Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/iii/paper-221/3/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 221 3 ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-09-28
For a distribution faithful to a Directed acyclic graph, the smallest Markov blanket of a vertex consists of
- its parents,
- its children, and
- every other parent of one of its children.
Conditioning on this set blocks every path from the vertex to all remaining vertices. Each listed neighbor is necessary under faithfulness of a directed acyclic graph: omitting a parent or child leaves its direct edge active, while omitting a child's other parent leaves the collider path through that conditioned child active. Faithfulness rules out accidental cancellations that could otherwise make a smaller blanket sufficient.
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