In this Letter we propose a new method to infer the topology of the interaction network in pairwise models with Ising variables. By using the pseudolikelihood method (PLM) at high temperature, it is generally possible to distinguish between zero and nonzero couplings because a clear gap separate the two groups. However at lower temperatures the PLM is much less effective and the result depends on subjective choices, such as the value of the ${\ell }_1$ regularizer and that of the threshold to separate nonzero couplings from null ones. We introduce a decimation procedure based on the PLM that recursively sets to zero the less significant couplings, until the variation of the pseudolikelihood signals that relevant couplings are being removed. The new method is fully automated and does not require any subjective choice by the user. Numerical tests have been performed on a wide class of Ising models, having different topologies (from random graphs to finite dimensional lattices) and different couplings (both diluted ferromagnets in a field and spin glasses). These numerical results show that the new algorithm performs better than standard PLM.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.070603

• Published 20 February 2014
• Received 11 April 2013