IFT is fully Bayesian. How else could infinitely many field degrees of freedom be constrained by finite data?
There is a full toolbox of methods that can be used, like the classical approximation (= Maximum a posteriori = MAP), effective action (= Variational Bayes = VI), Feynman diagrams, renormalitation, and more. IFT reproduces many known well working algorithms. This should be reassuring. And, there were certainly previous works in a similar spirit. Anyhow, in many cases IFT provides novel rigorous ways to extract information from data. NIFTy comes with reimplemented MAP and VI estimators. It also provides a Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampler for Fields (HMCF).
There is a full toolbox of methods that can be used, like the classical approximation (= Maximum a posteriori = MAP), effective action (= Variational Bayes = VI), Feynman diagrams, renormalization, and more. IFT reproduces many known well working algorithms. This should be reassuring. Also, there were certainly previous works in a similar spirit. Anyhow, in many cases IFT provides novel rigorous ways to extract information from data. NIFTy comes with reimplemented MAP and VI estimators. It also provides a Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampler for Fields (HMCF). (*FIXME* does it?)
.. tip:: *In-a-nutshell introductions to information field theory* can be found in [2]_, [3]_, [4]_, and [5]_, with the latter probably being the most didactically.
.. tip:: *In-a-nutshell introductions to information field theory* can be found in [2]_, [3]_, [4]_, and [5]_, with the latter probably being the most didactical.
.. [1] T.A. Enßlin et al. (2009), "Information field theory for cosmological perturbation reconstruction and nonlinear signal analysis", PhysRevD.80.105005, 09/2009; `arXiv:0806.3474 <http://www.arxiv.org/abs/0806.3474>`_
.. [1] T.A. Enßlin et al. (2009), "Information field theory for cosmological perturbation reconstruction and nonlinear signal analysis", PhysRevD.80.105005, 09/2009; `[arXiv:0806.3474] <http://www.arxiv.org/abs/0806.3474>`_
.. [2] T.A. Enßlin (2013), "Information field theory", proceedings of MaxEnt 2012 -- the 32nd International Workshop on Bayesian Inference and Maximum Entropy Methods in Science and Engineering; AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1553, Issue 1, p.184; `arXiv:1301.2556 <http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.2556>`_
.. [2] T.A. Enßlin (2013), "Information field theory", proceedings of MaxEnt 2012 -- the 32nd International Workshop on Bayesian Inference and Maximum Entropy Methods in Science and Engineering; AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1553, Issue 1, p.184; `[arXiv:1301.2556] <http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.2556>`_
.. [3] T.A. Enßlin (2014), "Astrophysical data analysis with information field theory", AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1636, Issue 1, p.49; `arXiv:1405.7701 <http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.7701>`_
.. [3] T.A. Enßlin (2014), "Astrophysical data analysis with information field theory", AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1636, Issue 1, p.49; `[arXiv:1405.7701] <http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.7701>`_
.. [4] Wikipedia contributors (2018), `"Information field theory" <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Information_field_theory&oldid=876731720>`_, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
.. [4] Wikipedia contributors (2018), `"Information field theory" <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Information_field_theory&oldid=876731720>`_, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
.. [5] T.A. Enßlin (2019), "Information theory for fields", accepted by Annalen der Physik; `[DOI] <https://doi.org/10.1002/andp.201800127>`_, `[arXiv:1804.03350] <http://arxiv.org/abs/1804.03350>`_
.. [5] T.A. Enßlin (2019), "Information theory for fields", accepted by Annalen der Physik; `arXiv:1804.03350 <http://arxiv.org/abs/1804.03350>`_
Discretized continuum
---------------------
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@@ -83,9 +84,9 @@ The above line of argumentation analogously applies to the discretization of ope
The proper discretization of spaces, fields, and operators, as well as the normalization of position integrals, is essential for the conservation of the continuum limit. Their consistent implementation in NIFTY allows a pixelization independent coding of algorithms.
The proper discretization of spaces, fields, and operators, as well as the normalization of position integrals, is essential for the conservation of the continuum limit. Their consistent implementation in NIFTy allows a pixelization independent coding of algorithms.
Free Theory & Implicit Operators
Free Theory & Implicit Operators
--------------------------------
A free IFT appears when the signal field :math:`{s}` and the noise :math:`{n}` of the data :math:`{d}` are independent, zero-centered Gaussian processes of kown covariances :math:`{S}` and :math:`{N}`, respectively,
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@@ -94,30 +95,29 @@ A free IFT appears when the signal field :math:`{s}` and the noise :math:`{n}` o
is only of quadratic order in :math:`{s}`, which leads to a linear relation between the data and the posterior mean field.
is only of quadratic order in :math:`{s}`, which leads to a linear relation between the data and the posterior mean field.
In this case, the posterior is
In this case, the posterior is
.. math::
\mathcal{P}(s|d) = \mathcal{G}(s-m,D)
with
with
.. math::
...
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@@ -129,15 +129,15 @@ the posterior mean field,
D = \left( S^{-1} + R^\dagger N^{-1} R\right)^{-1}
the posterior covariance operator, and
the posterior covariance operator, and
.. math::
j = R^\dagger N^{-1} d
the information source. The operation in :math:`{d= D\,R^\dagger N^{-1} d}` is also called the generalized Wiener filter.
the information source. The operation in :math:`{m = D\,R^\dagger N^{-1} d}` is also called the generalized Wiener filter.
NIFTy permits to define the involved operators :math:`{R}`, :math:`{R^\dagger}`, :math:`{S}`, and :math:`{N}` implicitely, as routines that can be applied to vectors, but which do not require the explicit storage of the matrix elements of the operators.
