MLMC techniques for discontinuous functions

Abstract

The Multilevel Monte Carlo (MLMC) approach usually works well when estimating the expected value of a quantity which is a Lipschitz function of intermediate quantities, but if it is a discontinuous function it can lead to a much slower decay in the variance of the MLMC correction. This article reviews the literature on techniques which can be used to overcome this challenge in a variety of different contexts, and discusses recent developments using either a branching diffusion or adaptive sampling.