Mean-Square Analysis of Discretized Ito Diffusions for Heavy-tailed Sampling
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Abstract (arXiv)
We analyze the complexity of sampling from a class of heavy-tailed distributions by discretizing a natural class of Ito diffusions associated with weighted Poincar'e inequalities. Based on a mean-square analysis, we establish the iteration complexity for obtaining a sample whose distribution is ε close to the target distribution in the Wasserstein-2 metric. In this paper, our results take the mean-square analysis to its limits, i.e., we invariably only require that the target density has finite variance, the minimal requirement for a mean-square analysis. To obtain explicit estimates, we compute upper bounds on certain moments associated with heavy-tailed targets under various assumptions. We also provide similar iteration complexity results for the case where only function evaluations of the unnormalized target density are available by estimating the gradients using a Gaussian smoothing technique. We provide illustrative examples based on the multivariate t-distribution.
Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 41 of its 88 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 1 Mar 2023.
Builds on
41 of 88 references.
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29 more
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Citing papers per year: 2023: 1; 2024: 1; 2025: 2.
4 papers.
- 2023Towards a Complete Analysis of Langevin Monte Carlo: Beyond Poincar'e Inequalitycited by 31
- 2024Zeroth-Order Sampling Methods for Non-Log-Concave Distributions: Alleviating Metastability by Denoising Diffusioncited by 19
- 2025Anchored Langevin Algorithmscited by 2
- 2025Sampling by averaging: A multiscale approach to score estimationcited by 1
- 2025Anchored Langevin Algorithms23 Sep 2025
- 2025Sampling by averaging: A multiscale approach to score estimation20 Aug 2025
- 2024Zeroth-Order Sampling Methods for Non-Log-Concave Distributions: Alleviating Metastability by Denoising Diffusion27 Feb 2024
- 2023Towards a Complete Analysis of Langevin Monte Carlo: Beyond Poincar'e Inequality7 Mar 2023