{"state_type":"pith_open_graph_state","state_version":"1.0","pith_number":"pith:2019:YV6KEM4RN43ZKCJ32IFTJYBUJI","merge_version":"pith-open-graph-merge-v1","event_count":2,"valid_event_count":2,"invalid_event_count":0,"equivocation_count":0,"current":{"canonical_record":{"metadata":{"abstract_canon_sha256":"f3502e829fca98d969562baa3671c3d8a5885e07e5916be0b9709207b5df9029","cross_cats_sorted":["cs.LG"],"license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","primary_cat":"stat.ML","submitted_at":"2019-05-10T10:45:23Z","title_canon_sha256":"25edf4b12aa4ce154ad2ebe9090c56c024bc56172d300e31a95d23734e7b867e"},"schema_version":"1.0","source":{"id":"1905.04062","kind":"arxiv","version":2}},"source_aliases":[{"alias_kind":"arxiv","alias_value":"1905.04062","created_at":"2026-05-17T23:44:53Z"},{"alias_kind":"arxiv_version","alias_value":"1905.04062v2","created_at":"2026-05-17T23:44:53Z"},{"alias_kind":"doi","alias_value":"10.48550/arxiv.1905.04062","created_at":"2026-05-17T23:44:53Z"},{"alias_kind":"pith_short_12","alias_value":"YV6KEM4RN43Z","created_at":"2026-05-18T12:33:33Z"},{"alias_kind":"pith_short_16","alias_value":"YV6KEM4RN43ZKCJ3","created_at":"2026-05-18T12:33:33Z"},{"alias_kind":"pith_short_8","alias_value":"YV6KEM4R","created_at":"2026-05-18T12:33:33Z"}],"graph_snapshots":[{"event_id":"sha256:d8f0c08aa66863e05f9e5d1d0074fa877562894425df704cfe2beba6e9af8b72","target":"graph","created_at":"2026-05-17T23:44:53Z","signer":{"key_id":"pith-v1-2026-05","public_key_fingerprint":"8d4b5ee74e4693bcd1df2446408b0d54","signer_id":"pith.science","signer_type":"pith_registry"},"payload":{"graph_snapshot":{"author_claims":{"count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","strong_count":0},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1","claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"paper":{"abstract_excerpt":"We develop a method to combine Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and variational inference (VI), leveraging the advantages of both inference approaches. Specifically, we improve the variational distribution by running a few MCMC steps. To make inference tractable, we introduce the variational contrastive divergence (VCD), a new divergence that replaces the standard Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence used in VI. The VCD captures a notion of discrepancy between the initial variational distribution and its improved version (obtained after running the MCMC steps), and it converges asymptotically to th","authors_text":"Francisco J. R. Ruiz, Michalis K. Titsias","cross_cats":["cs.LG"],"headline":"","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","primary_cat":"stat.ML","submitted_at":"2019-05-10T10:45:23Z","title":"A Contrastive Divergence for Combining Variational Inference and MCMC"},"references":{"count":0,"internal_anchors":0,"resolved_work":0,"sample":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"1905.04062","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"created_at":null,"id":null,"model_set":{},"one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"pith_extraction_headline":"","strongest_claim":"","weakest_assumption":""}},"verdict_id":null}}],"author_attestations":[],"timestamp_anchors":[],"storage_attestations":[],"citation_signatures":[],"replication_records":[],"corrections":[],"mirror_hints":[],"record_created":{"event_id":"sha256:aa037c46b69e410d734ac20aac739a16d956b92a5daccd48df0621afb91fb47f","target":"record","created_at":"2026-05-17T23:44:53Z","signer":{"key_id":"pith-v1-2026-05","public_key_fingerprint":"8d4b5ee74e4693bcd1df2446408b0d54","signer_id":"pith.science","signer_type":"pith_registry"},"payload":{"attestation_state":"computed","canonical_record":{"metadata":{"abstract_canon_sha256":"f3502e829fca98d969562baa3671c3d8a5885e07e5916be0b9709207b5df9029","cross_cats_sorted":["cs.LG"],"license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","primary_cat":"stat.ML","submitted_at":"2019-05-10T10:45:23Z","title_canon_sha256":"25edf4b12aa4ce154ad2ebe9090c56c024bc56172d300e31a95d23734e7b867e"},"schema_version":"1.0","source":{"id":"1905.04062","kind":"arxiv","version":2}},"canonical_sha256":"c57ca233916f3795093bd20b34e0344a24ddce89e0989b09c414c37c2d833712","receipt":{"algorithm":"ed25519","builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1","canonical_sha256":"c57ca233916f3795093bd20b34e0344a24ddce89e0989b09c414c37c2d833712","first_computed_at":"2026-05-17T23:44:53.951446Z","key_id":"pith-v1-2026-05","kind":"pith_receipt","last_reissued_at":"2026-05-17T23:44:53.951446Z","public_key_fingerprint":"8d4b5ee74e4693bcd1df2446408b0d54","receipt_version":"0.3","signature_b64":"J+skBgXQ/OnW1lMv2etw5iaf3troK+jTsIqnJnXp7tEuQAuIP/19fWLGkRPS2L2jJUzVeNuy5WC+urX6YN+SDA==","signature_status":"signed_v1","signed_at":"2026-05-17T23:44:53.952302Z","signed_message":"canonical_sha256_bytes"},"source_id":"1905.04062","source_kind":"arxiv","source_version":2}}},"equivocations":[],"invalid_events":[],"applied_event_ids":["sha256:aa037c46b69e410d734ac20aac739a16d956b92a5daccd48df0621afb91fb47f","sha256:d8f0c08aa66863e05f9e5d1d0074fa877562894425df704cfe2beba6e9af8b72"],"state_sha256":"d3aedc581897532aed102610d089c4fb0d8a1eb0e67298566b5cb337910827f6"}