Sparse Gaussian Graphical Models with Discrete Optimization: Computational and Statistical Perspectives

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Behdin, Kayhan, Chen, Wenyu, Mazumder, Rahul
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866915913739010048
author Behdin, Kayhan
Chen, Wenyu
Mazumder, Rahul
author_facet Behdin, Kayhan
Chen, Wenyu
Mazumder, Rahul
contents We consider the problem of learning a sparse graph underlying an undirected Gaussian graphical model, a key problem in statistical machine learning. Given $n$ samples from a multivariate Gaussian distribution with $p$ variables, the goal is to estimate the $p \times p$ inverse covariance matrix (aka precision matrix), assuming it is sparse (i.e., has a few nonzero entries). We propose GraphL0BnB, a new estimator based on an $\ell_0$-penalized version of the pseudo-likelihood function, while most earlier approaches are based on the $\ell_1$-relaxation. Our estimator can be formulated as a convex mixed integer program (MIP) which can be difficult to compute beyond $p\approx 100$ using off-the-shelf commercial solvers. To solve the MIP, we propose a custom nonlinear branch-and-bound (BnB) framework that solves node relaxations with tailored first-order methods. As a key component of our BnB framework, we propose large-scale solvers for obtaining good primal solutions that are of independent interest. We derive novel statistical guarantees (estimation and variable selection) for our estimator and discuss how our approach improves upon existing estimators. Our numerical experiments on real and synthetic datasets suggest that our BnB framework offers significant advantages over off-the-shelf commercial solvers, and our approach has favorable performance (both in terms of runtime and statistical performance) compared to the state-of-the-art approaches for learning sparse graphical models.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2307_09366
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sparse Gaussian Graphical Models with Discrete Optimization: Computational and Statistical Perspectives
Behdin, Kayhan
Chen, Wenyu
Mazumder, Rahul
Machine Learning
Methodology
We consider the problem of learning a sparse graph underlying an undirected Gaussian graphical model, a key problem in statistical machine learning. Given $n$ samples from a multivariate Gaussian distribution with $p$ variables, the goal is to estimate the $p \times p$ inverse covariance matrix (aka precision matrix), assuming it is sparse (i.e., has a few nonzero entries). We propose GraphL0BnB, a new estimator based on an $\ell_0$-penalized version of the pseudo-likelihood function, while most earlier approaches are based on the $\ell_1$-relaxation. Our estimator can be formulated as a convex mixed integer program (MIP) which can be difficult to compute beyond $p\approx 100$ using off-the-shelf commercial solvers. To solve the MIP, we propose a custom nonlinear branch-and-bound (BnB) framework that solves node relaxations with tailored first-order methods. As a key component of our BnB framework, we propose large-scale solvers for obtaining good primal solutions that are of independent interest. We derive novel statistical guarantees (estimation and variable selection) for our estimator and discuss how our approach improves upon existing estimators. Our numerical experiments on real and synthetic datasets suggest that our BnB framework offers significant advantages over off-the-shelf commercial solvers, and our approach has favorable performance (both in terms of runtime and statistical performance) compared to the state-of-the-art approaches for learning sparse graphical models.
title Sparse Gaussian Graphical Models with Discrete Optimization: Computational and Statistical Perspectives
topic Machine Learning
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.09366