{"paper":{"title":"Inferential Models: The Power of Auxiliary Variables for Reasoning with Scientific Uncertainty","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["stat.TH"],"primary_cat":"math.ST","authors_text":"Chuanhai Liu","submitted_at":"2026-06-16T18:25:59Z","abstract_excerpt":"A central challenge in scientific inference is to produce uncertainty assessments that are both situation-specific and frequency-calibrated. This article examines inferential models (IMs) as a framework for prior-free probabilistic reasoning with scientific uncertainty. The central IM idea is to view the auxiliary variables in a sampling model as the source of model-based uncertainty. R. A. Fisher's fiducial inference transfers auxiliary randomness to the parameter space before applying probability calculus; IMs instead predict the unobserved auxiliary value with calibrated predictive random s"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2606.18378","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2606.18378/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}