arXiv subjects

Hélène Massam

Publications and source records attributed to Hélène Massam.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Model selection in the space of Gaussian models invariant by symmetry

We consider multivariate centered Gaussian models for the random variable $Z=(Z_1,\ldots, Z_p)$, invariant under the action of a subgroup of the group of permutations on $\{1,\ldots, p\}$. Using the representation theory of the symmetric group on the field of reals, we derive the distribution of the maximum likelihood estimate of the covariance parameter $Σ$ and also the analytic expression of the normalizing constant of the Diaconis-Ylvisaker conjugate prior for the precision parameter $K=Σ^{-1}$. We can thus perform Bayesian model selection in the class of complete Gaussian models invariant by the action of a subgroup of the symmetric group, which we could also call complete RCOP models. We illustrate our results with a toy example of dimension $4$ and several examples for selection within cyclic groups, including a high dimensional example with $p=100$.

math.ST↗

arXiv2019

Gaussian approximation of Gaussian scale mixture

For a given positive random variable $V>0$ and a given $Z\sim N(0,1)$ independent of $V$, we compute the scalar $t_0$ such that the distance between $Z\sqrt{V}$ and $Z\sqrt{t_0}$ in the $L^2(\R)$ sense, is minimal. We also consider the same problem in several dimensions when $V$ is a random positive definite matrix.

math.ST↗

arXiv2018

Approximating faces of marginal polytopes in discrete hierarchical models

The existence of the maximum likelihood estimate in hierarchical loglinear models is crucial to the reliability of inference for this model. Determining whether the estimate exists is equivalent to finding whether the sufficient statistics vector $t$ belongs to the boundary of the marginal polytope of the model. The dimension of the smallest face $F_t$ containing $t$ determines the dimension of the reduced model which should be considered for correct inference. For higher-dimensional problems, it is not possible to compute $F_{t}$ exactly. Massam and Wang (2015) found an outer approximation to $F_t$ using a collection of sub-models of the original model. This paper refines the methodology to find an outer approximation and devises a new methodology to find an inner approximation. The inner approximation is given not in terms of a face of the marginal polytope, but in terms of a subset of the vertices of $F_t$. Knowing $F_t$ exactly indicates which cell probabilities have maximum likelihood estimates equal to $0$. When $F_t$ cannot be obtained exactly, we can use, first, the outer approximation $F_2$ to reduce the dimension of the problem and, then, the inner approximation $F_1$ to obtain correct estimates of cell probabilities corresponding to elements of $F_1$ and improve the estimates of the remaining probabilities corresponding to elements in $F_2\setminus F_1$. Using both real-world and simulated data, we illustrate our results, and show that our methodology scales to high dimensions.

math.ST↗

arXiv2017

Existence and non-existence of the non-central Wishart distributions

The problem considered in this paper is to find when the non-central Wishart distribution, defined on the cone $\bar{\mathcal{P}_d}$ of semi positive definite matrices of order $d$ and with a real valued shape parameter, exists. We reduce this problem to the problem of existence of the measures $m(n,k,d)$ defined on $\bar{\mathcal{P}_d}$ and with Laplace transform $(\det s)^{-n/2}\exp \tr(s^{-1}w)$ where $n$ is an integer and where $w=\mathrm{diag}(0,...,0,1,...,1)$ has order $d$ and rank $k.$ We compute $m(d-1,d,d)$ and we show that neither $m(d-2,d,d)$ nor $m(d-2,d-1,d)$ exist. This proves a conjecture of E. Mayerhofer.

math.PR↗

arXiv2009

A conjugate prior for discrete hierarchical log-linear models

In Bayesian analysis of multi-way contingency tables, the selection of a prior distribution for either the log-linear parameters or the cell probabilities parameters is a major challenge. In this paper, we define a flexible family of conjugate priors for the wide class of discrete hierarchical log-linear models, which includes the class of graphical models. These priors are defined as the Diaconis--Ylvisaker conjugate priors on the log-linear parameters subject to "baseline constraints" under multinomial sampling. We also derive the induced prior on the cell probabilities and show that the induced prior is a generalization of the hyper Dirichlet prior. We show that this prior has several desirable properties and illustrate its usefulness by identifying the most probable decomposable, graphical and hierarchical log-linear models for a six-way contingency table.

math.ST↗

arXiv2009

Flexible covariance estimation in graphical Gaussian models

In this paper, we propose a class of Bayes estimators for the covariance matrix of graphical Gaussian models Markov with respect to a decomposable graph $G$. Working with the $W_{P_G}$ family defined by Letac and Massam [Ann. Statist. 35 (2007) 1278--1323] we derive closed-form expressions for Bayes estimators under the entropy and squared-error losses. The $W_{P_G}$ family includes the classical inverse of the hyper inverse Wishart but has many more shape parameters, thus allowing for flexibility in differentially shrinking various parts of the covariance matrix. Moreover, using this family avoids recourse to MCMC, often infeasible in high-dimensional problems. We illustrate the performance of our estimators through a collection of numerical examples where we explore frequentist risk properties and the efficacy of graphs in the estimation of high-dimensional covariance structures.

math.ST↗

arXiv2008

Moments of minors of Wishart matrices

For a random matrix following a Wishart distribution, we derive formulas for the expectation and the covariance matrix of compound matrices. The compound matrix of order $m$ is populated by all $m\times m$-minors of the Wishart matrix. Our results yield first and second moments of the minors of the sample covariance matrix for multivariate normal observations. This work is motivated by the fact that such minors arise in the expression of constraints on the covariance matrix in many classical multivariate problems.

math.PR↗

arXiv2007

Wishart distributions for decomposable graphs

When considering a graphical Gaussian model ${\mathcal{N}}_G$ Markov with respect to a decomposable graph $G$, the parameter space of interest for the precision parameter is the cone $P_G$ of positive definite matrices with fixed zeros corresponding to the missing edges of $G$. The parameter space for the scale parameter of ${\mathcal{N}}_G$ is the cone $Q_G$, dual to $P_G$, of incomplete matrices with submatrices corresponding to the cliques of $G$ being positive definite. In this paper we construct on the cones $Q_G$ and $P_G$ two families of Wishart distributions, namely the Type I and Type II Wisharts. They can be viewed as generalizations of the hyper Wishart and the inverse of the hyper inverse Wishart as defined by Dawid and Lauritzen [Ann. Statist. 21 (1993) 1272--1317]. We show that the Type I and II Wisharts have properties similar to those of the hyper and hyper inverse Wishart. Indeed, the inverse of the Type II Wishart forms a conjugate family of priors for the covariance parameter of the graphical Gaussian model and is strong directed hyper Markov for every direction given to the graph by a perfect order of its cliques, while the Type I Wishart is weak hyper Markov. Moreover, the inverse Type II Wishart as a conjugate family presents the advantage of having a multidimensional shape parameter, thus offering flexibility for the choice of a prior.

math.ST↗

arXiv2007

Alternative parametrizations and reference priors for decomposable discrete graphical models

For a given discrete decomposable graphical model, we identify several alternative parametrizations, and construct the corresponding reference priors for suitable groupings of the parameters. Specifically, assuming that the cliques of the graph are arranged in a perfect order, the parameters we consider are conditional probabilities of clique-residuals given separators, as well as generalized log-odds-ratios. We also consider a parametrization associated to a collection of variables representing a cut for the statistical model. The reference priors we obtain do not depend on the order of the groupings, belong to a conjugate family, and are proper.

math.ST↗