On Stochastic Estimation of Partition Function

Abstract: In this paper, we show analytically that the duality of normal factor graphs (NFG) can facilitate stochastic estimation of partition functions. In particular, our analysis suggests that for the $q-$ary two-dimensional nearest-neighbor Potts model, sampling from the primal NFG of the model and sampling from its dual exhibit opposite behaviours with respect to the temperature of the model. For high-temperature models, sampling from the primal NFG gives rise to better estimators whereas for low-temperature models, sampling from the dual gives rise to better estimators. This analysis is validated by experiments.