis of the performance of MC algorithms, to advanced topics including the multicanonical approach, cluster algorithms and parallel computing. Therefore, it is also of interest to researchers in the field. The book relates the theory directly to Web-based computer code. This allows readers to get quickly started with their own simulations and to verify many numerical examples easily. The present code is in Fortran 77, for which compilers are freely available. The principles taught are important for users of other programming languages, like C or C++.

We have sold 4300 copies worldwide of the first edition (1999). This new edition contains five completely new chapters covering new developments.

In a family study of breast cancer, epidemiologists in Southern California increase the power for detecting a gene-environment interaction. In Gambia, a study helps a vaccination program reduce the incidence of Hepatitis B carriage. Archaeologists in Austria place a Bronze Age site in its true temporal location on the calendar scale. And in France, researchers map a rare disease with relatively little variation. Each of these studies applied Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to produce more accurate and inclusive results. General state-space Markov chain theory has seen several developments that have made it both more accessible and more powerful to the general statistician. Markov Chain Monte Carlo in Practice introduces MCMC methods and their applications, providing some theoretical background as well. The authors are researchers who have made key contributions in the recent development of MCMC methodology and its application. Considering the broad audience, the editors emphasize practice rather than theory, keeping the technical content to a minimum. The examples range from the simplest application, Gibbs sampling, to more complex applications. The first chapter contains enough information to allow the reader to start applying MCMC in a basic way. The following chapters cover main issues, important concepts and results, techniques for implementing MCMC, improving its performance, assessing model adequacy, choosing between models, and applications and their domains. Markov Chain Monte Carlo in Practice is a thorough, clear introduction to the methodology and applications of this simple idea with enormous potential. It shows the importance of MCMC in real applications, such as archaeology, astronomy, biostatistics, genetics, epidemiology, and image analysis, and provides an excellent base for MCMC to be applied to other fields as well.

While there have been few theoretical contributions on the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods in the past decade, current understanding and application of MCMC to the solution of inference problems has increased by leaps and bounds. Incorporating changes in theory and highlighting new applications, Markov Chain Monte Carlo: Stochastic Simulation for Bayesian Inference, Second Edition presents a concise, accessible, and comprehensive introduction to the methods of this valuable simulation technique. The second edition includes access to an internet site that provides the code, written in R and WinBUGS, used in many of the previously existing and new examples and exercises. More importantly, the self-explanatory nature of the codes will enable modification of the inputs to the codes and variation on many directions will be available for further exploration. Major changes from the previous edition: · More examples with discussion of computational details in chapters on Gibbs sampling and Metropolis-Hastings algorithms · Recent developments in MCMC, including reversible jump, slice sampling, bridge sampling, path sampling, multiple-try, and delayed rejection · Discussion of computation using both R and WinBUGS · Additional exercises and selected solutions within the text, with all data sets and software available for download from the Web · Sections on spatial models and model adequacy The self-contained text units make MCMC accessible to scientists in other disciplines as well as statisticians. The book will appeal to everyone working with MCMC techniques, especially research and graduate statisticians and biostatisticians, and scientists handling data and formulating models. The book has been substantially reinforced as a first reading of material on MCMC and, consequently, as a textbook for modern Bayesian computation and Bayesian inference courses.

A comprehensive overview of Monte Carlo simulation that explores the latest topics, techniques, and real-world applications More and more of today’s numerical problems found in engineering and finance are solved through Monte Carlo methods. The heightened popularity of these methods and their continuing development makes it important for researchers to have a comprehensive understanding of the Monte Carlo approach. Handbook of Monte Carlo Methods provides the theory, algorithms, and applications that helps provide a thorough understanding of the emerging dynamics of this rapidly-growing field. The authors begin with a discussion of fundamentals such as how to generate random numbers on a computer. Subsequent chapters discuss key Monte Carlo topics and methods, including: Random variable and stochastic process generation Markov chain Monte Carlo, featuring key algorithms such as the Metropolis-Hastings method, the Gibbs sampler, and hit-and-run Discrete-event simulation Techniques for the statistical analysis of simulation data including the delta method, steady-state estimation, and kernel density estimation Variance reduction, including importance sampling, latin hypercube sampling, and conditional Monte Carlo Estimation of derivatives and sensitivity analysis Advanced topics including cross-entropy, rare events, kernel density estimation, quasi Monte Carlo, particle systems, and randomized optimization The presented theoretical concepts are illustrated with worked examples that use MATLAB®, a related Web site houses the MATLAB® code, allowing readers to work hands-on with the material and also features the author's own lecture notes on Monte Carlo methods. Detailed appendices provide background material on probability theory, stochastic processes, and mathematical statistics as well as the key optimization concepts and techniques that are relevant to Monte Carlo simulation. Handbook of Monte Carlo Methods is an excellent reference for applied statisticians and practitioners working in the fields of engineering and finance who use or would like to learn how to use Monte Carlo in their research. It is also a suitable supplement for courses on Monte Carlo methods and computational statistics at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels.

This book provides the first simultaneous coverage of the statistical aspects of simulation and Monte Carlo methods, their commonalities and their differences for the solution of a wide spectrum of engineering and scientific problems. It contains standard material usually considered in Monte Carlo simulation as well as new material such as variance reduction techniques, regenerative simulation, and Monte Carlo optimization.

Monte Carlo methods form an experimental branch of mathematics that employs simulations driven by random number generators. These methods are often used when others fail, since they are much less sensitive to the ``curse of dimensionality'', which plagues deterministic methods in problems with a large number of variables. Monte Carlo methods are used in many fields: mathematics, statistics, physics, chemistry, finance, computer science, and biology, for instance. This book is an introduction to Monte Carlo methods for anyone who would like to use these methods to study various kinds of mathematical models that arise in diverse areas of application. The book is based on lectures in a graduate course given by the author. It examines theoretical properties of Monte Carlo methods as well as practical issues concerning their computer implementation and statistical analysis. The only formal prerequisite is an undergraduate course in probability. The book is intended to be accessible to students from a wide range of scientific backgrounds. Rather than being a detailed treatise, it covers the key topics of Monte Carlo methods to the depth necessary for a researcher to design, implement, and analyze a full Monte Carlo study of a mathematical or scientific problem. The ideas are illustrated with diverse running examples. There are exercises sprinkled throughout the text. The topics covered include computer generation of random variables, techniques and examples for variance reduction of Monte Carlo estimates, Markov chain Monte Carlo, and statistical analysis of Monte Carlo output.