Decomposition Polyhedra of Piecewise Linear Functions

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Brandenburg, Marie-Charlotte, Grillo, Moritz, Hertrich, Christoph
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866929530156875776
author Brandenburg, Marie-Charlotte
Grillo, Moritz
Hertrich, Christoph
author_facet Brandenburg, Marie-Charlotte
Grillo, Moritz
Hertrich, Christoph
contents In this paper we contribute to the frequently studied question of how to decompose a continuous piecewise linear (CPWL) function into a difference of two convex CPWL functions. Every CPWL function has infinitely many such decompositions, but for applications in optimization and neural network theory, it is crucial to find decompositions with as few linear pieces as possible. This is a highly challenging problem, as we further demonstrate by disproving a recently proposed approach by Tran and Wang [Minimal representations of tropical rational functions. Algebraic Statistics, 15(1):27-59, 2024]. To make the problem more tractable, we propose to fix an underlying polyhedral complex determining the possible locus of nonlinearity. Under this assumption, we prove that the set of decompositions forms a polyhedron that arises as intersection of two translated cones. We prove that irreducible decompositions correspond to the bounded faces of this polyhedron and minimal solutions must be vertices. We then identify cases with a unique minimal decomposition, and illustrate how our insights have consequences in the theory of submodular functions. Finally, we improve upon previous constructions of neural networks for a given convex CPWL function and apply our framework to obtain results in the nonconvex case.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_04907
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Decomposition Polyhedra of Piecewise Linear Functions
Brandenburg, Marie-Charlotte
Grillo, Moritz
Hertrich, Christoph
Combinatorics
Discrete Mathematics
Machine Learning
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Optimization and Control
In this paper we contribute to the frequently studied question of how to decompose a continuous piecewise linear (CPWL) function into a difference of two convex CPWL functions. Every CPWL function has infinitely many such decompositions, but for applications in optimization and neural network theory, it is crucial to find decompositions with as few linear pieces as possible. This is a highly challenging problem, as we further demonstrate by disproving a recently proposed approach by Tran and Wang [Minimal representations of tropical rational functions. Algebraic Statistics, 15(1):27-59, 2024]. To make the problem more tractable, we propose to fix an underlying polyhedral complex determining the possible locus of nonlinearity. Under this assumption, we prove that the set of decompositions forms a polyhedron that arises as intersection of two translated cones. We prove that irreducible decompositions correspond to the bounded faces of this polyhedron and minimal solutions must be vertices. We then identify cases with a unique minimal decomposition, and illustrate how our insights have consequences in the theory of submodular functions. Finally, we improve upon previous constructions of neural networks for a given convex CPWL function and apply our framework to obtain results in the nonconvex case.
title Decomposition Polyhedra of Piecewise Linear Functions
topic Combinatorics
Discrete Mathematics
Machine Learning
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.04907