Bayesian structure learning in graphical models

We consider the problem of estimating a sparse precision matrix of a multivariate Gaussian distribution, where the dimension p may be large. Gaussian graphical models provide an important tool in describing conditional independence through presence or absence of edges in the underlying graph. A popular non-Bayesian method of estimating a graphical structure is given by the graphical lasso. In this paper, we consider a Bayesian approach to the problem. We use priors which put a mixture of a point mass at zero and certain absolutely continuous distribution on off-diagonal elements of the precision matrix. Hence the resulting posterior distribution can be used for graphical structure learning. The posterior convergence rate of the precision matrix is obtained and is shown to match the oracle rate. The posterior distribution on the model space is extremely cumbersome to compute using the commonly used reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. However, the posterior mode in each graph can be easily identified as the graphical lasso restricted to each model. We propose a fast computational method for approximating the posterior probabilities of various graphs using the Laplace approximation approach by expanding the posterior density around the posterior mode. We also provide estimates of the accuracy in the approximation.