Related papers: Approximating the Permanent with Fractional Belief…
This work describes a method of approximating matrix permanents efficiently using belief propagation. We formulate a probability distribution whose partition function is exactly the permanent, then use Bethe free energy to approximate this…
We consider computation of permanent of a positive $(N\times N)$ non-negative matrix, $P=(P_i^j|i,j=1,\cdots,N)$, or equivalently the problem of weighted counting of the perfect matchings over the complete bipartite graph $K_{N,N}$. The…
Belief Propagation (BP) is a popular, distributed heuristic for performing MAP computations in Graphical Models. BP can be interpreted, from a variational perspective, as minimizing the Bethe Free Energy (BFE). BP can also be used to solve…
It is well known that an arbitrary graphical model of statistical inference defined on a tree, i.e. on a graph without loops, is solved exactly and efficiently by an iterative Belief Propagation (BP) algorithm convergent to unique minimum…
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…
When belief propagation (BP) converges, it does so to a stationary point of the Bethe free energy $F$, and is often strikingly accurate. However, it may converge only to a local optimum or may not converge at all. An algorithm was recently…
Computing the partition function, $Z$, of an Ising model over a graph of $N$ \enquote{spins} is most likely exponential in $N$. Efficient variational methods, such as Belief Propagation (BP) and Tree Re-Weighted (TRW) algorithms, compute…
Belief propagation (BP) can do exact inference in loop-free graphs, but its performance could be poor in graphs with loops, and the understanding of its solution is limited. This work gives an interpretable belief propagation rule that is…
The Bethe approximation, discovered in statistical physics, gives an efficient algorithm called belief propagation (BP) for approximating a partition function. BP empirically gives an accurate approximation for many problems, e.g.,…
Belief propagation (BP) is an iterative method to perform approximate inference on arbitrary graphical models. Whether BP converges and if the solution is a unique fixed point depends on both the structure and the parametrization of the…
Belief propagation (BP) algorithm is a widely used message-passing method for inference in graphical models. BP on loop-free graphs converges in linear time. But for graphs with loops, BP's performance is uncertain, and the understanding of…
The sum-product or belief propagation (BP) algorithm is a widely used message-passing technique for computing approximate marginals in graphical models. We introduce a new technique, called stochastic orthogonal series message-passing…
Finding the most probable assignment (MAP) in a general graphical model is known to be NP hard but good approximations have been attained with max-product belief propagation (BP) and its variants. In particular, it is known that using BP on…
Belief Propagation (BP) is a widely used approximation for exact probabilistic inference in graphical models, such as Markov Random Fields (MRFs). In graphs with cycles, however, no exact convergence guarantees for BP are known, in general.…
We first present an empirical study of the Belief Propagation (BP) algorithm, when run on the random field Ising model defined on random regular graphs in the zero temperature limit. We introduce the notion of maximal solutions for the BP…
It has recently been observed that the permanent of a non-negative square matrix, i.e., of a square matrix containing only non-negative real entries, can very well be approximated by solving a certain Bethe free energy function minimization…
We propose a new approach to the theoretical analysis of Loopy Belief Propagation (LBP) and the Bethe free energy (BFE) by establishing a formula to connect LBP and BFE with a graph zeta function. The proposed approach is applicable to a…
Belief Propagation (BP) is an efficient message-passing algorithm widely used for inference in graphical models and for solving various problems in statistical physics. However, BP often yields inaccurate estimates of order parameters and…
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.…
The permanent of a non-negative square matrix can be well approximated by finding the minimum of the Bethe free energy functions associated with some suitably defined factor graph; the resulting approximation to the permanent is called the…