Non-negative Weighted DAG Structure Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Rey, Samuel, Saboksayr, Seyed Saman, Mateos, Gonzalo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Rey, Samuel
Saboksayr, Seyed Saman
Mateos, Gonzalo
author_facet Rey, Samuel
Saboksayr, Seyed Saman
Mateos, Gonzalo
contents We address the problem of learning the topology of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) from nodal observations, which adhere to a linear structural equation model. Recent advances framed the combinatorial DAG structure learning task as a continuous optimization problem, yet existing methods must contend with the complexities of non-convex optimization. To overcome this limitation, we assume that the latent DAG contains only non-negative edge weights. Leveraging this additional structure, we argue that cycles can be effectively characterized (and prevented) using a convex acyclicity function based on the log-determinant of the adjacency matrix. This convexity allows us to relax the task of learning the non-negative weighted DAG as an abstract convex optimization problem. We propose a DAG recovery algorithm based on the method of multipliers, that is guaranteed to return a global minimizer. Furthermore, we prove that in the infinite sample size regime, the convexity of our approach ensures the recovery of the true DAG structure. We empirically validate the performance of our algorithm in several reproducible synthetic-data test cases, showing that it outperforms state-of-the-art alternatives.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_07880
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Non-negative Weighted DAG Structure Learning
Rey, Samuel
Saboksayr, Seyed Saman
Mateos, Gonzalo
Machine Learning
Signal Processing
We address the problem of learning the topology of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) from nodal observations, which adhere to a linear structural equation model. Recent advances framed the combinatorial DAG structure learning task as a continuous optimization problem, yet existing methods must contend with the complexities of non-convex optimization. To overcome this limitation, we assume that the latent DAG contains only non-negative edge weights. Leveraging this additional structure, we argue that cycles can be effectively characterized (and prevented) using a convex acyclicity function based on the log-determinant of the adjacency matrix. This convexity allows us to relax the task of learning the non-negative weighted DAG as an abstract convex optimization problem. We propose a DAG recovery algorithm based on the method of multipliers, that is guaranteed to return a global minimizer. Furthermore, we prove that in the infinite sample size regime, the convexity of our approach ensures the recovery of the true DAG structure. We empirically validate the performance of our algorithm in several reproducible synthetic-data test cases, showing that it outperforms state-of-the-art alternatives.
title Non-negative Weighted DAG Structure Learning
topic Machine Learning
Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.07880