Field Theories for Learning Probability Distributions

DOI10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.77.4693MaRDI QIDQ4492354zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors William Bialek, Steven P. Strong, Curtis G. jun. Callan

Publication date 16 July 2000

Published in Physical Review Letters (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9607180

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum field theory; related classical field theories (81T99) Foundations of equilibrium statistical mechanics (82B03)

Abstract: Imagine being shown $N$ samples of random variables drawn independently from the same distribution. What can you say about the distribution? In general, of course, the answer is nothing, unless we have some prior notions about what to expect. From a Bayesian point of view we need an {it a priori} distribution on the space of possible probability distributions, which defines a scalar field theory. In one dimension, free field theory with a constraint provides a tractable formulation of the problem, and we also discus generalizations to higher dimensions.

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Cited in

(9)

• Geometric statistical inference.
• Free dynamics of feature learning processes
• Predictability, complexity, and learning
• Learning quantitative sequence-function relationships from massively parallel experiments
• Reparametrization Invariant Statistical Inference and Gravity
• A characterization of the time-rescaled gamma process as a model for spike trains
• Parametric inference in the large data limit using maximally informative models
• Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem and Models of Learning
• Complexity through nonextensivity

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