Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2608.27986

A Simpler Analysis of the Bansal-Jiang Quasi Monte-Carlo Algorithm via Haar Wavelets

Jiaheng Chen, Agastya Vibhuti Jha, Haotian Jiang

Published Aug 28, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Numerical integration---approximating the integral of a function $f$ using $n$ point evaluations---is a central task in science and engineering. The two main paradigms for this problem, the Monte Carlo and quasi-Monte Carlo methods, have distinct strengths and limitations, and a fundamental question is to design a method that combines the benefits of both. \smallskip Building on recent algorithmic advances in discrepancy theory, Bansal and Jiang \cite{BJ25a} gave a randomized QMC method that naturally bridges the MC and QMC error guarantees. Their method also achieves a surprising improvement over the classical Koksma--Hlawka inequality for QMC methods: it attains an error bound of $\widetilde{O}(σ_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)/n)$, where $σ_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)$ is a new notion of \emph{smoothed-out variation} that they introduced and showed to be substantially smaller than the Hardy--Krause variation governing the classical bound. \smallskip However, the analysis in \cite{BJ25a} is quite involved: it must carefully exploit the structure of the dyadic decomposition and the randomness of the algorithm inside a sufficiently fine discretization of the Hlawka--Zaremba formula to obtain cancellations among the high-frequency components in the Fourier decomposition of $f$. The contribution of this article is twofold: (1) We give an equivalent characterization of $σ_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)$ in terms of the Haar--Besov seminorm of $f$, relating this new notion of smoothed-out variation to classical quantities. (2) Through this characterization, we provide a conceptually simpler and more direct analysis of the Bansal--Jiang QMC method via Haar decomposition, bypassing the use of the Hlawka--Zaremba formula, Fourier decomposition, and the delicate cancellation arguments of \cite{BJ25a} that heavily exploit the structure of dyadic decomposition.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2608.27986

Related papers

Quasi-Monte Carlo Beyond Hardy-Krause II: $(1 + \varepsilon)n$ Samples Suffice

Ekene Ezeunala, Agastya Vibhuti Jha, Haotian Jiang

Numerical integration studies how well one can estimate the integral of a function $f$ over $[0,1)^d$ using $n$ sample points. The two classical methods, Monte Carlo (MC) and quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC), have complementary strengths and weaknesses, and a fundamental question is to design an approach that combines the benefits of both. Recently, building on the transference principle in discrepancy theory, Bansal and Jiang~\cite{BJ25a} gave a randomized QMC method that bridges MC and QMC guarantees using only i.i.d.\ samples. Their method also goes beyond the classical Koksma--Hlawka inequality: it achieves integration error $\widetilde{O}_d(σ_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)/n)$, where the smoothed-out variation $σ_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)$ can be substantially smaller than the Hardy--Krause variation that governs the classical bound. However, their algorithm requires $n^2$ i.i.d.\ samples as input, and this quadratic blowup is inherent to any method based on the transference principle. In this work, we bypass the quadratic blowup: for any constant $\varepsilon > 0$, we show that $(1+\varepsilon)n$ i.i.d.\ samples suffice to both obtain the beyond-Hardy--Krause guarantee of~\cite{BJ25a}, resolving an open problem posed there, and to produce low-discrepancy point sequences. Our algorithms are variants of the online Haar-thinning method of Dwivedi, Feldheim, Gurel-Gurevich, and Ramdas~\cite{DFG+19}.

arXiv:2609.10921•Sep 10, 2026•0 citations

Quasi-Monte Carlo Beyond Hardy-Krause

Nikhil Bansal, Haotian Jiang

We examine the problem of numerically estimating the integral of a function f. The classical approaches to this problem are Monte Carlo (MC) and quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) methods. MC methods use random samples to evaluate f and have error , where σ(f ) is the standard deviation of f. QMC methods are based on evaluating f at explicit point sets with low discrepancy, and as given by the classical Koksma- Hlawka inequality, they have error Õ (σHK(f )/n ), where σΗΚ(f ) is the variation of f in the sense of Hardy and Krause. These two methods have distinctive advantages and shortcomings, and a fundamental question is to find a method that combines the advantages of both.

