Analytic Marginalization over Binary Variables in Physics Data

Abstract

In many data analyses, each measurement may come with a simple yes/no correction; for example, belonging to one of two populations or being contaminated or not. Ignoring such binary effects may bias the results, while accounting for them explicitly quickly becomes infeasible as each of the $N$ data points introduces an additional parameter, resulting in an exponentially growing number of possible configurations ($2^N$). We show that, under generic conditions, an exact treatment of these binary corrections leads to a mathematical form identical to the well-known Ising model from statistical physics. This connection opens up a powerful set of tools developed for the Ising model, enabling fast and accurate likelihood calculations. We present efficient approximation schemes with minimal computational cost and demonstrate their effectiveness in applications, including Type Ia supernova calibration, where we show that the uncertainty in host-galaxy mass classification has negligible impact on the inferred value of the Hubble constant.

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