提出新方法诊断表格生成模型的列间依赖缺失,定位问题根源。
Measuring the Dependency Gap: Diagnosing Inter-Column Fidelity in Tabular Generative Models
- 用梯度提升判别器分解双样本检验,拆解出边际、依赖和跨类型组件
- 发现两种生成模型在列间依赖上均有相同量级的缺失,且无法通过容量提升修复
- 指出现有目标函数不评估联合分布,适合数据生成与可信性评估研究者
合成表格数据的价值在于保留列间依赖关系,但现有各类保真度评分仅给出单一数值,无法说明依赖在哪丢失以及为何丢失。本文将缺陷定位到单一评分中。通过在双样本检验(C2ST)中引入梯度提升判别器,将测试结果按受控置换分解为边际、依赖及数值-类别交叉三个分量,分别与完全独立的参考模型(破坏所有依赖但保持边际不变)和真实数据黄金标准对比。常用的线性检测得分将该参考模型误判为近乎真实,这一已知弱点在四个基准上被复现。应用于流匹配(TabbyFlow)和扩散模型(TabDiff)生成器时,两者均显示出同等级别的依赖缺失;通过排除法确认:非均场目标结构限制,非采样离散化影响,容量提升16倍也未缓解,而容量减至八分之一时响应剧烈,表明当前为测量到的平台而非盲区。彻底破坏依赖会使少数类F1下降0.38–0.61,界定其影响范围,但生成器剩余微小偏差无法预测实际短差。残留部分指向目标函数本身:其中无任何项直接衡量联合分布。廉价补救无效:显式交叉耦合模块与后处理拷贝函数均未能消除缺陷。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Synthetic tabular data are valued for preserving inter-column dependency, yet each routine fidelity score is a single number that says neither where that dependency is lost nor why. We localize the deficit inside a single score. Equipping a classifier two-sample test (C2ST) with a gradient-boosted discriminator, we decompose it by controlled permutation into marginal, dependency, and numerical-categorical cross components, each read against a fully factorized reference that destroys all dependency while leaving every marginal intact, and against a real-data oracle. The linear detection score in common use rates that same reference as nearly real, a known weakness we replicate on four benchmarks. Applied to a flow-matching (TabbyFlow) and a diffusion (TabDiff) generator, the decomposition exposes a dependency deficit of the same order in both, and we then narrow its source by elimination: it is not a structural limit of the mean-field objective, it is not sampling discretization, and a 16x capacity increase does not close it, while the same measurement responds sharply when capacity is instead cut eightfold, so the plateau is measured rather than a blind spot. Destroying dependency outright collapses minority-class F1 by 0.38-0.61, which bounds what is at stake, though the generators' much smaller residual deficits do not predict their remaining shortfalls. What survives points at the objective: nothing in it scores the joint. Cheap remedies are no substitute: an explicit cross-coupling module and a post-hoc copula both leave the deficit in place.
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