The Bethe free energy approximation is reliable when convex on a submanifold, the 'Bethe box'.
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New result on critical points of Bethe free energy under deformation retracts.
We address the problem of computing approximate marginals in Gaussian probabilistic models by using mean field and fractional Bethe approximations. We define the Gaussian fractional Bethe free energy in terms of the moment parameters of the approximate marginals, derive a lower and an upper bound on the fractional Beth…
We address the problem of computing approximate marginals in Gaussian probabilistic models by using mean field and fractional Bethe approximations. As an extension of Welling and Teh (2001), we define the Gaussian fractional Bethe free energy in terms of the moment parameters of the approximate marginals and derive an …
Inference problems in graphical models can be represented as a constrained optimization of a free energy function. It is known that when the Bethe free energy is used, the fixedpoints of the belief propagation (BP) algorithm correspond to the local minima of the free energy. However BP fails to converge in many cases o…
Loopy and generalized belief propagation are popular algorithms for approximate inference in Markov random fields and Bayesian networks. Fixed points of these algorithms correspond to extrema of the Bethe and Kikuchi free energy. However, belief propagation does not always converge, which explains the need for approach…
New method estimates Nishimori temperature for node classification in weighted graphs.
Adaptive approximations improve variational inference for complex models.
This paper introduces a new approach to active inference using constrained Bethe Free Energy.
We propose to learn deep undirected graphical models (i.e., MRFs) with a non-ELBO objective for which we can calculate exact gradients. In particular, we optimize a saddle-point objective deriving from the Bethe free energy approximation to the partition function. Unlike much recent work in approximate inference, the d…
Inference in general Markov random fields (MRFs) is NP-hard, though identifying the maximum a posteriori (MAP) configuration of pairwise MRFs with submodular cost functions is efficiently solvable using graph cuts. Marginal inference, however, even for this restricted class, is in #P. We prove new formulations of deriv…
It is known that fixed points of loopy belief propagation (BP) correspond to stationary points of the Bethe variational problem, where we minimize the Bethe free energy subject to normalization and marginalization constraints. Unfortunately, this does not entirely explain BP because BP is a dual rather than primal algo…
Belief propagation is a fundamental message-passing algorithm for probabilistic reasoning and inference in graphical models. While it is known to be exact on trees, in most applications belief propagation is run on graphs with cycles. Understanding the behavior of "loopy" belief propagation has been a major challenge f…
Learning in restricted Boltzmann machine is typically hard due to the computation of gradients of log-likelihood function. To describe the network state statistics of the restricted Boltzmann machine, we develop an advanced mean field theory based on the Bethe approximation. Our theory provides an efficient message pas…
Loopy belief propagation (LBP), which is equivalent to the Bethe approximation in statistical mechanics, is a message-passing-type inference method that is widely used to analyze systems based on Markov random fields (MRFs). In this paper, we propose a message-passing-type method to analytically evaluate the quenched a…
We propose an approach for approximating the partition function which is based on two steps: (1) computing the partition function of a simplified model which is obtained by deleting model edges, and (2) rectifying the result by applying an edge-by-edge correction. The approach leads to an intuitive framework in which o…
New algorithm minimizes FE objectives for synthetic AIF agents.
In this paper, we address the inverse problem, or the statistical machine learning problem, in Markov random fields with a non-parametric pair-wise energy function with continuous variables. The inverse problem is formulated by maximum likelihood estimation. The exact treatment of maximum likelihood estimation is intra…
We propose a hierarchy for approximate inference based on the Dobrushin, Lanford, Ruelle (DLR) equations. This hierarchy includes existing algorithms, such as belief propagation, and also motivates novel algorithms such as factorized neighbors (FN) algorithms and variants of mean field (MF) algorithms. In particular, w…
Generalized belief propagation converges to optimal solutions on graphs with motifs.
The paper uses belief propagation to analyze rankings and partial orders from partial information.
The typical behavior of optimal solutions to portfolio optimization problems with absolute deviation and expected shortfall models using replica analysis was pioneeringly estimated by S. Ciliberti and M. Mézard [Eur. Phys. B. 57, 175 (2007)]; however, they have not yet developed an approximate derivation method for fin…
New Bethe-Hessian method improves community detection in sparse networks.
We consider the problem of maximum a posteriori (MAP) inference in discrete graphical models. We present a parallel MAP inference algorithm called Bethe-ADMM based on two ideas: tree-decomposition of the graph and the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). However, unlike the standard ADMM, we use an inexa…
We address the problem of learning the parameters in graphical models when inference is intractable. A common strategy in this case is to replace the partition function with its Bethe approximation. We show that there exists a regime of empirical marginals where such Bethe learning will fail. By failure we mean that th…
Factor graphs are important models for succinctly representing probability distributions in machine learning, coding theory, and statistical physics. Several computational problems, such as computing marginals and partition functions, arise naturally when working with factor graphs. Belief propagation is a widely deplo…
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 propagati…
Bounds on the log partition function are important in a variety of contexts, including approximate inference, model fitting, decision theory, and large deviations analysis. We introduce a new class of upper bounds on the log partition function, based on convex combinations of distributions in the exponential domain, th…
Two EP frameworks ensure integrable beliefs in Bayesian estimation problems.
A fast spectral algorithm detects community structure in evolving graphs.
Many machine learning tasks can be formulated in terms of predicting structured outputs. In frameworks such as the structured support vector machine (SVM-Struct) and the structured perceptron, discriminative functions are learned by iteratively applying efficient maximum a posteriori (MAP) decoding. However, maximum li…
We consider the Frobenius algebra of functions on the critical set of the master function of a weighted arrangement of hyperplanes in $\C^k$ with normal crossings. We construct two potential functions (of first and second kind) of variables labeled by hyperplanes of the arrangement and prove that the matrix coefficient…
FEAT estimates free energy using adaptive transports.
mAIS improves free energy evaluation efficiency.
Deep neural networks improve free energy calculations for peptide conformations.
We use matricial free energy to regularize autoencoders, producing Gaussian-like codes.
Study on existence of ground states for free energy on hyperbolic space.
New model estimates Gibbs free energies using machine learning and isobaric-isothermal flows.
Study of phase separation and geometry on a closed elastic curve, including dynamics and free energy minimization.
Paper improves likelihood estimation for discrete distributions.
Active inference minimizes expected free energy for optimal behavior.
Paper analyzes the free energy of CNNs with skip connections in Bayesian learning.
Solves sigma model on U(3)/U(1)^3, describing geodesics and spectrum.
New method uses neural networks to improve free energy estimation.
Spectral clustering is one of the most popular, yet still incompletely understood, methods for community detection on graphs. This article studies spectral clustering based on the Bethe-Hessian matrix for sparse heterogeneous graphs (following the degree-corrected stochastic block model) in a …
For the tensor PCA (principal component analysis) problem, we propose a new hierarchy of increasingly powerful algorithms with increasing runtime. Our hierarchy is analogous to the sum-of-squares (SOS) hierarchy but is instead inspired by statistical physics and related algorithms such as belief propagation and AMP (ap…
A neural network model minimizes region-based free energy for faster inference in MRFs.
Study finds surfaces in spherical caps that maximize modified energy.