Dimensionally unbounded problems are frequently encountered in practice, such as in simulations of stochastic processes, in particle and light transport problems and in the problems of mathematical finance. This paper considers quasi-Monte Carlo integration algorithms for weighted classes of functions of infinitely many variables, in which the dependence of functions on successive variables is increasingly limited. The dependence is modeled by a sequence of weights. The integrands belong to rather general reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces that can be decomposed as the direct sum of a series of their subspaces, each subspace containing functions of only a finite number of variables. The theory of reproducing kernels is used to derive a quadrature error bound, which is the product of two terms: the generalized discrepancy and the generalized variation. Tractability means that the minimal number of function evaluations needed to reduce the initial integration error by a factor ε \varepsilon is bounded by C ε − p C \varepsilon ^{-p} for some exponent p p and some positive constant C C . The ε \varepsilon -exponent of tractability is defined as the smallest power of ε − 1 \varepsilon ^{-1} in these bounds. It is shown by using Monte Carlo quadrature that the ε \varepsilon -exponent is no greater than 2 for these weighted classes of integrands. Under a somewhat stronger assumption on the weights and for a popular choice of the reproducing kernel it is shown constructively using the Halton sequence that the ε \varepsilon -exponent of tractability is 1, which implies that infinite dimensional integration is no harder than one-dimensional integration.
Dimensionally unbounded problems are frequently encountered in practice, such as in simulations of stochastic processes, in particle and light transport problems and in the problems of mathematical finance. This paper considers quasi-Monte Carlo integration algorithms for weighted classes of functions of infinitely many variables, in which the dependence of functions on successive variables is increasingly limited. The dependence is modeled by a sequence of weights. The integrands belong to rather general reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces that can be decomposed as the direct sum of a series of their subspaces, each subspace containing functions of only a finite number of variables. The theory of reproducing kernels is used to derive a quadrature error bound, which is the product of two terms: the generalized discrepancy and the generalized variation. Tractability means that the minimal number of function evaluations needed to reduce the initial integration error by a factor ε \varepsilon is bounded by C ε − p C \varepsilon ^{-p} for some exponent p p and some positive constant C C . The ε \varepsilon -exponent of tractability is defined as the smallest power of ε − 1 \varepsilon ^{-1} in these bounds. It is shown by using Monte Carlo quadrature that the ε \varepsilon -exponent is no greater than 2 for these weighted classes of integrands. Under a somewhat stronger assumption on the weights and for a popular choice of the reproducing kernel it is shown constructively using the Halton sequence that the ε \varepsilon -exponent of tractability is 1, which implies that infinite dimensional integration is no harder than one-dimensional integration.
Recently, quasi-Monte Carlo algorithms have been successfully used for multivariate integration of high dimensiond, and were significantly more efficient than Monte Carlo algorithms. The existing theory of the worst case error bounds of quasi-Monte Carlo algorithms does not explain this phenomenon. This paper presents a partial answer to why quasi-Monte Carlo algorithms can work well for arbitrarily larged. It is done by identifying classes of functions for which the effect of the dimensiondis negligible. These areweightedclasses in which the behavior in the successive dimensions is moderated by a sequence of weights. We prove that the minimalworst caseerror of quasi-Monte Carlo algorithms does not depend on the dimensiondiff the sum of the weights is finite. We also prove that the minimal number of function values in the worst case setting needed to reduce the initial error by ε is bounded byCε−p, where the exponentp∈ [1, 2], andCdepends exponentially on the sum of weights. Hence, the relatively small sum of the weights makes some quasi-Monte Carlo algorithms strongly tractable. We show in a nonconstructive way that many quasi-Monte Carlo algorithms are strongly tractable. Even random selection of sample points (done once for the whole weighted class of functions and then the worst case error is established for that particular selection, in contrast to Monte Carlo where random selection of sample points is carried out for a fixed function) leads to strong tractable quasi-Monte Carlo algorithms. In this case the minimal number of function values in theworst casesetting is of order ε−pwith the exponentp= 2. The deterministic construction of strongly tractable quasi-Monte Carlo algorithms as well as the minimal exponentpis open.
