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Degeneracy in the maximum likelihood estimation of univariate Gaussian mixtures with EM

Author

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  • Biernacki, Christophe
  • Chrétien, Stéphane

Abstract

As is well known, the likelihood in the Gaussian mixture is unbounded for any parameters such that a Dirac is placed at any observed sample point. The behavior of the EM algorithm near a degenerated solution is studied. It is established that there exists a domain of attraction around degeneracy and that convergence to these particular solutions is extremely fast. It confirms what many practitioners already noted in their experiments. Some available proposals to avoid degenerating are discussed but the presented convergence results make it possible to defend the pragmatic approach to the degeneracy problem in EM which consists in random restarts.

Suggested Citation

  • Biernacki, Christophe & Chrétien, Stéphane, 2003. "Degeneracy in the maximum likelihood estimation of univariate Gaussian mixtures with EM," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 373-382, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:stapro:v:61:y:2003:i:4:p:373-382
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. C. Biernacki & J. Jacques & C. Keribin, 2023. "A Survey on Model-Based Co-Clustering: High Dimension and Estimation Challenges," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 40(2), pages 332-381, July.
    2. Andrews, Jeffrey L., 2018. "Addressing overfitting and underfitting in Gaussian model-based clustering," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 160-171.
    3. Zhang, Yifan & Fong, Duncan K.H. & DeSarbo, Wayne S., 2021. "A generalized ordinal finite mixture regression model for market segmentation," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1055-1072.
    4. Roberto Rocci & Stefano Antonio Gattone & Roberto Di Mari, 2018. "A data driven equivariant approach to constrained Gaussian mixture modeling," Advances in Data Analysis and Classification, Springer;German Classification Society - Gesellschaft für Klassifikation (GfKl);Japanese Classification Society (JCS);Classification and Data Analysis Group of the Italian Statistical Society (CLADAG);International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS), vol. 12(2), pages 235-260, June.
    5. Kim, Daeyoung & Seo, Byungtae, 2014. "Assessment of the number of components in Gaussian mixture models in the presence of multiple local maximizers," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 100-120.
    6. Seo, Byungtae & Kim, Daeyoung, 2012. "Root selection in normal mixture models," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 2454-2470.
    7. Brenton R. Clarke & Thomas Davidson & Robert Hammarstrand, 2017. "A comparison of the $$L_2$$ L 2 minimum distance estimator and the EM-algorithm when fitting $${\varvec{{k}}}$$ k -component univariate normal mixtures," Statistical Papers, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1247-1266, December.
    8. Ingrassia, Salvatore & Rocci, Roberto, 2007. "Constrained monotone EM algorithms for finite mixture of multivariate Gaussians," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 51(11), pages 5339-5351, July.
    9. Rohart, Florian & San Cristobal, Magali & Laurent, Béatrice, 2014. "Selection of fixed effects in high dimensional linear mixed models using a multicycle ECM algorithm," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 209-222.
    10. Luis Angel García-Escudero & Alfonso Gordaliza & Francesca Greselin & Salvatore Ingrassia & Agustín Mayo-Iscar, 2018. "Eigenvalues and constraints in mixture modeling: geometric and computational issues," Advances in Data Analysis and Classification, Springer;German Classification Society - Gesellschaft für Klassifikation (GfKl);Japanese Classification Society (JCS);Classification and Data Analysis Group of the Italian Statistical Society (CLADAG);International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS), vol. 12(2), pages 203-233, June.
    11. Berlinet, A. & Roland, Ch., 2007. "Acceleration schemes with application to the EM algorithm," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 3689-3702, May.
    12. Ingrassia, Salvatore & Rocci, Roberto, 2011. "Degeneracy of the EM algorithm for the MLE of multivariate Gaussian mixtures and dynamic constraints," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 1715-1725, April.
    13. Vincent Vandewalle, 2020. "Multi-Partitions Subspace Clustering," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-18, April.

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