Carlos Améndola, Kathlén Kohn, Philipp Reichenbach and
Anna Seigal
Vol. 12 (2021), No. 2, 187–211
DOI: 10.2140/astat.2021.12.187
Abstract
We establish connections between invariant theory and maximum likelihood
estimation for discrete statistical models. We show that norm minimization over a
torus orbit is equivalent to maximum likelihood estimation in log-linear
models. We use notions of stability under a torus action to characterize the
existence of the maximum likelihood estimate, and discuss connections to scaling
algorithms.