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Main Authors: Vauthier, Christophe, Korba, Anna, Mérigot, Quentin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06525
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author Vauthier, Christophe
Korba, Anna
Mérigot, Quentin
author_facet Vauthier, Christophe
Korba, Anna
Mérigot, Quentin
contents In this paper, we investigate the properties of the Sliced Wasserstein Distance (SW) when employed as an objective functional. The SW metric has gained significant interest in the optimal transport and machine learning literature, due to its ability to capture intricate geometric properties of probability distributions while remaining computationally tractable, making it a valuable tool for various applications, including generative modeling and domain adaptation. Our study aims to provide a rigorous analysis of the critical points arising from the optimization of the SW objective. By computing explicit perturbations, we establish that stable critical points of SW cannot concentrate on segments. This stability analysis is crucial for understanding the behaviour of optimization algorithms for models trained using the SW objective. Furthermore, we investigate the properties of the SW objective, shedding light on the existence and convergence behavior of critical points. We illustrate our theoretical results through numerical experiments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_06525
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Understanding Gradient Dynamics of the Sliced-Wasserstein Distance via Critical Point Analysis
Vauthier, Christophe
Korba, Anna
Mérigot, Quentin
Machine Learning
In this paper, we investigate the properties of the Sliced Wasserstein Distance (SW) when employed as an objective functional. The SW metric has gained significant interest in the optimal transport and machine learning literature, due to its ability to capture intricate geometric properties of probability distributions while remaining computationally tractable, making it a valuable tool for various applications, including generative modeling and domain adaptation. Our study aims to provide a rigorous analysis of the critical points arising from the optimization of the SW objective. By computing explicit perturbations, we establish that stable critical points of SW cannot concentrate on segments. This stability analysis is crucial for understanding the behaviour of optimization algorithms for models trained using the SW objective. Furthermore, we investigate the properties of the SW objective, shedding light on the existence and convergence behavior of critical points. We illustrate our theoretical results through numerical experiments.
title Towards Understanding Gradient Dynamics of the Sliced-Wasserstein Distance via Critical Point Analysis
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06525