Related papers: Bethe Bounds and Approximating the Global Optimum
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…
Parameter estimation in Markov random fields (MRFs) is a difficult task, in which inference over the network is run in the inner loop of a gradient descent procedure. Replacing exact inference with approximate methods such as loopy belief…
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…
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…
The Bethe approximation is a successful method for approximating partition functions of probabilistic models associated with a graph. Recently, Chertkov and Chernyak derived an interesting formula called Loop Series Expansion, which is an…
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…
We present a new local approximation algorithm for computing Maximum a Posteriori (MAP) and log-partition function for arbitrary exponential family distribution represented by a finite-valued pair-wise Markov random field (MRF), say $G$.…
Finding the most likely (MAP) configuration of a Markov random field (MRF) is NP-hard in general. A promising, recent technique is to reduce the problem to finding a maximum weight stable set (MWSS) on a derived weighted graph, which if…
Inference and optimization of real-value edge variables in sparse graphs are studied using the Bethe approximation and replica method of statistical physics. Equilibrium states of general energy functions involving a large set of real…
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…
Variational inference in probabilistic graphical models aims to approximate fundamental quantities such as marginal distributions and the partition function. Popular approaches are the Bethe approximation, tree-reweighted, and other types…
In the paper we address the problem of finding the most probable state of discrete Markov random field (MRF) with associative pairwise terms. Although of practical importance, this problem is known to be NP-hard in general. We propose a new…
We present a novel inference algorithm for arbitrary, binary, undirected graphs. Unlike loopy belief propagation, which iterates fixed point equations, we directly descend on the Bethe free energy. The algorithm consists of two phases,…
Markov random fields (MRFs) are a powerful tool for modelling statistical dependencies for a set of random variables using a graphical representation. An important computational problem related to MRFs, called maximum a posteriori (MAP)…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Probabilistic graphical models with frustration exhibit rugged energy landscapes that trap iterative optimization dynamics. These landscapes are shaped not only by local interactions, but crucially also by the global loop structure of the…
The Bethe approximation, or loopy belief propagation algorithm is a successful method for approximating partition functions of probabilistic models associated with a graph. Chertkov and Chernyak derived an interesting formula called Loop…