NIFTy permits to define the involved operators :math:`{R}`, :math:`{R^\dagger}`, :math:`{S}`, and :math:`{N}` implicitly, as routines that can be applied to vectors, but which do not require the explicit storage of the matrix elements of the operators.
Some of these operators are diagonal in harmonic (Fourier) basis, and therefore only require the specification of a (power) spectrum and :math:`{S= F\,\widehat{P_s} F^\dagger}`. Here :math:`{F = \mathrm{HarmonicTransformOperator}}`, :math:`{\widehat{P_s} = \mathrm{DiagonalOperator}(P_s)}`, and :math:`{P_s(k)}` is the power spectrum of the process that generated :math:`{s}` as a function of the (absolute value of the) harmonic (Fourier) space koordinate :math:`{k}`. For those, NIFTy can easily also provide inverse operators, as :math:`{S^{-1}= F\,\widehat{\frac{1}{P_s}} F^\dagger}` in case :math:`{F}` is unitary, :math:`{F^\dagger=F^{-1}}`.
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@@ -170,15 +170,15 @@ The joint information Hamiltonian for the whitened signal field :math:`{\xi}` re
NIFTy takes advantage of this formulation in several ways:
NIFTy takes advantage of this formulation in several ways:
1) All prior degrees of freedom have unit covariance which improves the condition number of operators which need to be inverted.
2) The amplitude operator can be regarded as part of the response, :math:`{R'=R\,A}`. In general, more sophisticated responses can be constructed out of the composition of simpler operators.
3) The response can be non-linear, e.g. :math:`{R'(s)=R \exp(A\,\xi)}`, see demos/getting_started_2.py.
4) The amplitude operator can be made dependent on unknowns as well, e.g. :math:`A=A(\tau)= F\, \widehat{e^\tau}` represents an amplitude operator with a positive definite, unknown spectrum defined in Fourier domain. The amplitude field :math:`{\tau}` would get its own amplitude operator, with a cepstrum (spectrum of a log spectrum) defined in quefrency space (harmonic space of a logarithmically binned harmonic space) to regularize its degrees of freedom by imposing some (user-defined level of) spectral smoothness.
5) NIFTy can calculate the gradient of the information Hamiltonian and the Fischer information metric with respect to all unknown parameters, here :math:`{\xi}` and :math:`{\tau}`, by automatic differentiation. The gradients are used for MAP and HMCF estimates, and the Fischer matrix is required in addition to the gradient by Metric Gaussian Variational Inference (MGVI), which is available in NIFTy as well. MGVI is an implicit operator extension of Automatic Differentiation Variational Inference (ADVI).
4) The amplitude operator can be made dependent on unknowns as well, e.g. :math:`A=A(\tau)= F\, \widehat{e^\tau}` represents an amplitude operator with a positive definite, unknown spectrum defined in the Fourier domain. The amplitude field :math:`{\tau}` would get its own amplitude operator, with a cepstrum (spectrum of a log spectrum) defined in quefrency space (harmonic space of a logarithmically binned harmonic space) to regularize its degrees of freedom by imposing some (user-defined degree of) spectral smoothness.
5) NIFTy can calculate the gradient of the information Hamiltonian and the Fisher information metric with respect to all unknown parameters, here :math:`{\xi}` and :math:`{\tau}`, by automatic differentiation. The gradients are used for MAP and HMCF estimates, and the Fisher matrix is required in addition to the gradient by Metric Gaussian Variational Inference (MGVI), which is available in NIFTy as well. MGVI is an implicit operator extension of Automatic Differentiation Variational Inference (ADVI).
The reconstruction of a non-Gaussian signal with unknown covarinance from a non-trivial (tomographic) response is demonstrated in demos/getting_started_3.py. Here, the uncertainty of the field and the power spectrum of its generating process are probed via posterior samples provided by the MGVI algorithm.
The reconstruction of a non-Gaussian signal with unknown covariance from a non-trivial (tomographic) response is demonstrated in demos/getting_started_3.py. Here, the uncertainty of the field and the power spectrum of its generating process are probed via posterior samples provided by the MGVI algorithm.
**NIFTy** [1]_, "\ **N**\umerical **I**\nformation **F**\ield **T**\heor\ **y**\ ", is a versatile library designed to enable the development of signal inference algorithms that are independent of the underlying spatial grid and its resolution.
**NIFTy** [1]_, [2]_, "\ **N**\umerical **I**\nformation **F**\ield **T**\heor\ **y**\ ", is a versatile library designed to enable the development of signal inference algorithms that are independent of the underlying spatial grid and its resolution.
Its object-oriented framework is written in Python, although it accesses libraries written in C++ and C for efficiency.
NIFTy offers a toolkit that abstracts discretized representations of continuous spaces, fields in these spaces, and operators acting on fields into classes.
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@@ -13,22 +13,18 @@ The set of spaces on which NIFTy operates comprises point sets, *n*-dimensional
References
----------
.. [1] Steininger et al., "NIFTy 3 - Numerical Information Field Theory - A Python framework for multicomponent signal inference on HPC clusters", 2017, submitted to PLOS One; `[arXiv:1708.01073] <https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.01073>`_
.. [1] Selig et al., "NIFTY - Numerical Information Field Theory. A versatile PYTHON library for signal inference ", 2013, Astronmy and Astrophysics 554, 26; `[DOI] <https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/link_gateway/2013A&A...554A..26S/doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201321236>`_, `[arXiv:1301.4499] <https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.4499>`_
.. [2] Steininger et al., "NIFTy 3 - Numerical Information Field Theory - A Python framework for multicomponent signal inference on HPC clusters", 2017, accepted by Annalen der Physik; `[arXiv:1708.01073] <https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.01073>`_
