๐ŸšŠ Metropolis-Hastings

Statistics / Sampling

Metropolis-Hastings is a ๐ŸŽฏ Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm for approximate sampling from distribution if we have access to the unnormalized distribution . Our transition function works in two steps.

  1. Propose from using some distribution .
  2. Choose to accept this change with probability

Intuitively, our transition is picking some sample that's near . If it moves in the direction of greater probability, we have a greater chance of accepting it. Thus, our samples gradually get closer to high probability, low energy areas, and begin to model the target distribution.

Content by William Liang, written in Obsidian.
Thank you to all the educators who made these notes possible.