Score-based Causal Representation Learning: Linear and General Transformations

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Varıcı, Burak, Acartürk, Emre, Shanmugam, Karthikeyan, Kumar, Abhishek, Tajer, Ali
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Varıcı, Burak
Acartürk, Emre
Shanmugam, Karthikeyan
Kumar, Abhishek
Tajer, Ali
author_facet Varıcı, Burak
Acartürk, Emre
Shanmugam, Karthikeyan
Kumar, Abhishek
Tajer, Ali
contents This paper addresses intervention-based causal representation learning (CRL) under a general nonparametric latent causal model and an unknown transformation that maps the latent variables to the observed variables. Linear and general transformations are investigated. The paper addresses both the identifiability and achievability aspects. Identifiability refers to determining algorithm-agnostic conditions that ensure the recovery of the true latent causal variables and the underlying latent causal graph. Achievability refers to the algorithmic aspects and addresses designing algorithms that achieve identifiability guarantees. By drawing novel connections between score functions (i.e., the gradients of the logarithm of density functions) and CRL, this paper designs a score-based class of algorithms that ensures both identifiability and achievability. First, the paper focuses on linear transformations and shows that one stochastic hard intervention per node suffices to guarantee identifiability. It also provides partial identifiability guarantees for soft interventions, including identifiability up to mixing with parents for general causal models and perfect recovery of the latent graph for sufficiently nonlinear causal models. Secondly, it focuses on general transformations and demonstrates that two stochastic hard interventions per node are sufficient for identifiability. This is achieved by defining a differentiable loss function whose global optima ensure identifiability for general CRL. Notably, one does not need to know which pair of interventional environments has the same node intervened. Finally, the theoretical results are empirically validated via experiments on structured synthetic data and image data.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_00849
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Score-based Causal Representation Learning: Linear and General Transformations
Varıcı, Burak
Acartürk, Emre
Shanmugam, Karthikeyan
Kumar, Abhishek
Tajer, Ali
Machine Learning
This paper addresses intervention-based causal representation learning (CRL) under a general nonparametric latent causal model and an unknown transformation that maps the latent variables to the observed variables. Linear and general transformations are investigated. The paper addresses both the identifiability and achievability aspects. Identifiability refers to determining algorithm-agnostic conditions that ensure the recovery of the true latent causal variables and the underlying latent causal graph. Achievability refers to the algorithmic aspects and addresses designing algorithms that achieve identifiability guarantees. By drawing novel connections between score functions (i.e., the gradients of the logarithm of density functions) and CRL, this paper designs a score-based class of algorithms that ensures both identifiability and achievability. First, the paper focuses on linear transformations and shows that one stochastic hard intervention per node suffices to guarantee identifiability. It also provides partial identifiability guarantees for soft interventions, including identifiability up to mixing with parents for general causal models and perfect recovery of the latent graph for sufficiently nonlinear causal models. Secondly, it focuses on general transformations and demonstrates that two stochastic hard interventions per node are sufficient for identifiability. This is achieved by defining a differentiable loss function whose global optima ensure identifiability for general CRL. Notably, one does not need to know which pair of interventional environments has the same node intervened. Finally, the theoretical results are empirically validated via experiments on structured synthetic data and image data.
title Score-based Causal Representation Learning: Linear and General Transformations
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.00849