Ensemble preconditioning for Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation
  We describe parallel Markov chain Monte Carlo methods that propagate a collective ensemble of paths, with local covariance information calculated from neighboring replicas. The use of collective dynamics eliminates multiplicative noise and stabilizes the dynamics thus providing a practical approach to difficult anisotropic sampling problems in high dimensions. Numerical experiments with model problems demonstrate that dramatic potential speedups, compared to various alternative schemes, are attainable. 
Charles Matthews and Jonathan Weare and Benedict Leimkuhler
stat.ME math.NA stat.CO stat.ML