English

A Category for unifying Gaussian Probability and Nondeterminism

Logic in Computer Science 2023-06-08 v2

Abstract

We introduce categories of extended Gaussian maps and Gaussian relations which unify Gaussian probability distributions with relational nondeterminism in the form of linear relations. Both have crucial and well-understood applications in statistics, engineering, and control theory, but combining them in a single formalism is challenging. It enables us to rigorously describe a variety of phenomena like noisy physical laws, Willems' theory of open systems and uninformative priors in Bayesian statistics. The core idea is to formally admit vector subspaces DXD \subseteq X as generalized uniform probability distribution. Our formalism represents a first bridge between the literature on categorical systems theory (signal-flow diagrams, linear relations, hypergraph categories) and notions of probability theory.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2204.14024,
  title  = {A Category for unifying Gaussian Probability and Nondeterminism},
  author = {Dario Stein and Richard Samuelson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.14024},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

to appear in LIPIcs, Volume 270, CALCO 2023

R2 v1 2026-06-24T11:02:30.680Z