From Information Geometry to Jet Substructure: A Triality of Cumulant Tensors, Energy Correlators, and Hypergraphs

arXiv stat.ML / 5/6/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper explains why pairwise Fisher information graphs (based on local covariance) can miss irreducible multi-observable radiation structures, since they reduce multi-observable patterns to ordinary pairwise correlations.
  • It introduces higher-order Fisher tensors as the missing structure, showing that in a finite basis of binned energy correlator observables (EEC/ECF/EFP), the same local tensor admits three equivalent interpretations.
  • The “triality” links (i) coefficients in a local Kullback–Leibler expansion, (ii) connected cumulants of the chosen correlators, and (iii) signed hyperedge weights in a hypergraph connecting those observables.
  • By extending from the Fisher quadratic matrix to the first non-trivial higher tensor, the authors identify genuinely connected multi-observable radiation patterns and derive principled hyperedge weights for higher-order Laplacians and message passing.
  • The framework is demonstrated in four applications, including improved KL truncation via the cubic Fisher tensor, better jet substructure classification using hypergraph-based compressed bases, and interpretable message-passing inductive biases for learning benchmarks.

Abstract

Pairwise Fisher graphs capture local covariance information, but they cannot distinguish an irreducible multi-observable radiation pattern from a collection of ordinary pairwise correlations. We show that this missing structure is naturally supplied by higher-order Fisher tensors. In a finite basis of binned EECs, ECFs, or EFPs, and in the natural exponential-family coordinates generated by that basis, the same local tensor has three equivalent interpretations: a coefficient in the local Kullback-Leibler expansion, a connected cumulant of the chosen correlator observables, and a signed weight on a hyperedge linking those observables. This gives an exact Fisher-correlator-hypergraph triality in the local exponential-family embedding. The triality provides a direct construction of physics-informed hypergraphs from correlator data. Extending the quadratic Fisher matrix to the first non-trivial higher tensor identifies genuinely connected multi-observable radiation patterns, supplies hyperedge weights for higher-order Laplacians and message passing, and gives a principled criterion for compressing observable bases beyond pairwise information. We develop these constructions and spell out why the exact cumulant interpretation is special to natural exponential-family coordinates. We illustrate the framework in four applications. In a minimal local-KL study, the cubic Fisher tensor reduces the KL truncation error and isolates the dominant triplet structure. In a two-versus-three prong jet substructure benchmark, the hypergraph selector improves compressed-basis classification. In a 33-observable basis-design problem, the Fisher hypergraph retains more third-order local response at twelve observables. A low-capacity learning benchmark then shows how the same Fisher hyperedges can be used as an interpretable inductive bias for message passing on correlator observables.