Approximating the null distribution of generalized distance covariance

📅 2026-08-24
📈 Citations: 0
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🤖 AI Summary
研究解决了距离协方差零分布的近似问题,通过双中心距离矩阵谱直接逼近方法,并证明其一致性和有效性,同时提出了一种减少计算成本的自适应算法。
📝 Abstract
The null distribution of distance covariance is usually approximated by permutation, which is prohibitive when very small p-values are needed, or by matching a few moments to a parametric family, which is inaccurate in the tails. A third option is to approximate the limiting distribution, a weighted sum of chi-square variables, directly through the spectra of the doubly centred distance matrices. This is used for kernel-based tests but has lacked a rigorous justification. We prove that the empirical spectra give a uniformly consistent approximation of the limiting null distribution, and hence an asymptotically valid test, for a general class of distances of negative type on separable metric spaces. The result covers the Hilbert-Schmidt independence criterion as a special case. We also give an adaptive algorithm that brackets the p-value from a partial eigendecomposition, reducing the cost from $O(n^3)$ to $O(k n^2)$, and a shrinkage correction matching the first two moments. In simulations, the proposed tests are the only non-Monte-Carlo procedures whose empirical type I error converges to the nominal level.
Problem

Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.

distance covariance
null distribution
p-value
permutation
parametric family
Innovation

Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.

distance covariance
spectra of doubly centred distance matrices
adaptive algorithm
shrinkage correction
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D
Dominic Edelmann
Division of Biostatistics, German Cancer Research Center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany