Symmetrically processed splitting integrators for enhanced Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling

Abstract

We construct integrators to be used in Hamiltonian (or Hybrid) Monte Carlo sampling. The new integrators are easily implementable and, for a given computational budget, may deliver five times as many accepted proposals as standard leapfrog/Verlet without impairing in any way the quality of the samples. They are based on a suitable modification of the processing technique first introduced by J.C. Butcher. The idea of modified processing may also be useful for other purposes, like the construction of high-order splitting integrators with positive coefficients.