# Capturing and Interpreting Unique Information

## TL;DR

This paper explores the operational meaning of unique information in partial information decompositions, proposing a new PID definition with clear interpretation and analyzing its properties and connections to existing frameworks.

## Contribution

It introduces a new PID definition that captures unique information with an intuitive interpretation and links it to existing PID frameworks through a Lagrangian formulation.

## Key findings

- Unique information bounds decision risk.
- New PID captures information uniquely held by variables.
- Connections between different PID definitions are established.

## Abstract

Partial information decompositions (PIDs), which quantify information interactions between three or more variables in terms of uniqueness, redundancy and synergy, are gaining traction in many application domains. However, our understanding of the operational interpretations of PIDs is still incomplete for many popular PID definitions. In this paper, we discuss the operational interpretations of unique information through the lens of two well-known PID definitions. We reexamine an interpretation from statistical decision theory showing how unique information upper bounds the risk in a decision problem. We then explore a new connection between the two PIDs, which allows us to develop an informal but appealing interpretation, and generalize the PID definitions using a common Lagrangian formulation. Finally, we provide a new PID definition that is able to capture the information that is unique. We also show that it has a straightforward interpretation and examine its properties.