Importance Sampling Optimization

Principle

Importance sampling optimization is a variance reduction technique for Monte Carlo simulations that improves the efficiency of estimating rare event probabilities. This method involves sampling from a “biased” or “importance” distribution, which is different from the true underlying distribution, but chosen to increase the frequency of observing rare events. The results are then re-weighted using a likelihood ratio to correct for this bias, ensuring the estimator remains unbiased. It strategically focuses computational effort on critical regions.