  Directed acyclic graphical models (DAGs) are often used to describe common
structural properties in a family of probability distributions. This paper
addresses the question of classifying DAGs up to an isomorphism. By considering
Gaussian densities, the question reduces to verifying equality of certain
algebraic varieties. A question of computing equations for these varieties has
been previously raised in the literature. Here it is shown that the most
natural method adds spurious components with singular principal minors, proving
a conjecture of Sullivant. This characterization is used to establish an
algebraic criterion for isomorphism, and to provide a randomized algorithm for
checking that criterion. Results are applied to produce a list of the
isomorphism classes of tree models on 4,5, and 6 nodes. Finally, some evidence
is provided to show that projectivized DAG varieties contain useful information
in the sense that their relative embedding is closely related to efficient
inference.
