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Main Authors: Martínez-Sánchez, Álvaro, Arranz, Gonzalo, Lozano-Durán, Adrián
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.12411
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author Martínez-Sánchez, Álvaro
Arranz, Gonzalo
Lozano-Durán, Adrián
author_facet Martínez-Sánchez, Álvaro
Arranz, Gonzalo
Lozano-Durán, Adrián
contents Causality lies at the heart of scientific inquiry, serving as the fundamental basis for understanding interactions among variables in physical systems. Despite its central role, current methods for causal inference face significant challenges due to nonlinear dependencies, stochastic interactions, self-causation, collider effects, and influences from exogenous factors, among others. While existing methods can effectively address some of these challenges, no single approach has successfully integrated all these aspects. Here, we address these challenges with SURD: Synergistic-Unique-Redundant Decomposition of causality. SURD quantifies causality as the increments of redundant, unique, and synergistic information gained about future events from past observations. The formulation is non-intrusive and applicable to both computational and experimental investigations, even when samples are scarce. We benchmark SURD in scenarios that pose significant challenges for causal inference and demonstrate that it offers a more reliable quantification of causality compared to previous methods.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_12411
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Decomposing causality into its synergistic, unique, and redundant components
Martínez-Sánchez, Álvaro
Arranz, Gonzalo
Lozano-Durán, Adrián
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
Fluid Dynamics
Causality lies at the heart of scientific inquiry, serving as the fundamental basis for understanding interactions among variables in physical systems. Despite its central role, current methods for causal inference face significant challenges due to nonlinear dependencies, stochastic interactions, self-causation, collider effects, and influences from exogenous factors, among others. While existing methods can effectively address some of these challenges, no single approach has successfully integrated all these aspects. Here, we address these challenges with SURD: Synergistic-Unique-Redundant Decomposition of causality. SURD quantifies causality as the increments of redundant, unique, and synergistic information gained about future events from past observations. The formulation is non-intrusive and applicable to both computational and experimental investigations, even when samples are scarce. We benchmark SURD in scenarios that pose significant challenges for causal inference and demonstrate that it offers a more reliable quantification of causality compared to previous methods.
title Decomposing causality into its synergistic, unique, and redundant components
topic Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.12411