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Fix wiener_lpdf derivative with respect to w#3324

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martonaronvarga:fix/wiener-w-gradient
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Fix wiener_lpdf derivative with respect to w#3324
martonaronvarga wants to merge 2 commits into
stan-dev:developfrom
martonaronvarga:fix/wiener-w-gradient

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@martonaronvarga martonaronvarga commented May 12, 2026

Summary

Fixes #3322.

This PR fixed the reverse-mod derivative of wiener_lpdf with respect to the relative starting point parameter w.
The previous implementation disagreed with finite differences of Stan Math’s own scalar value function in both the 5-parameter overload and the full overload. In the failing full-Wiener row, the old reverse-mode adjoint was

AD gw = -34.586923958070955
FD gw = +35.719186815441617

After this PR, the reverse-mode adjoint agrees with the finite-difference value:

AD gw = +35.719186815203592
FD gw = +35.719186815441617

The implementation change is local to stan/math/prim/prob/wiener5_lpdf.hpp. The w derivative is now evaluated using the same upper-bound coordinate and branch convention as the density calculation. In particular, the large-time branch uses the coordinate q = 1 - w, consistent with the density representation, and applies the chain rule with respect to w.

This PR also updates the stale full-Wiener row 4 w reference value in wiener_full_lpdf_test.cpp from the previous adjoint/reference value to the finite-difference/fixed-AD value.

Tests

Added test/unit/math/mix/prob/wiener_lpdf_ad_test.cpp, using stan::test::expect_ad.

The new tests cover:

  • the 5-parameter overload at the originall failing point,
  • an sv = 0 control case,
  • the full overload with sw > 0, st0 == 0,
  • the existing full-Wiener rows with reverse-mode checks for the w adjoint.

The existing-row sweep uses reverse-only expect_ad<true> because one row triggers an unrelated higher-order grad_hessian tolerance issue, while this PR fixes the first derivative with respect to w.

Locally run:

python3 ./runTests.py \
  test/unit/math/mix/prob/wiener_lpdf_ad_test.cpp \
  test/unit/math/prim/prob/wiener_full_lpdf_test.cpp \
  test/unit/math/prim/prob/wiener_test.cpp

and all wiener* matches in test/.

Side Effects

This changes the reverse-mode adjoint of wiener_lpdf with respect to w in regimes where the previous implementation had the wrong coordinate/sign convention.

This may change gradients, optimization paths, and posterior geometry for models using wiener_lpdf with autodiff on w. The log density values are unchanged.

Release notes

Fix incorrect reverse-mode derivative of wiener_lpdf with respect to the relative starting point parameter w.

Checklist

  • the basic tests are passing
    Targeted tests pass locally. I have not run the full ./runTests.py test/unit, make test-headers, make test-math-dependencies, make doxygen, or make cpplint locally.
  • Copyright holder: Marton Aron Varga
    The copyright holder is typically you or your assignee, such as a university or company. By submitting this pull request, the copyright holder is agreeing to the license the submitted work under the following licenses:
  • the code is written in idiomatic C++ and changes are documented in the doxygen
  • the new changes are tested

Correct the reverse-mode derivative of wiener_lpdf with respect to the
relative starting point parameter w.

The previous implementation disagreed with finite differences of Stan
Math's own scalar value function in the 5-parameter overload and in the
full overload. The fix evaluates the w derivative in the same coordinate
and branch convention as the density calculation.

Add expect_ad regression tests for the failing 5-parameter case, an sv=0
control, the full sw>0, st0=0 case, and the existing full-Wiener rows.
Update the stale full-Wiener row 4 w-gradient reference to the corrected
finite-difference/fixed-AD value.
Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings May 12, 2026 18:26
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Pull request overview

Fixes the reverse-mode derivative of wiener_lpdf with respect to the relative starting point parameter w by aligning the w-gradient’s series representation (coordinates + branch choice) with the density calculation, and updates tests/reference gradients accordingly.