arXiv:2408.06475•Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics eBooks•Jan 1, 2025•2 citations

QMC integration errors and quasi-asymptotics

Ilya M. Sobol, Boris V. Shukhman

Abstract A crude Monte Carlo (MC) method allows to calculate integrals over a d-dimensional cube. As the number N of integration nodes becomes large, the rate of probable error of the MC method decreases as O ⁢ ( 1 / N ) {O(1/\sqrt{N})} . The use of quasi-random points instead of random points in the MC algorithm converts it to the quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) method. The asymptotic error estimate of QMC integration of d-dimensional functions contains a multiplier 1 / N {1/N} . However, the multiplier ( ln ⁡ N ) d {(\ln N)^{d}} is also a part of the error estimate, which makes it virtually useless. We have proved that, in the general case, the QMC error estimate is not limited to the factor 1 / N {1/N} . However, our numerical experiments show that using quasi-random points of Sobol sequences with N = 2 m {N=2^{m}} with natural m makes the integration error approximately proportional to 1 / N {1/N} . In our numerical experiments, d ≤ 15 {d\leq 15} , and we used N ≤ 2 40 {N\leq 2^{40}} points generated by the SOBOLSEQ16384 code published in 2011. In this code, d ≤ 2 14 {d\leq 2^{14}} and N ≤ 2 63 {N\leq 2^{63}} .

Monte Carlo Methods and Applications•Jul 16, 2020•2 citations

Quantum Quasi-Monte Carlo: a window for pre-asymptotic quantum advantage

Paolo Recchia, Zhan Yu, Kelvin Koor +1 more

Numerical integration with Monte Carlo methods is a central computational task in many scientific and industrial applications, including financial derivative pricing and risk management. Classical Monte Carlo algorithms are computationally demanding: achieving an accuracy $ε$ typically requires a number of function evaluations scaling as $O(1/ε^2)$. Quantum-accelerated Monte Carlo methods based on quantum amplitude estimation can in principle quadratically improve this dependence. However, \textit{quasi}-Monte Carlo methods have not been explored in the quantum context. In this work, we introduce a quantum quasi-Monte Carlo algorithm that combines low-discrepancy nets with quantum amplitude estimation. The proposed method prepares the quasi-random point set coherently in superposition. The method does not yield an asymptotic improvement over classical quasi-Monte Carlo, since the total error separates into a discretization error, determined by the finite net, and a quantum estimation error. Instead, we explore a pre-asymptotic advantage window: for a target accuracy that would classically require $2^q$ low discrepancy points, one can prepare a higher-resolution net of size $2^Q$, with $Q>q$, in superposition and reach the same accuracy using significantly fewer function queries. This window can be controlled by tuning the circuit resolution and amplitude-estimation parameters, making the approach relevant for practical regimes where the number of queries is finite rather than asymptotically large.

quant-pharXiv:2609.03625•Sep 4, 2026•0 citations

High-dimensional integration: The quasi-Monte Carlo way

Josef Dick, Frances Y. Kuo, Ian H. Sloan

This paper is a contemporary review of QMC (‘quasi-Monte Carlo’) methods, that is, equal-weight rules for the approximate evaluation of high-dimensional integrals over the unit cube [0,1] s , where s may be large, or even infinite. After a general introduction, the paper surveys recent developments in lattice methods, digital nets, and related themes. Among those recent developments are methods of construction of both lattices and digital nets, to yield QMC rules that have a prescribed rate of convergence for sufficiently smooth functions, and ideally also guaranteed slow growth (or no growth) of the worst-case error as s increases. A crucial role is played by parameters called ‘weights’, since a careful use of the weight parameters is needed to ensure that the worst-case errors in an appropriately weighted function space are bounded, or grow only slowly, as the dimension s increases. Important tools for the analysis are weighted function spaces, reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, and discrepancy, all of which are discussed with an appropriate level of detail.

