New density/likelihood representations for Gibbs models based on generating functionals of point processes

Abstract: Deriving exact density functions for Gibbs point processes has been challenging due to their general intractability, stemming from the intractability of their normalising constants/partition functions. This paper offers a solution to this open problem by exploiting a recent alternative representation of point process densities. Here, for a finite point process, the density is expressed as the void probability multiplied by a higher-order Papangelou conditional intensity function. By leveraging recent results on dependent thinnings, exact expressions for generating functionals and void probabilities of locally stable point processes are derived. Consequently, exact expressions for density/likelihood functions, partition functions and posterior densities are also obtained. The paper finally extends the results to locally stable Gibbsian random fields on lattices by representing them as point processes.