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A Unified Representation of Density-Power-Based Divergences Reducible to M-Estimation

Information Theory 2025-02-03 v3 math.IT Statistics Theory Machine Learning Statistics Theory

Abstract

Density-power-based divergences are known to provide robust inference procedures against outliers, and their extensions have been widely studied. A characteristic of successful divergences is that the estimation problem can be reduced to M-estimation. In this paper, we define a norm-based Bregman density power divergence (NB-DPD) -- density-power-based divergence with functional flexibility within the framework of Bregman divergences that can be reduced to M-estimation. We show that, by specifying the function ϕγ\phi_\gamma, NB-DPD reduces to well-known divergences, such as the density power divergence and the γ\gamma-divergence. Furthermore, by examining the combinations of functions ϕγ\phi_\gamma corresponding to existing divergences, we show that a new divergence connecting these existing divergences can be derived. Finally, we show that the redescending property, one of the key indicators of robustness, holds only for the γ\gamma-divergence.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.16287,
  title  = {A Unified Representation of Density-Power-Based Divergences Reducible to M-Estimation},
  author = {Masahiro Kobayashi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.16287},
  year   = {2025}
}