An extended depth-first search algorithm for optimal triangulation of Bayesian networks

The junction tree algorithm is currently the most popular algorithm for exact inference on Bayesian networks. To improve the time complexity of the junction tree algorithm, we need to find a triangulation with the optimal total table size. For this purpose, Ottosen and Vomlel have proposed a depth-first search (DFS) algorithm. They also introduced several techniques to improve the DFS algorithm, including dynamic clique maintenance and coalescing map pruning. Nevertheless, the efficiency and scalability of that algorithm leave much room for improvement. First, the dynamic clique maintenance allows to recompute some cliques. Second, in the worst case, the DFS algorithm explores the search space of all elimination orders, which has size n!, where n is the number of variables in the Bayesian network. To mitigate these problems, we propose an extended depth-first search (EDFS) algorithm. The new EDFS algorithm introduces the following two techniques as improvements to the DFS algorithm: (1) a new dynamic clique maintenance algorithm that computes only those cliques that contain a new edge, and (2) a new pruning rule, called pivot clique pruning. The new dynamic clique maintenance algorithm explores a smaller search space and runs faster than the Ottosen and Vomlel approach. This improvement can decrease the overhead cost of the DFS algorithm, and the pivot clique pruning reduces the size of the search space by a factor of O(n2). Our empirical results show that our proposed algorithm finds an optimal triangulation markedly faster than the state-of-the-art algorithm does. •A state-of-the-art algorithm for optimal triangulation is proposed.•Evaluated the degree of impact for employing the total table size as optimality criterion.•A novel pruning rule for triangulation algorithm is proposed.•A fast dynamic clique maintenance algorithm is proposed.