ArXiv

Delocalization of bias in unadjusted Hamiltonian Monte Carlo and underdamped Langevin

Authors
Yifan Chen, Xiaoou Cheng, Jonathan Niles-Weed...
Categories
stat.CO, cs.LG, math.PR, stat.ML
arXiv
https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.15208v1
PDF
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.15208v1

Brief

The authors show that the delocalization phenomenon (previously proved for overdamped Langevin) holds for unadjusted Hamiltonian Monte Carlo and underdamped Langevin: O(√K) integration steps (up to log d) suffice to control W2 bias of any K-dimensional marginal under weak or sparse interactions. They overcome discrete-time difficulties with a matrix-polynomial propagator framework and prove results valid for all large friction, implying the Leimkuhler–Matthews integrator shares this bias delocalization.

Why it matters

For unadjusted Hamiltonian Monte Carlo and underdamped Langevin, controlling the W2 bias of any K-dimensional marginal of a d-dimensional target requires O(√K) integration steps (up to log d factors) under assumptions of weak or sparse interactions.

Key details

  • The paper extends delocalization of bias from overdamped Langevin to discrete-time integrators, introduces a matrix-polynomial framework to analyze propagators, and proves the underdamped result holds for all large friction parameters—implying the Leimkuhler–Matthews integrator also exhibits delocalization while avoiding Metropolis cost.
Source evidence

Abstract

Unadjusted samplers such as unadjusted Hamiltonian Monte Carlo and underdamped Langevin are well-known to be biased. Metropolis--Hastings adjustment has been conventionally incorporated into Hamiltonian Monte Carlo to eliminate the bias. However, this adjustment can significantly increase the iteration complexity due to the small step size required for reasonable Metropolis acceptance rates. In this work, we extend the \emph{delocalization of bias} phenomenon, previously established for the overdamped Langevin algorithm, to these two unadjusted algorithms. We show that to control the $W_2$ bias of any $K$-dimensional marginal of a high-dimensional distribution, $O(\sqrt{K})$ integration steps suffice up to $\log d$ terms, assuming either weak or sparse interactions among variables. The discrete-time integrators here introduce technical difficulties beyond those of the overdamped setting, which we address through a broadly applicable matrix-polynomial framework that characterizes their propagators. Our result for the underdamped Langevin algorithm is valid for all large friction parameters, implying that the Leimkuhler-Matthews integrator for the overdamped Langevin dynamics also exhibits delocalization of bias.