Beyond Directed Acyclic Graphs: Causal Zeros and Causal Differential Equations
Pearl's structural causal model (SCM) framework, built on directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) and the do-calculus, is the dominant formal language for causal reasoning. Yet it carries two structural restrictions: every relationship must be pre-specified as a directed causal edge, and feedback cycles are forbidden. This paper examines two classes of phenomena that strain these restrictions. First, symmetric physical and economic constraints, the ideal gas law being the canonical case, carry no intrinsic causal direction. Direction emerges only under intervention, and which variable is solved for must be specified as part of the intervention. We formalize such constraints as causal zeros within ...
| Authors | Sergei V. Kalinin |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.LG |
| Published | 24 July 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 24 July 2026 |
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