A Sklar-Type Decomposition for Positive Binary Distributions and a Gibbs Interpretation

Abstract

We study strictly positive multivariate binary distributions by separating one-body marginals from dependence. Local positive reweighting defines a dependence nucleus, completely characterized by the higher-order Walsh log-linear coefficients $J_S$, $|S|\ge2$. Any such nucleus and any strictly positive one-body marginals determine a unique joint distribution. In finite-spin Gibbs systems, these coefficients are the many-body interaction couplings.