Toward an Algebraic Theory of Systems

We propose the concept of a system algebra with a parallel composition operation and an interface connection operation, and formalize composition-order invariance, which postulates that the order of composing and connecting systems is irrelevant, a generalized form of associativity. Composition-order invariance explicitly captures a common property that is implicit in any context where one can draw a figure (hiding the drawing order) of several connected systems, which appears in many scientific contexts. This abstract algebra captures settings where one is interested in the behavior of a composed system in an environment and wants to abstract away anything internal not relevant for the behavior. This may include physical systems, electronic circuits, or interacting distributed systems. One specific such setting, of special interest in computer science, are functional system algebras, which capture, in the most general sense, any type of system that takes inputs and produces outputs depending on the inputs, and where the output of a system can be the input to another system. The behavior of such a system is uniquely determined by the function mapping inputs to outputs. We consider several instantiations of this very general concept. In particular, we show that Kahn networks form a functional system algebra and prove their composition-order invariance. Moreover, we define a functional system algebra of causal systems, characterized by the property that inputs can only influence future outputs, where an abstract partial order relation captures the notion of "later". This system algebra is also shown to be composition-order invariant and appropriate instantiations thereof allow to model and analyze systems that depend on time

On Lorentzian causality with continuous metrics

We present a systematic study of causality theory on Lorentzian manifolds with continuous metrics. Examples are given which show that some standard facts in smooth Lorentzian geometry, such as light-cones being hypersurfaces, are wrong when metrics which are merely continuous are considered. We show that existence of time functions remains true on domains of dependence with continuous metrics, and that $C^{0,1}$ differentiability of the metric suffices for many key results of the smooth causality theory.Comment: Minor changes. Version to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Distributional Robustness of K-class Estimators and the PULSE

Recently, in causal discovery, invariance properties such as the moment criterion which two-stage least square estimator leverage have been exploited for causal structure learning: e.g., in cases, where the causal parameter is not identifiable, some structure of the non-zero components may be identified, and coverage guarantees are available. Subsequently, anchor regression has been proposed to trade-off invariance and predictability. The resulting estimator is shown to have optimal predictive performance under bounded shift interventions. In this paper, we show that the concepts of anchor regression and K-class estimators are closely related. Establishing this connection comes with two benefits: (1) It enables us to prove robustness properties for existing K-class estimators when considering distributional shifts. And, (2), we propose a novel estimator in instrumental variable settings by minimizing the mean squared prediction error subject to the constraint that the estimator lies in an asymptotically valid confidence region of the causal parameter. We call this estimator PULSE (p-uncorrelated least squares estimator) and show that it can be computed efficiently, even though the underlying optimization problem is non-convex. We further prove that it is consistent. We perform simulation experiments illustrating that there are several settings including weak instrument settings, where PULSE outperforms other estimators and suffers from less variability.Comment: 85 pages, 15 figure

Game Networks

We introduce Game networks (G nets), a novel representation for multi-agent decision problems. Compared to other game-theoretic representations, such as strategic or extensive forms, G nets are more structured and more compact; more fundamentally, G nets constitute a computationally advantageous framework for strategic inference, as both probability and utility independencies are captured in the structure of the network and can be exploited in order to simplify the inference process. An important aspect of multi-agent reasoning is the identification of some or all of the strategic equilibria in a game; we present original convergence methods for strategic equilibrium which can take advantage of strategic separabilities in the G net structure in order to simplify the computations. Specifically, we describe a method which identifies a unique equilibrium as a function of the game payoffs, and one which identifies all equilibria.Comment: Appears in Proceedings of the Sixteenth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI2000

Conformal diagrams for the gravitational collapse of a spherical dust cloud

We present an algorithm for the construction of conformal coordinates in the interior of a spherically symmetric, collapsing matter cloud in general relativity. This algorithm is based on the numerical integration of the radial null geodesics and a local analysis of their behavior close to the singularity. As an application, we consider a collapsing spherical dust cloud, generate the corresponding conformal diagram and analyze the structure of the resulting singularity. A new bound on the initial data which guarantees that the singularity is visible from future null infinity is also obtained.Comment: added a new subsection with a phase space analysis, 23 pages, 8 figure

Stability of marginally outer trapped surfaces and existence of marginally outer trapped tubes

The present work extends our short communication Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 111102 (2005). For smooth marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTS) in a smooth spacetime we define stability with respect to variations along arbitrary vectors v normal to the MOTS. After giving some introductory material about linear non self-adjoint elliptic operators, we introduce the stability operator L_v and we characterize stable MOTS in terms of sign conditions on the principal eigenvalue of L_v. The main result shows that given a strictly stable MOTS S contained in one leaf of a given reference foliation in a spacetime, there is an open marginally outer trapped tube (MOTT), adapted to the reference foliation, which contains S. We give conditions under which the MOTT can be completed. Finally, we show that under standard energy conditions on the spacetime, the MOTT must be either locally achronal, spacelike or null.Comment: 33 pages, no figures, typos corrected, minor changes in presentatio

No Simple Dual to the Causal Holographic Information?

In AdS/CFT, the fine grained entropy of a boundary region is dual to the area of an extremal surface X in the bulk. It has been proposed that the area of a certain 'causal surface' C - i.e. the 'causal holographic information' (CHI) - corresponds to some coarse-grained entropy in the boundary theory. We construct two kinds of counterexamples that rule out various possible duals, using (1) vacuum rigidity and (2) thermal quenches. This includes the 'one-point entropy' proposed by Kelly and Wall, and a large class of related procedures. Also, any coarse-graining that fixes the geometry of the bulk 'causal wedge' bounded by C, fails to reproduce CHI. This is in sharp contrast to the holographic entanglement entropy, where the area of the extremal surface X measures the same information that is found in the 'entanglement wedge' bounded by X.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure