Testing Implication of Probabilistic Dependencies

Abstract

Axiomatization has been widely used for testing logical implications. This paper suggests a non-axiomatic method, the chase, to test if a new dependency follows from a given set of probabilistic dependencies. Although the chase computation may require exponential time in some cases, this technique is a powerful tool for establishing nontrivial theoretical results. More importantly, this approach provides valuable insight into the intriguing connection between relational databases and probabilistic reasoning systems.

Appears in Proceedings of the Twelfth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI1996)