TY - GEN A1 - Zhang, Wei A1 - Wang, Han A1 - Hartmann, Carsten A1 - Weber, Marcus A1 - Schütte, Christof T1 - Applications of the cross-entropy method to importance sampling and optimal control of diffusions N2 - We study the cross-entropy method for diffusions. One of the results is a versatile cross-entropy algorithm that can be used to design efficient importance sampling strategies for rare events or to solve optimal control problems. The approach is based on the minimization of a suitable cross-entropy functional, with a parametric family of exponentially tilted probability distributions. We illustrate the new algorithm with several numerical examples and discuss algorithmic issues and possible extensions of the method. T3 - ZIB-Report - 14-10 KW - important sampling KW - optimal control KW - cross-entropy method KW - rare events KW - change of measure Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-49720 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Sarich, Marco A1 - Banisch, Ralf A1 - Hartmann, Carsten A1 - Schütte, Christof T1 - Markov State Models for Rare Events in Molecular Dynamics N2 - Rare but important transition events between long lived states are a key feature of many molecular systems. In many cases the computation of rare event statistics by direct molecular dynamics (MD) simulations is infeasible even on the most powerful computers because of the immensely long simulation timescales needed. Recently a technique for spatial discretization of the molecular state space designed to help overcome such problems, so-called Markov State Models (MSMs), has attracted a lot of attention. We review the theoretical background and algorithmic realization of MSMs and illustrate their use by some numerical examples. Furthermore we introduce a novel approach to using MSMs for the efficient solution of optimal control problems that appear in applications where one desires to optimize molecular properties by means of external controls. T3 - ZIB-Report - 13-52 KW - rare events KW - Markov state models KW - long timescales KW - optimal control Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-42420 SN - 1438-0064 ER -