Ising Model

Please refer to my earlier posts on MRF and GRF for getting used to the notations. If we consider clique potentials for sizes of upto 2, the energy function is the sum of clique potentials of all cliques of size 1 and size 2,

\[U( \textbf{x} ) = \sum_{\{i\}\in C_1} \phi_1(x_i) + \sum_{\{i,j\}\in C_2} \phi_2(x_i,x_j)\]

Also assume that our label set \(L\) is binary, \(L \in \{-1,1\}\). To further simplify things, assume that \(\phi_1(x_i)=\alpha_i x_i\) and \(\phi_2(x_i,x_j) = \beta_{i,j} \delta(x_i,x_j)\).

Here \(\beta_{i,j}\) can be thought of as strengths of pairwise interactions, while \(\alpha_i\) reflects the bias of \(x_i\) towards a particular state in preference to the other.

Further simplify, \(\alpha_i = \alpha, \forall i\), \(\beta_{i,j} = \beta, \forall i,j\), and \(\delta(x_i,x_j) = -x_i x_j\). This gives and example of an Ising Model. Then,

\[\begin{align} P( \textbf{x} ) & = \dfrac{1}{Z} \exp \{ -U(\textbf{x}) \} \\\\ & = \dfrac{1}{Z}\exp \{ -\alpha \sum_{\{i\}\in C_1} x_i + \beta \sum_{\{i,j\}\in C_2} x_i x_j \} \\\\ & = \dfrac{1}{Z} \exp \{ -\alpha \sum_{\{i\}\in C_1} x_i\} \exp\{ \beta \sum_{\{i,j\}\in C_2} x_i x_j \} \end{align}\]

Drawing samples from \(P(\textbf{x})\) is tricky, as we do not have a way to compute the partition function \(Z\).

Sampling by Metropolis-Hastings method

  1. Start with some configuration \(\textbf{x} = \{x_1,x_2,...x_n\}\). Repeat the following steps:
  2. Select a random \(x_k\).
  3. Produce a new sample \(\hat{\textbf{x}} = \{x_1,x_2,...,-x_k,...,x_n \}\) by flipping \(x_k\).
  4. Compute the acceptance probability of the new sample \(\hat {\textbf{x}}\) as \(A(\hat{\textbf{x}} \vert \textbf{x})\) = min \(\{ 1, \dfrac{ \pi (\hat{\textbf{x}}) g(\textbf{x} \vert \hat{\textbf{x}} )}{ \pi (\textbf{x}) g(\hat{\textbf{x}} \vert \textbf{x} ) } \}\).

Here, \(\pi (\textbf{x}) = P(\textbf{x})\). Similarly, \(\pi (\hat{\textbf{x}}) = P(\hat{\textbf{x}})\) where the only difference is thay \(x_k\) has been flipped to \(-x_k\) in \(\hat{\textbf{x}}\). The paritition function \(Z\) is unchanged and cancels out in ratio \(\dfrac{\pi(\hat{\textbf{x}})}{\pi(\textbf{x})}\). The function \(g(\textbf{x} \prime \vert \textbf{x} )\) is the probability of the move \(\textbf{x} \rightarrow \hat{\textbf{x}}\), it is assumed to be the same as \(g(\hat{\textbf{x}} \vert \textbf{x} )\); i.e, the proposal distribution \(g(. \vert .)\) is symmetric. So \(A(\hat{\textbf{x}} \vert \textbf{x})\) is simply, \(A(\hat{\textbf{x}} \vert \textbf{x})\) = min \(\{ 1, \dfrac{ \pi (\hat{\textbf{x}})}{ \pi (\textbf{x})} \}\).

Clearly when \(\pi (\hat{\textbf{x}}) \geqslant \pi (\textbf{x})\), the ratio \(\dfrac{ \pi (\hat{\textbf{x}})}{ \pi (\textbf{x})} \geqslant 1\), so that \(A(\hat{\textbf{x}} \vert \textbf{x}) = 1\) and the state will transition to \(\hat{\textbf{x}}\) with certainty. If \(\pi (\hat{\textbf{x}}) < \pi (\textbf{x})\), accept the new sample \(\hat{\textbf{x}}\) with some probability. That is, generate a random number \(u \in Uniform(0,1)\), accept \(\hat{\textbf{x}}\) if \(u < \dfrac{ \pi (\hat{\textbf{x}})}{ \pi (\textbf{x})}\), otherwise keep \(\textbf{x}\).

