Gaussian conjugacy for an initialized AR(2) regression Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-11-05
Condition on initial observations and model
with known and independent standard-normal prior distributions for . Put and . Gaussian conjugacy for a normal linear model gives posterior precision matrix and posterior mean
The prior distribution makes positive-definite even with a deficient design matrix. The unscaled sums occur specifically when .
If and , the two full conditional distributions have means and and variances and . These formulas use the conditional autoregressive model of order two likelihood function. Giving the initial pair its stationary law, or imposing a stationary-parameter restriction, changes that posterior distribution.
Write , so the data map is . The Gaussian likelihood and prior distribution give
Completing the square, or using Gaussian conjugacy for a normal linear model, identifies a multivariate normal distribution with precision matrix . Since , its posterior mean and covariance matrix are
The parameters are
For example, , which checks the square completion.
The orthogonal vectors
are eigenvectors of the covariance matrix. Their respective variances are
They are independent under the posterior distribution, by independence of uncorrelated jointly normal variables. Thus uncertainty is different in the two directions even for positive noise: the data constrain , whereas spans the null space of the data map.
As , the posterior distribution converges to the law of
This is supported on , and its posterior mean is the minimum-norm least-squares solution. The prior distribution still determines the distribution along the unobserved null space; it has not disappeared. This example of a Gaussian posterior in the zero-noise limit distinguishes exact recovery of an observed component from recovery of the whole unknown.
The conditional mean estimator is the posterior mean
provided the first moment is finite. A maximum a posteriori estimate is any maximizer of the posterior density relative to Lebesgue measure:
Existence of the posterior density alone does not guarantee a finite posterior mean or existence of a maximizing point.
For the stated multivariate normal distribution and independent standard Gaussian noise, the negative log of the posterior density, up to a constant, is
Its precision matrix is a positive-definite matrix, so Gaussian conjugacy for a normal linear model gives
The two forms agree because
The covariance matrix is , and the maximum a posteriori estimate equals the posterior mean for this multivariate normal distribution.
The likelihood function and prior distribution give the posterior density
Completing the square in the quadratic form gives
Thus Gaussian conjugacy for a normal linear model yields
For the first observations, write
By Gaussian conjugacy for a normal linear model, the prefix posterior is
Compute a Cholesky decomposition of once. If is row of the design matrix, then
The Rank-one Cholesky update obtains a triangular factor from in operations. Two triangular solves give , and, for , another solve gives
The initial factorization costs and all updates and samples cost . This is within the requested bound.
Let , , and . The independent observations in the normal linear model give
The centered design condition removes the term:
The stated prior density factors into independent normal distributions for the regression intercept and regression coefficient . Multiplication by the likelihood function therefore leaves separate quadratic expressions in the two coefficients. Define the positive posterior variances
and the posterior means
By completing the square, the joint posterior density is
Equivalently,
This is Gaussian conjugacy for a normal linear model. Each posterior precision parameter is the sum of its data and prior precision parameters. The formulas remain valid when : all are then zero, so the posterior distribution of equals its prior distribution.