graphical_lasso: Graphical Lasso

In PLNmodels: Poisson Lognormal Models

Graphical Lasso

Description

Sparse estimation of a precision matrix by the graphical Lasso, that is the minimization over positive definite matrices \Theta of

-\log\det(\Theta) + \mathrm{tr}(S\Theta) + \|\rho \circ \Theta\|_1.

This is the solver used internally by PLNnetwork() and ZIPLNnetwork().

Usage

graphical_lasso(
  S,
  rho,
  thr = 1e-04,
  maxit = 10000L,
  w_init = NULL,
  wi_init = NULL,
  trace = FALSE,
  stall_patience = 1000L
)

Arguments

S	a symmetric p x p (empirical) covariance matrix.
rho	the penalty: either a non-negative scalar, applied to all entries (the diagonal included), or a symmetric p x p matrix of non-negative per-entry penalties (e.g. with a zero diagonal to leave it unpenalized).
thr	convergence threshold, relative to the average absolute off-diagonal entry of S. Default is 1e-4, as in glassoFast.
maxit	maximal number of outer sweeps. Default is 10000, as in glassoFast.
w_init, wi_init	optional warm start: the w and wi of a previous solve, typically at a nearby penalty along a regularization path. Both must be given, with the dimensions of S, to be used. Note that a warm start stops closer to the starting point than a cold one at the same thr, so it does not reproduce a cold solve exactly.
trace	if TRUE, also return the per-sweep convergence criterion, to diagnose a solve that does not converge. Default is FALSE.
stall_patience	number of consecutive sweeps without progress after which the algorithm concludes that it is cycling and stops (see Details). Inf disables the detection. Default is 1000.

Details

The algorithm is the block coordinate descent of Friedman, Hastie and Tibshirani (2008), in the implementation of Sustik and Calderhead (2012): the code is a C++ port of the Fortran routine of the glassoFast package, and returns the same result on ordinary input. It departs from it on degenerate input only:

• it always terminates: non-finite input, or a coordinate with S_{ii} + \rho_{ii} \leq 0, is rejected (the result is filled with NA and converged is FALSE), and the inner coordinate descent is bounded, where glassoFast can loop forever on a nearly collapsed covariance matrix;

• failure to converge is reported through converged rather than silently;

• it can be interrupted from R;

• when S has no off-diagonal mass, the (diagonal) solution 1 / (S_{ii} + \rho_{ii}) is returned, where glassoFast returns 1 / \max(\rho_{ii}, \epsilon);

• it detects when it is cycling rather than converging, and stops.

That last point matters on an ill-conditioned S – typically a rank-deficient covariance, as arises when the number of variables approaches the number of samples. The sweeps then settle into a small limit cycle: the convergence criterion stops decreasing and oscillates just above its threshold forever, while the solution itself no longer moves. glassoFast spends its whole sweep budget on these and reports success regardless; here the cycle is detected after stall_patience sweeps without progress, the solve stops, and status reports "stalled".

Stopping early costs nothing, because sweeping on does not buy accuracy: the iterates wander inside the cycle rather than settle. On a oaks-derived covariance the solve stops after ~1100 sweeps instead of 10000, and both that answer and the 10000-sweep one sit within 1e-3 of a 50000-sweep grind, with the same number of edges and a couple of borderline ones differing – the amplitude of the cycle, which no budget removes. The useful consequence of "stalled" is thus not a warning about the solution, but the information that the problem is in that regime: usually too weak a penalty for a covariance that is (nearly) rank-deficient.

The remaining statuses are "max_iter" (maxit reached while still progressing), "inner_failure" and "degenerate" (numerical trouble, the result may contain NA).

Value

a list with components

• w: the estimated covariance matrix,

• wi: the estimated precision matrix (symmetric),

• niter: the number of outer sweeps performed,

• converged: TRUE if the convergence criterion was met,

• status: how the solve ended, one of "converged", "stalled", "max_iter", "inner_failure" or "degenerate" (see Details),

• delta: the best value reached by the convergence criterion, relative to the threshold it had to cross. delta <= 1 means convergence; a stalled solve typically sits between 1 and 3, that is, just short of it,

• dw_trace: the per-sweep criterion when trace = TRUE.

References

J. Friedman, T. Hastie and R. Tibshirani (2008). Sparse inverse covariance estimation with the graphical lasso. Biostatistics, 9(3), 432–441.

M. A. Sustik and B. Calderhead (2012). GLASSOFAST: An efficient GLASSO implementation. UTCS Technical Report TR-12-29, The University of Texas at Austin.

Examples

data(trichoptera)
S <- cov(log1p(as.matrix(trichoptera$Abundance)))
fit <- graphical_lasso(S, rho = 0.1)
fit$converged
sum(fit$wi[upper.tri(fit$wi)] != 0) # number of edges

## penalty weights, leaving the diagonal unpenalized
W <- matrix(1, ncol(S), ncol(S)); diag(W) <- 0
fit <- graphical_lasso(S, rho = 0.1 * W)

PLNmodels documentation built on Sept. 24, 2026, 1:07 a.m.