Learning DAGs from Data with Few Root Causes

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Misiakos, Panagiotis, Wendler, Chris, Püschel, Markus
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Misiakos, Panagiotis
Wendler, Chris
Püschel, Markus
author_facet Misiakos, Panagiotis
Wendler, Chris
Püschel, Markus
contents We present a novel perspective and algorithm for learning directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) from data generated by a linear structural equation model (SEM). First, we show that a linear SEM can be viewed as a linear transform that, in prior work, computes the data from a dense input vector of random valued root causes (as we will call them) associated with the nodes. Instead, we consider the case of (approximately) few root causes and also introduce noise in the measurement of the data. Intuitively, this means that the DAG data is produced by few data-generating events whose effect percolates through the DAG. We prove identifiability in this new setting and show that the true DAG is the global minimizer of the $L^0$-norm of the vector of root causes. For data with few root causes, with and without noise, we show superior performance compared to prior DAG learning methods.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_15936
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Learning DAGs from Data with Few Root Causes
Misiakos, Panagiotis
Wendler, Chris
Püschel, Markus
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Methodology
We present a novel perspective and algorithm for learning directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) from data generated by a linear structural equation model (SEM). First, we show that a linear SEM can be viewed as a linear transform that, in prior work, computes the data from a dense input vector of random valued root causes (as we will call them) associated with the nodes. Instead, we consider the case of (approximately) few root causes and also introduce noise in the measurement of the data. Intuitively, this means that the DAG data is produced by few data-generating events whose effect percolates through the DAG. We prove identifiability in this new setting and show that the true DAG is the global minimizer of the $L^0$-norm of the vector of root causes. For data with few root causes, with and without noise, we show superior performance compared to prior DAG learning methods.
title Learning DAGs from Data with Few Root Causes
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.15936