Sampling by Gibb’s method

Repeat the following steps:

  1. Start with some configuration \(\textbf{x} = \{x_1,x_2,...x_n\}\).
  2. Repeat:
    • \(\hat{x}_1 \leftarrow\) sample from \(P(x_1 \vert x_2,x_3,...,X_n)\). Replace \(x_1\) with \(\hat{x}_1\) in \(\textbf{x}\).
    • \(\hat{x}_2 \leftarrow\) sample from \(P(x_2 \vert \hat{x_1},x_3,...,x_n)\). Replace \(x_2\) with \(\hat{x}_2\) in \(\textbf{x}\).
    • \[\vdots\]
    • \(\hat{x}_n \leftarrow\) sample from \(P(x_n \vert \hat{x_1},\hat{x_2},...,\hat{x_{n-1}})\). Replace \(x_n\) with \(\hat{x}_n\) in \(\textbf{x}\).

Now how to compute \(P(x_i \vert x_1,x_2...,x_n)\) ?. We know that \(P(\textbf{x}) = \dfrac{1}{Z} \exp \{ -\alpha \sum_{\{i\}\in C_1} x_i + \beta \sum_{\{i,j\}\in C_2} x_i x_j \}\). Consider pixel \(x_i\) (random variable for site \(i\)) conditioned on all other pixels \(x_1,x_2,...,x_{i-1},x_{i+1},...,x_n\), i.e,

\(P(x_i \vert x_1,...,x_{i-1},x_{i+1},...,x_n) = \dfrac{P(x_1,...,x_{i-1},x_i,x_{i+1},...,x_n)}{\sum_{x_i \in L} P(x_1,...,x_{i-1},x_i,x_{i+1},...,x_n)}\).

But we can split \(P(x_1,...,x_{i-1},x_i,x_{i+1},...,x_n)\) into two groups - one that depends on \(x_i\) and its neighbors \(N(x_i)\); and the other that involves the other \(x\)’s. The group that depends on \(\{x_i,N(x_i)\}\) would be

\(\exp \{ -\alpha \sum_{x_k \in \{x_i,N(x_i)\}} x_k + \beta \sum_{x_k,x_j\in \{x_i,N(x_i)\}} x_k x_j \}\).

And the other goup would be

\( \exp { -\alpha \sum_{ \substack{ {k} \in C_1 \ x_k \notin {x_i,N(x_i)} }} x_k + \beta \sum_{ \substack{ {k,j} \in C_2 \ x_k,x_j \notin {x_i,N(x_i)} }} x_k x_j } \).

The second group that does not depend on \(x_i\) will cancel out from the numerator and denominator in the expression of \(P(x_i \vert x_1,...x_{i-1},x_{i+1},...x_n)\). This leaves,

\[\begin{align} P(x_i \vert x_1,...,x_{i-1},x_{i+1},...,x_n) & = \dfrac{\exp \{ -\alpha \sum_{x_k \in \{x_i,N(x_i)\}} x_k + \beta \sum_{x_k,x_j\in \{x_i,N(x_i)\}} x_k x_j \}}{\sum_{x_i \in L} \exp \{ -\alpha \sum_{x_k \in \{x_i,N(x_i)\}} x_k + \beta \sum_{x_k,x_j\in \{x_i,N(x_i)\}} x_k x_j \} } \\\\ & = \dfrac{P(x_i,N(x_i))}{\sum_{x_i \in L} P(x_i,N(x_i))} \\\\ & = P(x_i \vert N(x_i)) \end{align}\]

So to achive sampling from \(P(\textbf{x})\) (our original goal), we just need to sample from \(P(x_i \vert N(x_i))\) instead of trying to sample from \(P(x_i \vert x_1,...,x_{i-1},x_{i+1},...,x_n)\) at each step of Gibbs’ sampling. Now, how exactly do we draw a sample from \(P(x_i \vert N(x_i))\) ?

We have \(P(x_i=1 \vert N(x_i)) = \dfrac{\exp \{ -\alpha + \beta \sum_{x_j\in N(x_i)} x_j \}} {\exp \{ -\alpha + \beta \sum_{x_j\in N(x_i)} x_j \} + \exp \{ \alpha - \beta \sum_{x_j\in N(x_i)} x_j \}}\), and \(P(x_i=-1 \vert N(x_i)) = 1 - P(x_i \vert N(x_i))\). Generate a random number \(u \in\) Uniform(0,1). If \(u \leq P(x_i=1 \vert N(x_i))\), output a 1 for \(\hat{x_i}\) else output -1 for \(\hat{x_i}\).

A python implementation of a small image compares the probability distribution of samples obtained using Gibb’s sampling with the distribution obtained by generating all possible configurations of the image.

Written on November 26, 2015