Monte Carlo methods are among the most used and useful computational tools available today, providing efficient and practical algorithims to solve a wide range of scientific and engineering problems. Applications covered in this book include optimization, finance, statistical mechanics, birth and death processes, and gambling systems. Explorations in Monte Carlo Methods provides a hands-on approach to learning this subject. Each new idea is carefully motivated by a realistic problem, thus leading from questions to theory via examples and numerical simulations. Programming exercises are integrated throughout the text as the primary vehicle for learning the material. Each chapter ends with a large collection of problems illustrating and directing the material. This book is suitable as a textbook for students of engineering and the sciences, as well as mathematics.

This book covers the main tools used in statistical simulation from a programmer’s point of view, explaining the R implementation of each simulation technique and providing the output for better understanding and comparison.

We have sold 4300 copies worldwide of the first edition (1999). This new edition contains five completely new chapters covering new developments.

This monograph surveys the present state of Monte Carlo methods. we have dallied with certain topics that have interested us Although personally, we hope that our coverage of the subject is reasonably complete; at least we believe that this book and the references in it come near to exhausting the present range of the subject. On the other hand, there are many loose ends; for example we mention various ideas for variance reduction that have never been seriously appli(:d in practice. This is inevitable, and typical of a subject that has remained in its infancy for twenty years or more. We are convinced Qf:ver theless that Monte Carlo methods will one day reach an impressive maturity. The main theoretical content of this book is in Chapter 5; some readers may like to begin with this chapter, referring back to Chapters 2 and 3 when necessary. Chapters 7 to 12 deal with applications of the Monte Carlo method in various fields, and can be read in any order. For the sake of completeness, we cast a very brief glance in Chapter 4 at the direct simulation used in industrial and operational research, where the very simplest Monte Carlo techniques are usually sufficient. We assume that the reader has what might roughly be described as a 'graduate' knowledge of mathematics. The actual mathematical techniques are, with few exceptions, quite elementary, but we have freely used vectors, matrices, and similar mathematical language for the sake of conciseness.

Apart from a thorough exploration of all the important concepts, this volume includes over 75 algorithms, ready for putting into practice. The book also contains numerous hands-on implementations of selected algorithms to demonstrate applications in realistic settings. Readers are assumed to have a sound understanding of calculus, introductory matrix analysis, and intermediate statistics, but otherwise the book is self-contained. Suitable for graduates and undergraduates in mathematics and engineering, in particular operations research, statistics, and computer science.

This book provides an introduction to Monte Carlo simulations in classical statistical physics and is aimed both at students beginning work in the field and at more experienced researchers who wish to learn more about Monte Carlo methods. The material covered includes methods for both equilibrium and out of equilibrium systems, and common algorithms like the Metropolis and heat-bath algorithms are discussed in detail, as well as more sophisticated ones such as continuous time Monte Carlo, cluster algorithms, multigrid methods, entropic sampling and simulated tempering. Data analysis techniques are also explained starting with straightforward measurement and error-estimation techniques and progressing to topics such as the single and multiple histogram methods and finite size scaling. The last few chapters of the book are devoted to implementation issues, including discussions of such topics as lattice representations, efficient implementation of data structures, multispin coding, parallelization of Monte Carlo algorithms, and random number generation. At the end of the book the authors give a number of example programmes demonstrating the applications of these techniques to a variety of well-known models.