--- title: "Introduction to Moreau-Yosida MCMC Importance Sampling (`MYIS`)" author: "Shikhar Tyagi, Arvind Pandey, Bhupendra Singh, Vrijesh Tripathi" output: rmarkdown::html_vignette vignette: > %\VignetteIndexEntry{Introduction to Moreau-Yosida MCMC Importance Sampling (`MYIS`)} %\VignetteEngine{knitr::rmarkdown} %\VignetteEncoding{UTF-8} --- ```{r setup, include = FALSE} knitr::opts_chunk$set( collapse = TRUE, comment = "#>" ) if (requireNamespace("MYIS", quietly = TRUE)) { library(MYIS) } else if (file.exists("../R")) { r_files <- list.files("../R", full.names = TRUE) lapply(r_files, source) } ``` ## Overview The `MYIS` package provides a distribution-independent framework for **Moreau-Yosida Markov Chain Monte Carlo Importance Sampling (MY-IS)** based on the theoretical paradigm established by Shukla, Vats, and Chi (2025). In modern statistical modeling, Bayesian target posteriors $\pi(\theta \mid \mathbf{x}) \propto \exp(-\psi(\theta))$ often exhibit non-differentiable priors (e.g., Lasso, fused Lasso, nuclear norm penalties) or light tails (e.g. Poisson random effects), precluding standard gradient-based MCMC algorithms such as MALA or HMC. `MYIS` addresses this challenge by approximating non-smooth potentials $\psi(\theta)$ with their smooth **Moreau-Yosida envelopes**: $$\psi_\lambda(\theta) = \inf_{\eta} \left\{ \psi(\eta) + \frac{1}{2\lambda} \|\eta - \theta\|^2 \right\}$$ Gradient-based samplers ($\pi_\lambda$-MALA, $\pi_\lambda$-HMC, or $\pi_\lambda$-RWM) draw samples from the smooth importance density $\pi_\lambda(\theta) \propto \exp(-\psi_\lambda(\theta))$, while self-normalized importance weights: $$w_\lambda(\theta) = \exp\big(-(\psi(\theta) - \psi_\lambda(\theta))\big) \le 1$$ re-weight samples to yield consistent, finite-variance estimators $\hat{\theta}_n^{\text{MY}}$ and Bayesian marginal quantiles (Chen and Shao, 1999). ## Basic Usage Example Below is a simple demonstration estimating the rate parameter of an Exponential distribution from complete observations: ```{r example-complete} set.seed(123) true_rate <- 1.8 sample_data <- rexp(100, rate = true_rate) # User provides custom PDF function my_pdf <- function(x, theta) { dexp(x, rate = theta[1]) } # Run Moreau-Yosida MCMC Importance Sampling fit <- my_is_estimate( pdf = my_pdf, data = sample_data, initial_theta = c(1.0), par_lower = 0.001, sampler = "mala", n_samples = 200, burnin = 50 ) # Print Summary print(fit) ``` ## Inference Under Right Censoring `MYIS` supports arbitrary censoring schemes including complete, right, left, interval, Type-I, Type-II, progressive Type-II, and truncation. ```{r example-censored} set.seed(456) n <- 80 x_obs <- rexp(n, rate = 1.2) c_times <- rexp(n, rate = 0.8) t_obs <- pmin(x_obs, c_times) delta <- as.numeric(x_obs <= c_times) fit_censored <- my_is_estimate( pdf = my_pdf, data = t_obs, initial_theta = c(1.0), censoring = "right", censoring_params = list(delta = delta), par_lower = 0.001, sampler = "mala", n_samples = 200, burnin = 50 ) summary(fit_censored) ``` ## Diagnostic Plots `MYIS` includes diagnostic plotting functions to inspect trace plots, autocorrelation, posterior density, and weight distribution: ```{r example-plot, fig.width=7, fig.height=6} plot(fit_censored, type = "all") ``` ## References - Shukla, A., Vats, D., & Chi, E. C. (2025). MCMC Importance Sampling via Moreau-Yosida Envelopes. arXiv:2501.02228v2. - Chen, M. H., & Shao, Q. M. (1999). Monte Carlo estimation of Bayesian credible quantities. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 8(1), 69-92. - Pereyra, M. (2016). Proximal Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms. Statistics and Computing, 26(4), 745-760. - Durmus, A., Moulines, E., & Pereyra, M. (2022). Efficient Bayesian computation by proximal Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling. Electronic Journal of Statistics, 16(1), 1404-1447.