arXiv:2607.11816cs.LGstat.ML2026-07中稿 · UAI 2026

提出新假设,让干预数据主导因果发现,突破传统依赖性限制。

Relaxing Faithfulness with Intervention-Only Causal Discovery

论文配图:Relaxing Faithfulness with Intervention-Only Causal Discovery
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 用干预仅信息替代严格依从性,放宽因果推断前提
  • 在非参数条件下,仅靠硬干预即可识别因果结构
  • 适合研究复杂系统中因果关系不显的场景

因果发现算法通过观测数据中的条件独立性推断变量间的因果关系。传统方法先基于观测数据确定部分有向因果关系,再通过干预明确方向。但其关键假设‘依从性’要求有因果关联的变量必须存在统计依赖,而许多自然系统因缓冲与稳定机制导致路径抵消,违反依从性,致使算法误删真实因果边。本文指出,硬干预本身包含因果链接存在与否的信息,可被用于第一阶段结构推断。我们提出‘干预即时依从性’这一温和假设,允许路径抵消,仍能非参数化地识别因果结构。结果表明:干预应成为因果结构信息的主要载体,优先于条件独立性检验。当干预范围受限无法满足识别条件时,我们还定义了等价类以应对不确定性。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Causal discovery algorithms learn a network that describes the causal dependencies among random variables. A common workflow involves first utilizing conditional independence properties on observational data to determine partially directed causal relationships, then applying interventions to orient the unknown causal directions. A critical assumption for the first step is faithfulness: a requirement that causally linked variables exhibit statistical dependence. Many natural systems include buffering and stabilizing pathways that cancel out to achieve systemic robustness. This cancellation of pathways violates faithfulness, leading causal discovery algorithms to incorrectly remove causal dependencies. In this paper, we argue that hard interventions contain information about the presence/absence of causal linkage that is overlooked in the first stage of structure discovery. We show that a mild assumption -- called intervention-immediacy faithfulness -- that allows cancellations, is sufficient to nonparametrically identify causal structures with hard interventions. These results position interventions as the primary carriers of information about causal structure, which should take precedence over conditional independence testing. To flip the paradigm, we also specify equivalence classes when the identification criteria are not met due to limitations in the scope of interventions.

因果发现干预数据非参数依从性

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