Sharp Bounds on the Approximation Rates, Metric Entropy, and $n$-widths of Shallow Neural Networks

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Siegel, Jonathan W., Xu, Jinchao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2021
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author Siegel, Jonathan W.
Xu, Jinchao
author_facet Siegel, Jonathan W.
Xu, Jinchao
contents In this article, we study approximation properties of the variation spaces corresponding to shallow neural networks with a variety of activation functions. We introduce two main tools for estimating the metric entropy, approximation rates, and $n$-widths of these spaces. First, we introduce the notion of a smoothly parameterized dictionary and give upper bounds on the non-linear approximation rates, metric entropy and $n$-widths of their absolute convex hull. The upper bounds depend upon the order of smoothness of the parameterization. This result is applied to dictionaries of ridge functions corresponding to shallow neural networks, and they improve upon existing results in many cases. Next, we provide a method for lower bounding the metric entropy and $n$-widths of variation spaces which contain certain classes of ridge functions. This result gives sharp lower bounds on the $L^2$-approximation rates, metric entropy, and $n$-widths for variation spaces corresponding to neural networks with a range of important activation functions, including ReLU$^k$ activation functions and sigmoidal activation functions with bounded variation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2101_12365
institution arXiv
publishDate 2021
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sharp Bounds on the Approximation Rates, Metric Entropy, and $n$-widths of Shallow Neural Networks
Siegel, Jonathan W.
Xu, Jinchao
Machine Learning
Information Theory
62M45, 41A46
In this article, we study approximation properties of the variation spaces corresponding to shallow neural networks with a variety of activation functions. We introduce two main tools for estimating the metric entropy, approximation rates, and $n$-widths of these spaces. First, we introduce the notion of a smoothly parameterized dictionary and give upper bounds on the non-linear approximation rates, metric entropy and $n$-widths of their absolute convex hull. The upper bounds depend upon the order of smoothness of the parameterization. This result is applied to dictionaries of ridge functions corresponding to shallow neural networks, and they improve upon existing results in many cases. Next, we provide a method for lower bounding the metric entropy and $n$-widths of variation spaces which contain certain classes of ridge functions. This result gives sharp lower bounds on the $L^2$-approximation rates, metric entropy, and $n$-widths for variation spaces corresponding to neural networks with a range of important activation functions, including ReLU$^k$ activation functions and sigmoidal activation functions with bounded variation.
title Sharp Bounds on the Approximation Rates, Metric Entropy, and $n$-widths of Shallow Neural Networks
topic Machine Learning
Information Theory
62M45, 41A46
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.12365