  We analyze the recent Multi-index Stochastic Collocation (MISC) method for
computing statistics of the solution of a partial differential equation (PDEs)
with random data, where the random coefficient is parametrized by means of a
countable sequence of terms in a suitable expansion. MISC is a combination
technique based on mixed differences of spatial approximations and quadratures
over the space of random data and, naturally, the error analysis uses the joint
regularity of the solution with respect to both the variables in the physical
domain and parametric variables. In MISC, the number of problem solutions
performed at each discretization level is not determined by balancing the
spatial and stochastic components of the error, but rather by suitably
extending the knapsack-problem approach employed in the construction of the
quasi-optimal sparse-grids and Multi-index Monte Carlo methods. We use a greedy
optimization procedure to select the most effective mixed differences to
include in the MISC estimator. We apply our theoretical estimates to a linear
elliptic PDEs in which the log-diffusion coefficient is modeled as a random
field, with a covariance similar to a Mat\'ern model, whose realizations have
spatial regularity determined by a scalar parameter. We conduct a complexity
analysis based on a summability argument showing algebraic rates of convergence
with respect to the overall computational work. The rate of convergence depends
on the smoothness parameter, the physical dimensionality and the efficiency of
the linear solver. Numerical experiments show the effectiveness of MISC in this
infinite-dimensional setting compared with the Multi-index Monte Carlo method
and compare the convergence rate against the rates predicted in our theoretical
analysis.
