Application of fused graphical lasso to statistical inference for multiple sparse precision matrices

In this paper, the fused graphical lasso (FGL) method is used to estimate multiple precision matrices from multiple populations simultaneously. The lasso penalty in the FGL model is a restraint on sparsity of precision matrices, and a moderate penalty on the two precision matrices from distinct groups restrains the similar structure across multiple groups. In high-dimensional settings, an oracle inequality is provided for FGL estimators, which is necessary to establish the central limit law. We not only focus on point estimation of a precision matrix, but also work on hypothesis testing for a linear combination of the entries of multiple precision matrices. Inspired by Jankova a and van de Geer [confidence intervals for high-dimensional inverse covariance estimation, Electron. J. Stat. 9(1) (2015) 1205-1229.], who investigated a de-biasing technology to obtain a new consistent estimator with known distribution for implementing the statistical inference, we extend the statistical inference problem to multiple populations, and propose the de-biasing FGL estimators. The corresponding asymptotic property of de-biasing FGL estimators is provided. A simulation study shows that the proposed test works well in high-dimensional situations.