Polychord: next-generation nested sampling. Issue 4 (16th September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Handley, W. J.; Hobson, M. P.; Lasenby, A. N.
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 453:Issue 4(2015)
• Page Start: 4384
• Page End: 4398
• Publication Date: 2015-09-16
• Subjects: methods: data analysis -- methods: statistical; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv1911
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0035-8711

Abstract

Abstract: polychord is a novel nested sampling algorithm tailored for high-dimensional parameter spaces. This paper coincides with the release of polychord v1.6, and provides an extensive account of the algorithm. polychord utilizes slice sampling at each iteration to sample within the hard likelihood constraint of nested sampling. It can identify and evolve separate modes of a posterior semi-independently, and is parallelized using openmpi . It is capable of exploiting a hierarchy of parameter speeds such as those present in cosmomc and camb, and is now in use in the cosmochord and modechord codes. polychord is available for download from http://ccpforge.cse.rl.ac.uk/gf/project/polychord/ .