the problem of finding a pseudo tree of (minimal height/depth or minimal induced width) is known to be NP-complete. This problem is found in various tasks (e.g. finding the smallest possible OR Search Graph). Greedy algorithms and polynomial-time heuristic schemes are available

2 Schemes

Given a graphical model 𝒢 and an ordering 𝑑:

Greedy Search

eliminate node with the smallest cost

  • min-neighbors/degree heuristic - number of neighbors in the current graph
  • min-weight heuristic - weight (number of values) of factor formed
  • min-fill heuristic - number of new fill edges to the current graph
  • weighted min-fill heuristic - total weight of new fill edges (edge weight = product of weights of the 2 nodes)

Since an induced-ordered graph can be a starting point in generating a pseudo tree, the question is if the min-fill ordering heuristic which appears to be quite good for finding small induced-width is also good for finding pseudo trees with small heights

It is generally observed that:

  • min-fill heuristic generates lower induced width pseudo trees
  • hypergraph heuristic produces much smaller depth pseudo trees