500 research outputs found
Cycle-based Cluster Variational Method for Direct and Inverse Inference
We elaborate on the idea that loop corrections to belief propagation could be
dealt with in a systematic way on pairwise Markov random fields, by using the
elements of a cycle basis to define region in a generalized belief propagation
setting. The region graph is specified in such a way as to avoid dual loops as
much as possible, by discarding redundant Lagrange multipliers, in order to
facilitate the convergence, while avoiding instabilities associated to minimal
factor graph construction. We end up with a two-level algorithm, where a belief
propagation algorithm is run alternatively at the level of each cycle and at
the inter-region level. The inverse problem of finding the couplings of a
Markov random field from empirical covariances can be addressed region wise. It
turns out that this can be done efficiently in particular in the Ising context,
where fixed point equations can be derived along with a one-parameter log
likelihood function to minimize. Numerical experiments confirm the
effectiveness of these considerations both for the direct and inverse MRF
inference.Comment: 47 pages, 16 figure
Pairwise MRF Calibration by Perturbation of the Bethe Reference Point
We investigate different ways of generating approximate solutions to the
pairwise Markov random field (MRF) selection problem. We focus mainly on the
inverse Ising problem, but discuss also the somewhat related inverse Gaussian
problem because both types of MRF are suitable for inference tasks with the
belief propagation algorithm (BP) under certain conditions. Our approach
consists in to take a Bethe mean-field solution obtained with a maximum
spanning tree (MST) of pairwise mutual information, referred to as the
\emph{Bethe reference point}, for further perturbation procedures. We consider
three different ways following this idea: in the first one, we select and
calibrate iteratively the optimal links to be added starting from the Bethe
reference point; the second one is based on the observation that the natural
gradient can be computed analytically at the Bethe point; in the third one,
assuming no local field and using low temperature expansion we develop a dual
loop joint model based on a well chosen fundamental cycle basis. We indeed
identify a subclass of planar models, which we refer to as \emph{Bethe-dual
graph models}, having possibly many loops, but characterized by a singly
connected dual factor graph, for which the partition function and the linear
response can be computed exactly in respectively O(N) and operations,
thanks to a dual weight propagation (DWP) message passing procedure that we set
up. When restricted to this subclass of models, the inverse Ising problem being
convex, becomes tractable at any temperature. Experimental tests on various
datasets with refined or regularization procedures indicate that
these approaches may be competitive and useful alternatives to existing ones.Comment: 54 pages, 8 figure. section 5 and refs added in V
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