*Yukito iba1
(1.The Institute of Statistical Mathematics)
Keywords:Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Replica Exchange Monte Carlo (Parallel Tempering), Bayesian modeling, rare event sampling
As introduction, history and software of Markov chain Monte Carlo is briefly discussed. Then, replica exchange method (parallel tempering) is explained as a useful tool for sampling multimodal distributions. It is also stressed that applications of Markov chain Monte Carlo are not rescricted to statistical physics or Bayesian computaion; it can deal with a variety of problems related to high dimensional probability, such as counting the number of discrete structures, sampling rare orbits in nonlinear dynamical systems, statistical testing under complicated null hypothesis.