scholarly journals Some variance reduction methods for numerical stochastic homogenization

2016 ◽  
Vol 374 (2066) ◽  
pp. 20150168 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Blanc ◽  
C. Le Bris ◽  
F. Legoll
Keyword(s):  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Variance Reduction ◽  
Stochastic Homogenization ◽  
Numerical Homogenization ◽  
Variance Reduction Techniques ◽  
Reduction Techniques ◽  
Effective Coefficients ◽  
Engineering Sciences ◽  
Reduction Methods ◽  
The Cost

We give an overview of a series of recent studies devoted to variance reduction techniques for numerical stochastic homogenization. Numerical homogenization requires that a set of problems is solved at the microscale, the so-called corrector problems. In a random environment, these problems are stochastic and therefore need to be repeatedly solved, for several configurations of the medium considered. An empirical average over all configurations is then performed using the Monte Carlo approach, so as to approximate the effective coefficients necessary to determine the macroscopic behaviour. Variance severely affects the accuracy and the cost of such computations. Variance reduction approaches, borrowed from other contexts in the engineering sciences, can be useful. Some of these variance reduction techniques are presented, studied and tested here.

scholarly journals Variance-Reduction Methods for Monte Carlo Simulation of Radiation Transport

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador García-Pareja ◽  
Antonio M. Lallena ◽  
Francesc Salvat
Keyword(s):  
Monte Carlo Simulation ◽  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Variance Reduction ◽  
Radiation Transport ◽  
Scattering Method ◽  
Variance Reduction Techniques ◽  
Simulation Efficiency ◽  
Reduction Techniques ◽  
Exponential Transform ◽  
Reduction Methods

After a brief description of the essentials of Monte Carlo simulation methods and the definition of simulation efficiency, the rationale for variance-reduction techniques is presented. Popular variance-reduction techniques applicable to Monte Carlo simulations of radiation transport are described and motivated. The focus is on those techniques that can be used with any transport code, irrespective of the strategies used to track charged particles; they operate by manipulating either the number and weights of the transported particles or the mean free paths of the various interaction mechanisms. The considered techniques are 1) splitting and Russian roulette, with the ant colony method as builder of importance maps, 2) exponential transform and interaction-forcing biasing, 3) Woodcock or delta-scattering method, 4) interaction forcing, and 5) proper use of symmetries and combinations of different techniques. Illustrative results from analog simulations (without recourse to variance-reduction) and from variance-reduced simulations of various transport problems are presented.

scholarly journals Efficient Variance Reduction for American Call Options Using Symmetry Arguments

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 504
Author(s):  
François-Michel Boire ◽  
R. Mark Reesor ◽  
Lars Stentoft
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Variance Reduction ◽  
Control Variates ◽  
Put Options ◽  
Call Options ◽  
Variance Reduction Techniques ◽  
Reduction Techniques ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Out Of Sample ◽  
Reduction Methods

Recently it was shown that the estimated American call prices obtained with regression and simulation based methods can be significantly improved on by using put-call symmetry. This paper extends these results and demonstrates that it is also possible to significantly reduce the variance of the estimated call price by applying variance reduction techniques to corresponding symmetric put options. First, by comparing performance for pairs of call and (symmetric) put options for which the solution coincides, our results show that efficiency gains from variance reduction methods are different for calls and symmetric puts. Second, control variates should always be used and is the most efficient method. Furthermore, since control variates is more effective for puts than calls, and since symmetric pricing already offers some variance reduction, we demonstrate that drastic reductions in the standard deviation of the estimated call price is obtained by combining all three variance reduction techniques in a symmetric pricing approach. This reduces the standard deviation by a factor of over 20 for long maturity call options on highly volatile assets. Finally, we show that our findings are not particular to using in-sample pricing but also hold when using an out-of-sample pricing approach.

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