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Main Authors: Lucas, Peter J. F., Zullo, Eleonora, Stella, Fabio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.27406
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author Lucas, Peter J. F.
Zullo, Eleonora
Stella, Fabio
author_facet Lucas, Peter J. F.
Zullo, Eleonora
Stella, Fabio
contents In this paper, the relationship between probabilistic graphical models, in particular Bayesian networks, and causal diagrams, also called structural causal models, is studied. Structural causal models are deterministic models, based on structural equations or functions, that can be provided with uncertainty by adding independent, unobserved random variables to the models, equipped with probability distributions. One question that arises is whether a Bayesian network that has obtained from expert knowledge or learnt from data can be mapped to a probabilistic structural causal model, and whether or not this has consequences for the network structure and probability distribution. We show that linear algebra and linear programming offer key methods for the transformation, and examine properties for the existence and uniqueness of solutions based on dimensions of the probabilistic structural model. Finally, we examine in what way the semantics of the models is affected by this transformation. Keywords: Causality, probabilistic structural causal models, Bayesian networks, linear algebra, experimental software.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_27406
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the Relationship between Bayesian Networks and Probabilistic Structural Causal Models
Lucas, Peter J. F.
Zullo, Eleonora
Stella, Fabio
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
In this paper, the relationship between probabilistic graphical models, in particular Bayesian networks, and causal diagrams, also called structural causal models, is studied. Structural causal models are deterministic models, based on structural equations or functions, that can be provided with uncertainty by adding independent, unobserved random variables to the models, equipped with probability distributions. One question that arises is whether a Bayesian network that has obtained from expert knowledge or learnt from data can be mapped to a probabilistic structural causal model, and whether or not this has consequences for the network structure and probability distribution. We show that linear algebra and linear programming offer key methods for the transformation, and examine properties for the existence and uniqueness of solutions based on dimensions of the probabilistic structural model. Finally, we examine in what way the semantics of the models is affected by this transformation. Keywords: Causality, probabilistic structural causal models, Bayesian networks, linear algebra, experimental software.
title On the Relationship between Bayesian Networks and Probabilistic Structural Causal Models
topic Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.27406