Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Barnett, Lionel, Wahl, Benjamin, Spychala, Nadine, Seth, Anil K.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16632
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866909987333210112
author Barnett, Lionel
Wahl, Benjamin
Spychala, Nadine
Seth, Anil K.
author_facet Barnett, Lionel
Wahl, Benjamin
Spychala, Nadine
Seth, Anil K.
contents Wahl et al. (2016, 2017) introduced the idea of Granger causality (GC) maps for Langevin systems: dynamics are localised linearly at each point in phase space as vector Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (VOU) processes, for which GCs may in principle be calculated, thus constructing a GC map on phase space. Their implementation, however, suffered a significant drawback: GCs were approximated from models based on discrete-time stroboscopic sampling of local VOU processes, which is not only computationally inefficient, but more seriously, unfeasible on regions of phase space where local dynamics are unstable, leaving "holes" in the GC maps. We solve these problems by deriving an analytical expression for GC rates associated with a VOU process which, under quite general conditions, yields a meaningful solution even in the unstable case. Applied to GC maps, this not only "fills in the holes", but also furnishes a computationally efficient method of calculation devolving to solution of continuous-time algebraic Riccati equations which, in the case of a univariate source, become simple quadratic equations. We show, furthermore, that the GC rate for VOU processes is invariant under rescaling of the overall fluctuations intensity, so that GC maps may effectively be calculated for deterministic nonlinear dynamical systems, with a residual "ghost of noise" represented by a variance-covariance map.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_16632
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Granger Causality Maps for Langevin Systems
Barnett, Lionel
Wahl, Benjamin
Spychala, Nadine
Seth, Anil K.
Mathematical Physics
94A17
Wahl et al. (2016, 2017) introduced the idea of Granger causality (GC) maps for Langevin systems: dynamics are localised linearly at each point in phase space as vector Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (VOU) processes, for which GCs may in principle be calculated, thus constructing a GC map on phase space. Their implementation, however, suffered a significant drawback: GCs were approximated from models based on discrete-time stroboscopic sampling of local VOU processes, which is not only computationally inefficient, but more seriously, unfeasible on regions of phase space where local dynamics are unstable, leaving "holes" in the GC maps. We solve these problems by deriving an analytical expression for GC rates associated with a VOU process which, under quite general conditions, yields a meaningful solution even in the unstable case. Applied to GC maps, this not only "fills in the holes", but also furnishes a computationally efficient method of calculation devolving to solution of continuous-time algebraic Riccati equations which, in the case of a univariate source, become simple quadratic equations. We show, furthermore, that the GC rate for VOU processes is invariant under rescaling of the overall fluctuations intensity, so that GC maps may effectively be calculated for deterministic nonlinear dynamical systems, with a residual "ghost of noise" represented by a variance-covariance map.
title Granger Causality Maps for Langevin Systems
topic Mathematical Physics
94A17
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16632