arXiv:2605.03710stat.MLcs.AI2026-05

用变分推断直接学习后验与预测分布,提升不确定性量化效率

Amortized Variational Inference for Joint Posterior and Predictive Distributions in Bayesian Uncertainty Quantification

论文配图:Amortized Variational Inference for Joint Posterior and Predictive Distributions in Bayesian Uncertainty Quantification
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 联合优化后验和预测分布的变分近似,避免两阶段计算
  • 在线推理成本大幅降低,预测精度优于传统方法
  • 适合高保真模型如偏微分方程系统的不确定性分析

贝叶斯预测推断通过后验-预测分布将参数不确定性传播至关注量。实践中通常采用两阶段流程:先近似参数后验分布,再通过蒙特卡洛模拟传播后验样本。该顺序流程在高保真模型(如偏微分方程系统)中计算成本高昂。本文提出一种变分贝叶斯框架,直接针对后验-预测分布,联合学习后验与对应预测分布的变分近似。该方法引入变分上界控制KL散度,并结合基于矩的正则项。变分分布以摊销方式训练,将计算负担移至离线阶段,实现高效在线推断。数值实验涵盖解析基准到有限元固体力学问题,结果表明该方法在预测分布精度上优于传统两阶段变分推断,同时显著降低在线推断成本。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Bayesian predictive inference propagates parameter uncertainty to quantities of interest through the posterior-predictive distribution. In practice, this is typically performed using a two-stage procedure: first approximating the posterior distribution of model parameters, and then propagating posterior samples through the predictive model via Monte Carlo simulation. This sequential workflow can be computationally demanding, particularly for high-fidelity models such as those governed by partial differential equations. We propose a variational Bayesian framework that directly targets the posterior-predictive distribution and jointly learns variational approximations of both the posterior and the corresponding predictive distribution. The formulation introduces a variational upper bound on the Kullback--Leibler divergence together with moment-based regularization terms. The variational distributions are trained in an amortized manner, shifting computational effort to an offline stage and enabling efficient online inference. Numerical experiments ranging from analytical benchmarks to a finite-element solid mechanics problem demonstrate that the proposed method achieves more accurate predictive distributions than conventional two-stage variational inference, while substantially reducing the cost of online predictive inference.

贝叶斯推断不确定性量化变分推断高保真模型

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