Acta Numerica•Apr 2, 2013•615 citations

Some convergence results in randomized quasi Monte Carlo

Yang Liu

We study the convergence rate of randomized quasi-Monte Carlo (RQMC) methods for integrands with different smoothness. The Koksma--Hlawka inequality fails to be informative for certain $L^2$ singular integrands. We provide convergence results based on spectral analysis.

•Jan 1, 2025•0 citations
Numerical integration---approximating the integral of a function fff using nnn point evaluations---is a central task in science and engineering. The two main paradigms for this problem, the Monte Carlo and quasi-Monte Carlo methods, have distinct strengths and limitations, and a fundamental question is to design a method that combines the benefits of both. \smallskip Building on recent algorithmic advances in discrepancy theory, Bansal and Jiang \cite{BJ25a} gave a randomized QMC method that naturally bridges the MC and QMC error guarantees. Their method also achieves a surprising improvement over the classical Koksma--Hlawka inequality for QMC methods: it attains an error bound of O~(σSO(f)/n)\widetilde{O}(σ_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)/n)O(σSO​(f)/n), where σSO(f)σ_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)σSO​(f) is a new notion of \emph{smoothed-out variation} that they introduced and showed to be substantially smaller than the Hardy--Krause variation governing the classical bound. \smallskip However, the analysis in \cite{BJ25a} is quite involved: it must carefully exploit the structure of the dyadic decomposition and the randomness of the algorithm inside a sufficiently fine discretization of the Hlawka--Zaremba formula to obtain cancellations among the high-frequency components in the Fourier decomposition of fff. The contribution of this article is twofold: (1) We give an equivalent characterization of σSO(f)σ_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)σSO​(f) in terms of the Haar--Besov seminorm of fff, relating this new notion of smoothed-out variation to classical quantities. (2) Through this characterization, we provide a conceptually simpler and more direct analysis of the Bansal--Jiang QMC method via Haar decomposition, bypassing the use of the Hlawka--Zaremba formula, Fourier decomposition, and the delicate cancellation arguments of \cite{BJ25a} that heavily exploit the structure of dyadic decomposition.
Quasi-Monte Carlo Beyond Hardy-Krause II: (1+ε)n(1 + \varepsilon)n(1+ε)n Samples Suffice
Numerical integration studies how well one can estimate the integral of a function fff over [0,1)d[0,1)^d[0,1)d using nnn sample points. The two classical methods, Monte Carlo (MC) and quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC), have complementary strengths and weaknesses, and a fundamental question is to design an approach that combines the benefits of both. Recently, building on the transference principle in discrepancy theory, Bansal and Jiang~\cite{BJ25a} gave a randomized QMC method that bridges MC and QMC guarantees using only i.i.d.\ samples. Their method also goes beyond the classical Koksma--Hlawka inequality: it achieves integration error O~d(σSO(f)/n)\widetilde{O}_d(σ_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)/n)Od​(σSO​(f)/n), where the smoothed-out variation σSO(f)σ_{\mathsf{SO}}(f)σSO​(f) can be substantially smaller than the Hardy--Krause variation that governs the classical bound. However, their algorithm requires n2n^2n2 i.i.d.\ samples as input, and this quadratic blowup is inherent to any method based on the transference principle. In this work, we bypass the quadratic blowup: for any constant ε>0\varepsilon > 0ε>0, we show that (1+ε)n(1+\varepsilon)n(1+ε)n i.i.d.\ samples suffice to both obtain the beyond-Hardy--Krause guarantee of~\cite{BJ25a}, resolving an open problem posed there, and to produce low-discrepancy point sequences. Our algorithms are variants of the online Haar-thinning method of Dwivedi, Feldheim, Gurel-Gurevich, and Ramdas~\cite{DFG+19}.
We examine the problem of numerically estimating the integral of a function f. The classical approaches to this problem are Monte Carlo (MC) and quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) methods. MC methods use random samples to evaluate f and have error , where σ(f ) is the standard deviation of f. QMC methods are based on evaluating f at explicit point sets with low discrepancy, and as given by the classical Koksma- Hlawka inequality, they have error Õ (σHK(f )/n ), where σΗΚ(f ) is the variation of f in the sense of Hardy and Krause. These two methods have distinctive advantages and shortcomings, and a fundamental question is to find a method that combines the advantages of both.
