The geometry of sloppiness

DOI10.18409/JAS.V9I1.64zbMATH Open1422.62031arXiv1608.05679OpenAlexW2963095620MaRDI QIDQ5226934FDOQ5226934

Authors: Emilie Dufresne, Heather A. Harrington, Dhruva V. Raman 

Publication date: 2 August 2019

Published in: Journal of Algebraic Statistics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The use of mathematical models in the sciences often involves the estimation of unknown parameter values from data. Sloppiness provides information about the uncertainty of this task. In this paper, we develop a precise mathematical foundation for sloppiness and define rigorously its key concepts, such as `model manifold', in relation to concepts of structural identifiability. We redefine sloppiness conceptually as a comparison between the premetric on parameter space induced by measurement noise and a reference metric. This opens up the possibility of alternative quantification of sloppiness, beyond the standard use of the Fisher Information Matrix, which assumes that parameter space is equipped with the usual Euclidean metric and the measurement error is infinitesimal. Applications include parametric statistical models, explicit time dependent models, and ordinary differential equation models.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.05679

Recommendations

• On the relationship between sloppiness and identifiability
• How many parameters can a model have and still be testable?
• Topological sensitivity analysis for systems biology
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4059204
• Model structures and structural identifiability: what? why? how?

zbMATH Keywords

metric geometryFisher information matrixinferencesloppinessstructural identifiability

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Statistical aspects of information-theoretic topics (62B10) Parametric tolerance and confidence regions (62F25) Implicit function theorems, Jacobians, transformations with several variables (26B10) Real-analytic functions (26E05)

Cited In (2)

• The geometry of ill-conditioning
• Algebra, geometry and topology of ERK kinetics

This page was built for publication: The geometry of sloppiness

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q5226934)