Quasi continuous level Monte Carlo for random elliptic PDEs

Abstract: This paper provides a framework in which multilevel Monte Carlo and continuous level Monte Carlo can be compared. In continuous level Monte Carlo the level of refinement is determined by an exponentially distributed random variable, which therefore heavily influences the computational complexity. We propose in this paper a variant of the algorithm, where the exponentially distributed random variable is generated by a quasi Monte Carlo sequence, resulting in a significant variance reduction. In the examples presented the quasi continuous level Monte Carlo algorithm outperforms multilevel and continuous level Monte Carlo by a clear margin.