Clusterpath Gaussian Graphical Modeling

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Touw, D. J. W., Alfons, A., Groenen, P. J. F., Wilms, I.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Touw, D. J. W.
Alfons, A.
Groenen, P. J. F.
Wilms, I.
author_facet Touw, D. J. W.
Alfons, A.
Groenen, P. J. F.
Wilms, I.
contents Graphical models serve as effective tools for visualizing conditional dependencies between variables. However, as the number of variables grows, interpretation becomes increasingly difficult, and estimation uncertainty increases due to the large number of parameters relative to the number of observations. To address these challenges, we introduce the Clusterpath estimator of the Gaussian Graphical Model (CGGM) that encourages variable clustering in the graphical model in a data-driven way. Through the use of an aggregation penalty, we group variables together, which in turn results in a block-structured precision matrix whose block structure remains preserved in the covariance matrix. The CGGM estimator is formulated as the solution to a convex optimization problem, making it easy to incorporate other popular penalization schemes which we illustrate through the combination of an aggregation and sparsity penalty. We present a computationally efficient implementation of the CGGM estimator by using a cyclic block coordinate descent algorithm. In simulations, we show that CGGM not only matches, but oftentimes outperforms other state-of-the-art methods for variable clustering in graphical models. We also demonstrate CGGM's practical advantages and versatility on a diverse collection of empirical applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_00644
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Clusterpath Gaussian Graphical Modeling
Touw, D. J. W.
Alfons, A.
Groenen, P. J. F.
Wilms, I.
Machine Learning
Graphical models serve as effective tools for visualizing conditional dependencies between variables. However, as the number of variables grows, interpretation becomes increasingly difficult, and estimation uncertainty increases due to the large number of parameters relative to the number of observations. To address these challenges, we introduce the Clusterpath estimator of the Gaussian Graphical Model (CGGM) that encourages variable clustering in the graphical model in a data-driven way. Through the use of an aggregation penalty, we group variables together, which in turn results in a block-structured precision matrix whose block structure remains preserved in the covariance matrix. The CGGM estimator is formulated as the solution to a convex optimization problem, making it easy to incorporate other popular penalization schemes which we illustrate through the combination of an aggregation and sparsity penalty. We present a computationally efficient implementation of the CGGM estimator by using a cyclic block coordinate descent algorithm. In simulations, we show that CGGM not only matches, but oftentimes outperforms other state-of-the-art methods for variable clustering in graphical models. We also demonstrate CGGM's practical advantages and versatility on a diverse collection of empirical applications.
title Clusterpath Gaussian Graphical Modeling
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.00644