Changes:

  • Reworked internal::wiener5_grad_w to compute the w derivative using the same branch convention as the density (including q = 1 - w in the large-time branch).
  • Updated the stored full-Wiener reference gradient for w (row 4) to the corrected value.
  • Added a new mix-mode AD regression test suite targeting the previously failing cases and a reverse-only sweep over existing full-Wiener rows.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File Description
stan/math/prim/prob/wiener5_lpdf.hpp Updates the w-gradient implementation to match the density’s branch/coordinate conventions.
test/unit/math/prim/prob/wiener_full_lpdf_test.cpp Updates the expected w gradient reference value for the corrected row.
test/unit/math/mix/prob/wiener_lpdf_ad_test.cpp Adds AD regression tests to validate the corrected w derivative in mix-mode.

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Comment on lines +521 to 523
const auto y_asq = y / square(a);
const auto q = 1.0 - w;
const auto sv_sqr = square(sv);
@SteveBronder SteveBronder requested a review from Franzi2114 May 12, 2026 19:04
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@Franzi2114 can you take a look at this?

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Name Old Result New Result Ratio Performance change( 1 - new / old )
gp_regr/gp_regr.stan 0.1 0.1 0.99 -0.69% slower
gp_regr/gen_gp_data.stan 0.03 0.03 0.99 -0.52% slower
arK/arK.stan 1.87 1.87 1.0 -0.35% slower
eight_schools/eight_schools.stan 0.06 0.06 0.99 -0.81% slower
low_dim_gauss_mix_collapse/low_dim_gauss_mix_collapse.stan 9.08 9.14 0.99 -0.67% slower
pkpd/one_comp_mm_elim_abs.stan 20.33 20.47 0.99 -0.71% slower
pkpd/sim_one_comp_mm_elim_abs.stan 0.26 0.26 1.0 -0.16% slower
sir/sir.stan 73.69 73.49 1.0 0.27% faster
gp_pois_regr/gp_pois_regr.stan 2.94 2.98 0.99 -1.45% slower
low_dim_gauss_mix/low_dim_gauss_mix.stan 2.8 2.8 1.0 -0.06% slower
irt_2pl/irt_2pl.stan 4.43 4.43 1.0 -0.07% slower
arma/arma.stan 0.33 0.3 1.1 8.73% faster
garch/garch.stan 0.46 0.45 1.01 1.39% faster
low_dim_corr_gauss/low_dim_corr_gauss.stan 0.01 0.01 1.1 8.95% faster
performance.compilation 232.56 230.43 1.01 0.92% faster
Mean result: 1.0110409828264622

Jenkins Console Log
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Commit hash: 7a7d72e615616c0f3361edc354f888fe5bb9b0d9


Machine information No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS Release: 20.04 Codename: focal

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Vulnerability Gather data sampling: Mitigation; Microcode
Vulnerability Itlb multihit: KVM: Mitigation: Split huge pages
Vulnerability L1tf: Mitigation; PTE Inversion; VMX conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
Vulnerability Mds: Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Vulnerability Meltdown: Mitigation; PTI
Vulnerability Mmio stale data: Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Vulnerability Reg file data sampling: Not affected
Vulnerability Retbleed: Mitigation; IBRS
Vulnerability Spec rstack overflow: Not affected
Vulnerability Spec store bypass: Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
Vulnerability Spectre v1: Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Vulnerability Spectre v2: Mitigation; IBRS; IBPB conditional; STIBP conditional; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS Not affected; BHI Not affected
Vulnerability Srbds: Not affected
Vulnerability Tsx async abort: Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Vulnerability Vmscape: Mitigation; IBPB before exit to userspace
Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid dca sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb cat_l3 cdp_l3 invpcid_single pti intel_ppin ssbd mba ibrs ibpb stibp tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm cqm mpx rdt_a avx512f avx512dq rdseed adx smap clflushopt clwb intel_pt avx512cd avx512bw avx512vl xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves cqm_llc cqm_occup_llc cqm_mbm_total cqm_mbm_local dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_act_window hwp_epp hwp_pkg_req pku ospke md_clear flush_l1d arch_capabilities

G++:
g++ (Ubuntu 9.4.0-1ubuntu1~20.04) 9.4.0
Copyright (C) 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Clang:
clang version 10.0.0-4ubuntu1
Target: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: /usr/bin

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wiener_lpdf reverse-mode derivative wrt w disagrees with finite differences of Stan Math value

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