English

Towards optimal sampling for learning sparse approximation in high dimensions

Numerical Analysis 2022-02-08 v1 Numerical Analysis

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss recent work on learning sparse approximations to high-dimensional functions on data, where the target functions may be scalar-, vector- or even Hilbert space-valued. Our main objective is to study how the sampling strategy affects the sample complexity -- that is, the number of samples that suffice for accurate and stable recovery -- and to use this insight to obtain optimal or near-optimal sampling procedures. We consider two settings. First, when a target sparse representation is known, in which case we present a near-complete answer based on drawing independent random samples from carefully-designed probability measures. Second, we consider the more challenging scenario when such representation is unknown. In this case, while not giving a full answer, we describe a general construction of sampling measures that improves over standard Monte Carlo sampling. We present examples using algebraic and trigonometric polynomials, and for the former, we also introduce a new procedure for function approximation on irregular (i.e., nontensorial) domains. The effectiveness of this procedure is shown through numerical examples. Finally, we discuss a number of structured sparsity models, and how they may lead to better approximations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2202.02360,
  title  = {Towards optimal sampling for learning sparse approximation in high dimensions},
  author = {Ben Adcock and Juan M. Cardenas and Nick Dexter and Sebastian Moraga},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.02360},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T09:20:54.363Z