Gaussian Process surrogate

Prior over functions. Posterior after observations = Gaussian with mean + variance at each unseen point.

Advertisement

Acquisition function

Expected improvement (EI): balance exploit (high mean) + explore (high variance). Or UCB, PI, entropy search.

Advertisement

Algorithm

Fit GP → maximize acquisition → evaluate at new point → update GP → repeat.

Complexity

GP inference O(N³) — practical to N ≈ 1000 evaluations. Sparse GP or ensemble surrogates for larger.