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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bossu, Sebastien, Papanicolaou, Andrew, Hatto, Nour El
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.16148
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author Bossu, Sebastien
Papanicolaou, Andrew
Hatto, Nour El
author_facet Bossu, Sebastien
Papanicolaou, Andrew
Hatto, Nour El
contents We analyze the problem of fitting a fonction en escalier or multi-step function to a curve in L^2 Hilbert space. We propose a two-stage optimization approach whereby the step positions are initially fixed, corresponding to a classic linear least-squares problem with closed-form solution, and then are allowed to vary, leading to first-order conditions that can be solved recursively. We find that, subject to regularity conditions, the speed of convergence is linear as the number of steps $n$ goes to infinity, and we develop a simple algorithm to recover the global optimum fit. Our numerical results based on a sweep search implementation show promising performance in terms of speed and accuracy.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_16148
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fitting an Escalier to a Curve
Bossu, Sebastien
Papanicolaou, Andrew
Hatto, Nour El
Optimization and Control
Functional Analysis
41A99, 41-04, 49K10, 65K10
We analyze the problem of fitting a fonction en escalier or multi-step function to a curve in L^2 Hilbert space. We propose a two-stage optimization approach whereby the step positions are initially fixed, corresponding to a classic linear least-squares problem with closed-form solution, and then are allowed to vary, leading to first-order conditions that can be solved recursively. We find that, subject to regularity conditions, the speed of convergence is linear as the number of steps $n$ goes to infinity, and we develop a simple algorithm to recover the global optimum fit. Our numerical results based on a sweep search implementation show promising performance in terms of speed and accuracy.
title Fitting an Escalier to a Curve
topic Optimization and Control
Functional Analysis
41A99, 41-04, 49K10, 65K10
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.16148