An Adaptive Interacting Wang–Landau Algorithm for Automatic Density Exploration

While statisticians are well-accustomed to performing exploratory analysis in the modeling stage of an analysis, the notion of conducting preliminary general-purpose exploratory analysis in the Monte Carlo stage (or more generally, the model-fitting stage) of an analysis is an area that we feel deserves much further attention. Toward this aim, this article proposes a general-purpose algorithm for automatic density exploration. The proposed exploration algorithm combines and expands upon components from various adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, with the Wang–Landau algorithm at its heart. Additionally, the algorithm is run on interacting parallel chains—a feature that both decreases computational cost as well as stabilizes the algorithm, improving its ability to explore the density. Performance of this new parallel adaptive Wang–Landau algorithm is studied in several applications. Through a Bayesian variable selection example, we demonstrate the convergence gains obtained with interacting chains. The ability of the algorithm’s adaptive proposal to induce mode-jumping is illustrated through a Bayesian mixture modeling application. Last, through a two-dimensional Ising model, the authors demonstrate the ability of the algorithm to overcome the high correlations encountered in spatial models. Supplemental materials are available online.