Semi-parametric Bernstein-von Mises Theorem in a Parabolic PDE Problem
Abstract
We consider the heat equation with absorption in a bounded domain of $\mathbb{R}^d$, where both the scalar diffusivity and the absorption function are unknown. We investigate a Bayesian approach for recovering the diffusivity from a noisy observation of the solution to the PDE over the domain. Given a Gaussian process prior on the absorption function, we derive a Bernstein-von Mises theorem for the marginal posterior distribution of the diffusivity under assumptions on the prior and on smoothness properties of the absorption.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Numerical methods in inverse problems
Gaussian Processes and Bayesian Inference
Markov Chains and Monte Carlo Methods
Publication details
- Journal / source
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Publication date
- 31 January 2026
- Document type
- Preprint