# Modeling Sampling Distributions of Test Statistics with Autograd

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.02488 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.02488/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 23 of its 55 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 May 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 23 of 23)

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- [MadMiner: Machine learning-based inference for particle physics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.10621/) (2019)
- [Approximating Lipschitz continuous functions with GroupSort neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.05254/) (2020)
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- [Amortized Simulation-Based Frequentist Inference for Tractable and Intractable Likelihoods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.07769/) (2023)
- [Analysis of Bootstrap and Subsampling in High-dimensional Regularized Regression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.13622/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Simulation-based inference methods that feature correct conditional coverage of confidence sets based on observations that have been compressed to a scalar test statistic require accurate modeling of either the p-value function or the cumulative distribution function (cdf) of the test statistic. If the model of the cdf, which is typically a deep neural network, is a function of the test statistic then the derivative of the neural network with respect to the test statistic furnishes an approximation of the sampling distribution of the test statistic. We explore whether this approach to modeling conditional 1-dimensional sampling distributions is a viable alternative to the probability density-ratio method, also known as the likelihood-ratio trick. Relatively simple, yet effective, neural network models are used whose predictive uncertainty is quantified through a variety of methods.
