Bayesian network

A Bayesian network, Bayes network, belief network, Bayes(ian) model or probabilistic directed acyclic graphical model is a probabilistic graphical model (a type of statistical model) that represents a set of random variables and their conditional dependencies via a directed acyclic graph (DAG). For example, a Bayesian network could represent the probabilistic relationships between diseases and symptoms. Given symptoms, the network can be used to compute the probabilities of the presence of various diseases.

Formally, Bayesian networks are DAGs whose nodes represent random variables in the Bayesian sense: they may be observable quantities, latent variables, unknown parameters or hypotheses. Edges represent conditional dependencies; nodes that are not connected (there is no path from one of the variables to the other in the Bayesian network) represent variables that are conditionally independent of each other. Each node is associated with a probability function that takes, as input, a particular set of values for the node's parent variables, and gives (as output) the probability (or probability distribution, if applicable) of the variable represented by the node. For example, if ${\displaystyle m}$ parent nodes represent ${\displaystyle m}$ Boolean variables then the probability function could be represented by a table of ${\displaystyle 2^{m}}$ entries, one entry for each of the ${\displaystyle 2^{m}}$ possible combinations of its parents being true or false. Similar ideas may be applied to undirected, and possibly cyclic, graphs; such as Markov networks.

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