minimal_separator: Compute a minimal separator

In caugi: Causal Graph Interface

Compute a minimal separator

Description

Computes a minimal separator Z for sets X and Y, optionally with mandatory inclusions and restrictions on the separator. Supports DAGs (where the result is a d-separator), ADMGs, and ancestral graphs (where the result is an m-separator).

Usage

minimal_separator(
  cg,
  X = NULL,
  Y = NULL,
  I = character(0),
  R = NULL,
  X_index = NULL,
  Y_index = NULL,
  I_index = NULL,
  R_index = NULL
)

minimal_d_separator(
  cg,
  X = NULL,
  Y = NULL,
  I = character(0),
  R = NULL,
  X_index = NULL,
  Y_index = NULL,
  I_index = NULL,
  R_index = NULL
)

Arguments

cg	A caugi object (DAG, ADMG, or AG).
X, Y	Character vectors of node names. Use ⁠*_index⁠ to pass 1-based indices.
I	Nodes that must be included in the separator.
R	Nodes allowed in the separator. If NULL, uses all nodes excluding X and Y.
X_index, Y_index, I_index, R_index	Optional numeric 1-based indices (exclusive with corresponding name parameters).

Details

A separator Z for X and Y is a set of nodes such that conditioning on Z d- or m-separates X from Y in the graph. This function returns a minimal separator: no proper subset of Z (excluding I) still separates X and Y.

The algorithm runs in linear time O(n + m) and is unified across graph classes via the Bayes-ball reachability of van der Zander & Liśkiewicz (2020). For DAGs the algorithm specializes to FINDMINSEPINDAG; for ADMGs and AGs (and their subclasses CPDAG, RCG, MAG) it uses the general FINDMINSEP over mixed graphs.

Value

A character vector of node names representing the minimal separator, or NULL if no valid separator exists within the restriction R.

Source

van der Zander, B. & Liśkiewicz, M. (2020). Finding Minimal d-separators in Linear Time and Applications. Proceedings of The 35th Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence Conference, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 115:637-647 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v115/van-der-zander20a.html.

References

van der Zander, B. & Liśkiewicz, M. (2020). Finding Minimal d-separators in Linear Time and Applications. In Proceedings of the 35th Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI 2020), PMLR 115:637–647. https://proceedings.mlr.press/v115/van-der-zander20a.html.

See Also

Other adjustment: adjustment_set(), all_adjustment_sets_admg(), all_backdoor_sets(), d_separated(), is_valid_adjustment_admg(), is_valid_backdoor()

Examples

cg <- caugi(
  A %-->% X,
  X %-->% M,
  M %-->% Y,
  A %-->% Y,
  class = "DAG"
)

# Find any minimal separator between X and Y
minimal_separator(cg, "X", "Y")

# Force M to be in the separator
minimal_separator(cg, "X", "Y", I = "M")

# Restrict separator to only {A, M}
minimal_separator(cg, "X", "Y", R = c("A", "M"))

# Works on ADMGs (returns a minimal m-separator)
admg <- caugi(
  X %-->% Y,
  L %-->% X,
  L %-->% Y,
  class = "ADMG"
)
minimal_separator(admg, "X", "Y")

caugi documentation built on Oct. 28, 2026, 1:07 a.m.