We study the numerical integration problem for functions with infinitely many variables which stem from a weighted reproducing kernel Hilbert space. We study the worst case ε \varepsilon -complexity which is defined as the minimal cost among all algorithms whose worst case error over the Hilbert space unit ball is at most ε \varepsilon . Here we assume that the cost of evaluating a function depends polynomially on the number of active variables. The infinite-dimensional integration problem is tractable if the ε \varepsilon -complexity is bounded by a constant times a power of 1 / ε 1/\varepsilon . The smallest such power is called the exponent of tractability. We provide improved lower bounds for the exponent of tractability for general finite-order weights and, with the help of multilevel algorithms, improved upper bounds for three newly defined classes of finite-order weights. The newly defined finite-intersection weights model the situation where each group of variables interacts with at most ρ \rho other groups of variables, ρ \rho some fixed number. For these weights we obtain sharp upper bounds for any decay of the weights and any polynomial degree of the cost function. For the other two classes of finite-order weights our upper bounds are sharp if, e.g., the decay of the weights is fast or slow enough. Furthermore, we deduce a lower bound for the exponent of tractability for arbitrary weights and a constructive upper bound for product weights.
Recently, quasi-Monte Carlo methods have been successfully used for approximating multiple integrals in hundreds of dimensions in mathematical finance, and were significantly more efficient than Monte Carlo methods. To understand the apparent success of quasi-Monte Carlo methods for multiple integration, one popular approach is to study worst-case error bounds in weighted function spaces in which the importance of the variables is moderated by some sequences of weights. Ideally, a family of quasi-Monte Carlo methods in some weighted function space should be strongly tractable. Strong tractability means that the minimal number of quadrature points n needed to reduce the initial error by a factor of ε is bounded by a polynomial in ε⁻¹ independently of the dimension d. Several recent publications show the existence of lattice rules that satisfy the strong tractability error bounds in weighted Korobov spaces of periodic integrands and weighted Sobolev spaces of non-periodic integrands. However, those results were non-constructive and thus give no clues as to how to actually construct these lattice rules. In this thesis, we focus on the construction of quasi-Monte Carlo methods that are strongly tractable. We develop and justify algorithms for the construction of lattice rules that achieve strong tractability error bounds in weighted Korobov and Sobolev spaces. The parameters characterizing these lattice rules are found ‘component-by-component’: the (d + 1)-th components are obtained by successive 1-dimensional searches, with the previous d components kept unchanged. The cost of these algorithms vary from O(nd²) to O(n³d²) operations. With currently available technology, they allow construction of rules easily with values of n up to several million and dimensions d up to several hundred.
We study quasi–Monte Carlo algorithms based on low discrepancy sequences for multivariate integration. We consider the problem of how the minimal number of function evaluations needed to reduce the worst-case error from its initial error by a factor of ε \varepsilon depends on ε − 1 {\varepsilon }^{-1} and the dimension s s . Strong tractability means that it does not depend on s s and is bounded by a polynomial in ε − 1 {\varepsilon }^{-1} . The least possible value of the power of ε − 1 {\varepsilon }^{-1} is called the ε \varepsilon -exponent of strong tractability. Sloan and Woźniakowski established a necessary and sufficient condition of strong tractability in weighted Sobolev spaces, and showed that the ε \varepsilon -exponent of strong tractability is between 1 and 2. However, their proof is not constructive . In this paper we prove in a constructive way that multivariate integration in some weighted Sobolev spaces is strongly tractable with ε \varepsilon -exponent equal to 1, which is the best possible value under a stronger assumption than Sloan and Woźniakowski’s assumption. We show that quasi–Monte Carlo algorithms using Niederreiter’s ( t , s ) (t,s) -sequences and Sobol sequences achieve the optimal convergence order O ( N − 1 + δ ) O(N^{-1+\delta })
Recently, quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) rules for multivariate integration in some weighted Sobolev spaces of functions defined over unit cubes [Formula: see text], products of [Formula: see text] copies of the simplex [Formula: see text] and products of [Formula: see text] copies of the unit sphere [Formula: see text] have been well-studied in the literature. In this paper, we consider QMC tractability of integrals of functions defined over product of [Formula: see text] copies of the ball [Formula: see text]. The space is a tensor product of [Formula: see text] reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces defined by positive and uniformly bounded weights [Formula: see text] for [Formula: see text]. We obtain matching necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of this weights for various notions of QMC tractability, including strong polynomial tractability, polynomial tractability, quasi-polynomial tractability, uniformly weak tractability and [Formula: see text]-weak tractability.
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.