Beyond Directed Acyclic Graphs: Causal Zeros and Causal Differential Equations

2026-07-24

AI Summary

Traditional structural causal models rely on directed acyclic graphs (DAGs), which struggle to represent symmetric constraints and dynamic systems with feedback loops. This work proposes causal zeros and causal differential equations, introducing activation operators to construct an extended causal framework that incorporates equilibrium manifolds and relative interventions with respect to attractors, thereby transcending the limitations of DAGs. Building on this foundation, the paper establishes an extended do-calculus, identifiability conditions, and counterfactual semantics tailored to such systems by integrating local solvability, graph admissibility, and temporal unfolding techniques. This theoretical advancement provides a unified foundation for causal reasoning in complex dynamical systems.

Abstract

Pearl's structural causal model (SCM) framework, built on directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) and the do-calculus, is the dominant formal language for causal reasoning. Yet it carries two structural restrictions: every relationship must be pre-specified as a directed causal edge, and feedback cycles are forbidden. This paper examines two classes of phenomena that strain these restrictions. First, symmetric physical and economic constraints, the ideal gas law being the canonical case, carry no intrinsic causal direction. Direction emerges only under intervention, and which variable is solved for must be specified as part of the intervention. We formalize such constraints as causal zeros within an Extended Causal Model by adding an activation operator, subject to local solvability and graph-admissibility conditions. Second, for the class of finite-propagation state-space systems considered here, we treat apparent instantaneous cycles as artifacts of suppressed time and ground both causal zeros and feedback in Causal Differential Equations (CDEs). In these, the transient regime is a time-unrolled acyclic causal process, and causal zeros arise as the defining functions of attracting equilibrium manifolds; periodic and chaotic attractors define further regimes of the same dynamics, treated through attractor-relative intervention. We give the extended do-calculus, identifiability conditions, counterfactual semantics, and open problems.

Problem

• causal zeros
• causal differential equations
• directed acyclic graphs
• feedback cycles
• structural causal models

Innovation

• causal zeros
• causal differential equations
• extended causal model
• attractor-relative intervention
• structural causal models