Abstract A crude Monte Carlo (MC) method allows to calculate integrals over a d-dimensional cube. As the number N of integration nodes becomes large, the rate of probable error of the MC method decreases as O ⁢ ( 1 / N ) {O(1/\sqrt{N})} . The use of quasi-random points instead of random points in the MC algorithm converts it to the quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) method. The asymptotic error estimate of QMC integration of d-dimensional functions contains a multiplier 1 / N {1/N} . However, the multiplier ( ln ⁡ N ) d {(\ln N)^{d}} is also a part of the error estimate, which makes it virtually useless. We have proved that, in the general case, the QMC error estimate is not limited to the factor 1 / N {1/N} . However, our numerical experiments show that using quasi-random points of Sobol sequences with N = 2 m {N=2^{m}} with natural m makes the integration error approximately proportional to 1 / N {1/N} . In our numerical experiments, d ≤ 15 {d\leq 15} , and we used N ≤ 2 40 {N\leq 2^{40}} points generated by the SOBOLSEQ16384 code published in 2011. In this code, d ≤ 2 14 {d\leq 2^{14}} and N ≤ 2 63 {N\leq 2^{63}} .
Numerical integration with Monte Carlo methods is a central computational task in many scientific and industrial applications, including financial derivative pricing and risk management. Classical Monte Carlo algorithms are computationally demanding: achieving an accuracy εεε typically requires a number of function evaluations scaling as O(1/ε2)O(1/ε^2)O(1/ε2). Quantum-accelerated Monte Carlo methods based on quantum amplitude estimation can in principle quadratically improve this dependence. However, \textit{quasi}-Monte Carlo methods have not been explored in the quantum context. In this work, we introduce a quantum quasi-Monte Carlo algorithm that combines low-discrepancy nets with quantum amplitude estimation. The proposed method prepares the quasi-random point set coherently in superposition. The method does not yield an asymptotic improvement over classical quasi-Monte Carlo, since the total error separates into a discretization error, determined by the finite net, and a quantum estimation error. Instead, we explore a pre-asymptotic advantage window: for a target accuracy that would classically require 2q2^q2q low discrepancy points, one can prepare a higher-resolution net of size 2Q2^Q2Q, with Q>qQ>qQ>q, in superposition and reach the same accuracy using significantly fewer function queries. This window can be controlled by tuning the circuit resolution and amplitude-estimation parameters, making the approach relevant for practical regimes where the number of queries is finite rather than asymptotically large.
This paper is a contemporary review of QMC (‘quasi-Monte Carlo’) methods, that is, equal-weight rules for the approximate evaluation of high-dimensional integrals over the unit cube [0,1] s , where s may be large, or even infinite. After a general introduction, the paper surveys recent developments in lattice methods, digital nets, and related themes. Among those recent developments are methods of construction of both lattices and digital nets, to yield QMC rules that have a prescribed rate of convergence for sufficiently smooth functions, and ideally also guaranteed slow growth (or no growth) of the worst-case error as s increases. A crucial role is played by parameters called ‘weights’, since a careful use of the weight parameters is needed to ensure that the worst-case errors in an appropriately weighted function space are bounded, or grow only slowly, as the dimension s increases. Important tools for the analysis are weighted function spaces, reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, and discrepancy, all of which are discussed with an appropriate level of detail.
We study the convergence rate of randomized quasi-Monte Carlo (RQMC) methods for integrands with different smoothness. The Koksma--Hlawka inequality fails to be informative for certain L2L^2L2 singular integrands. We provide convergence results based on spectral analysis.