Causal structure learning with momentum: Sampling distributions over Markov Equivalence Classes of DAGs

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Schauer, Moritz, Wienöbst, Marcel
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Schauer, Moritz
Wienöbst, Marcel
author_facet Schauer, Moritz
Wienöbst, Marcel
contents In the context of inferring a Bayesian network structure (directed acyclic graph, DAG for short), we devise a non-reversible continuous time Markov chain, the ``Causal Zig-Zag sampler'', that targets a probability distribution over classes of observationally equivalent (Markov equivalent) DAGs. The classes are represented as completed partially directed acyclic graphs (CPDAGs). The non-reversible Markov chain relies on the operators used in Chickering's Greedy Equivalence Search (GES) and is endowed with a momentum variable, which improves mixing significantly as we show empirically. The possible target distributions include posterior distributions based on a prior over DAGs and a Markov equivalent likelihood. We offer an efficient implementation wherein we develop new algorithms for listing, counting, uniformly sampling, and applying possible moves of the GES operators, all of which significantly improve upon the state-of-the-art run-time.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_05655
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Causal structure learning with momentum: Sampling distributions over Markov Equivalence Classes of DAGs
Schauer, Moritz
Wienöbst, Marcel
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
68T37 (primary) 60J99 (secondary)
In the context of inferring a Bayesian network structure (directed acyclic graph, DAG for short), we devise a non-reversible continuous time Markov chain, the ``Causal Zig-Zag sampler'', that targets a probability distribution over classes of observationally equivalent (Markov equivalent) DAGs. The classes are represented as completed partially directed acyclic graphs (CPDAGs). The non-reversible Markov chain relies on the operators used in Chickering's Greedy Equivalence Search (GES) and is endowed with a momentum variable, which improves mixing significantly as we show empirically. The possible target distributions include posterior distributions based on a prior over DAGs and a Markov equivalent likelihood. We offer an efficient implementation wherein we develop new algorithms for listing, counting, uniformly sampling, and applying possible moves of the GES operators, all of which significantly improve upon the state-of-the-art run-time.
title Causal structure learning with momentum: Sampling distributions over Markov Equivalence Classes of DAGs
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
68T37 (primary) 60J99 (secondary)
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.05655