Return to Colloquia & Seminar listing
Toric Geometry of statistical graphical models
Student-Run Research| Speaker: | Bernd Sturmfels, Dept. of Mathematics UC Berkeley |
| Location: | 693 Kerr |
| Start time: | Thu, Oct 4 2001, 10:00AM |
Description
The independence conditions of log-linear models in statistics are given by binomial equations, which means that methods from toric algebra and toric
geometry are applicable to study such models. In this talk we examine
undirected graphical models. This represents ongoing joint work with Dan
Geiger (Microsoft) and Chris Meek (Technion). We characterize decomposable
models via quadratic Gr"obner bases, and we propose an extension of the
Hammersley-Clifford Theorem to non-decomposable models. There are
numerous fascinating open problems in this field, and I will discuss several of
them. For instance: what is the algebraic degree of the maximum likelihood
estimator (inverse of the moment map) for a graphical model ? Two basic
references for the statistical terms appearing in this talk are: S.L. Lauritzen:
Graphical Models. The Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, New York,
1996. R.C. Christensen: Log-Linear Models. Springer Texts in Statistics,
Springer, New York, 1990
