# Probabilistic Program Abstractions

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.09970 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.09970/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 28 May 2017.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [An Algebraic Framework for Hierarchical Probabilistic Abstraction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.21216/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Abstraction is a fundamental tool for reasoning about complex systems. Program abstraction has been utilized to great effect for analyzing deterministic programs. At the heart of program abstraction is the relationship between a concrete program, which is difficult to analyze, and an abstract program, which is more tractable. Program abstractions, however, are typically not probabilistic. We generalize non-deterministic program abstractions to probabilistic program abstractions by explicitly quantifying the non-deterministic choices. Our framework upgrades key definitions and properties of abstractions to the probabilistic context. We also discuss preliminary ideas for performing inference on probabilistic abstractions and general probabilistic programs.