Minimum free energy randomized design to improve covariate balance
改善协变量平衡的最小自由能随机化设计
``Block what you can and randomize what you cannot'' is the core principle for treatment effect estimation in randomized controlled trials. Although a wealth of allocation strategies has been developed, an explicit trade-off between the covariate balance achieved by blocking and the robustness guaranteed by randomization is seldom quantified. Motivated by the second law of thermodynamics, this work posits a new criterion that lowers the covariate imbalance while maximizing…