Discussion of "Riemann manifold Langevin and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo methods'' by M. Girolami and B. Calderhead

Abstract

This technical report is the union of two contributions to the discussion of the Read Paper "Riemann manifold Langevin and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo methods" by B. Calderhead and M. Girolami, presented in front of the Royal Statistical Society on October 13th 2010 and to appear in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B. The first comment establishes a parallel and possible interactions with Adaptive Monte Carlo methods. The second comment exposes a detailed study of Riemannian Manifold Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (RMHMC) for a weakly identifiable model presenting a strong ridge in its geometry.