The resource theory of causal influence and knowledge of causal influence

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2512.11209v2
• Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2026 18:43:10 GMT
• Title: The resource theory of causal influence and knowledge of causal influence
• Authors: Marina Maciel Ansanelli, Beata Zjawin, David Schmid, Yìlè Yīng, John H. Selby, Ciarán M. Gilligan-Lee, Ana Belén Sainz, Robert W. Spekkens,
• Abstract summary: We develop a resource-theoretic framework to understand causal relationships.<n>We focus on the simplest nontrivial setting -- two variables that are causally ordered.<n>We identify a triple of monotones that are complete in the sense that they capture the partial order over the set of all resources.
• Score: 1.0539847330971805
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
• Abstract: Understanding and quantifying causal relationships between variables is essential for reasoning about the physical world. In this work, we develop a resource-theoretic framework to do so. Here, we focus on the simplest nontrivial setting -- two variables that are causally ordered, meaning that the first has the potential to influence the second, without hidden confounding. First, we introduce the resource theory that directly quantifies causal influence of a functional dependence in this setting and show that the problem of deciding convertibility of resources and identifying a complete set of monotones has a relatively straightforward solution. Following this, we introduce the resource theory that arises naturally when one has uncertainty about the functional dependence. We describe a linear program for deciding the question of whether one resource (i.e., state of knowledge about the functional dependence) can be converted to another. Then, we focus on the case where the variables are binary. In this case, we identify a triple of monotones that are complete in the sense that they capture the partial order over the set of all resources, and we provide an interpretation of each.

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