A Split-Merge Markov chain Monte Carlo Procedure for the Dirichlet Process Mixture Model

Abstract
. We propose a split-merge Markov chain algorithm to address the problem of inefficientsampling for conjugate Dirichlet process mixture models. Traditional Markov chain MonteCarlo methods for Bayesian mixture models, such as Gibbs sampling, can become trapped in isolatedmodes corresponding to an inappropriate clustering of data points. This article describes aMetropolis-Hastings procedure that can escape such local modes by splitting or merging mixturecomponents. Our Metropolis-Hastings...