Monte Carlo convergence rates for $k$th moments in Banach spaces

TL;DR

This paper establishes convergence rates for Monte Carlo methods estimating the $k$th moments of Banach space valued random variables, extending known results to non-Hilbertian spaces and applying to PDEs and evolution equations.

Contribution

It provides the first rigorous convergence rate analysis for Monte Carlo estimators of moments in Banach spaces, including multilevel methods and error estimates.

Findings

Convergence rate of $1 - 1/p$ for standard Monte Carlo in Banach spaces.

Extension of results to multilevel Monte Carlo methods with error bounds.

Application to PDEs and stochastic evolution equations in non-Hilbertian Banach spaces.

Abstract

We formulate standard and multilevel Monte Carlo methods for the $k$th moment $\mathbb{M}^k_\varepsilon[\xi]$ of a Banach space valued random variable $\xi\colon\Omega\to E$, interpreted as an element of the $k$-fold injective tensor product space $\otimes^k_\varepsilon E$. For the standard Monte Carlo estimator of $\mathbb{M}^k_\varepsilon[\xi]$, we prove the $k$-independent convergence rate $1-\frac{1}{p}$ in the $L_q(\Omega;\otimes^k_\varepsilon E)$-norm, provided that (i) $\xi\in L_{kq}(\Omega;E)$ and (ii) $q\in[p,\infty)$, where $p\in[1,2]$ is the Rademacher type of $E$. By using the fact that Rademacher averages are dominated by Gaussian sums combined with a version of Slepian's inequality for Gaussian processes due to Fernique, we moreover derive corresponding results for multilevel Monte Carlo methods, including a rigorous error estimate in the $L_q(\Omega;\otimes^k_\varepsilon E)$-norm and the optimization of the computational cost for a given accuracy. Whenever the type of the Banach space $E$ is $p=2$, our findings coincide with known results for Hilbert space valued random variables. We illustrate the abstract results by three model problems: second-order elliptic PDEs with random forcing or random coefficient, and stochastic evolution equations. In these cases, the solution processes naturally take values in non-Hilbertian Banach spaces. Further applications, where physical modeling constraints impose a setting in Banach spaces of type $p<2$, are indicated.