Daniel Potts

Lutz Kämmerer, Daniel Potts, Toni Volkmer

The reconstruction of high-dimensional sparse signals is a challenging task in a wide range of applications. In order to deal with high-dimensional problems, efficient sparse fast Fourier transform algorithms are essential tools. The second and third authors have recently proposed a dimension-incremental approach, which only scales almost linear in the number of required sampling values and almost quadratic in the arithmetic complexity with respect to the spatial dimension $d$. Using reconstructing rank-1 lattices as sampling scheme, the method showed reliable reconstruction results in numerical tests but suffers from relatively large numbers of samples and arithmetic operations. Combining the preferable properties of reconstructing rank-1 lattices with small sample and arithmetic complexities, the first author developed the concept of multiple rank-1 lattices. In this paper, both concepts - dimension-incremental reconstruction and multiple rank-1 lattices - are coupled, which yields a distinctly improved high-dimensional sparse fast Fourier transform. Moreover, the resulting algorithm is analyzed in detail with respect to success probability, number of required samples, and arithmetic complexity. In comparison to single rank-1 lattices, the utilization of multiple rank-1 lattices results in a reduction in the complexities by an almost linear factor with respect to the sparsity. Various numerical tests confirm the theoretical results, the high performance, and the reliability of the proposed method.

Sebastian Neumayer, Daniel Potts, Fabian Taubert

We investigate the approximation of solution operators for partial differential equations (PDEs) using sparse high-dimensional techniques. Building on a dimension-incremental framework, we combine product basis expansions with sparse recovery methods, specifically orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP), to substantially reduce the required sample size compared with a previously considered cubature-based approach. We evaluate the resulting method numerically on several examples, comparing it against both cubature-based sparse approximation and Fourier neural operators in terms of accuracy, runtime, and sample size. The experiments show that our approach considerably reduces the number of required PDE solves relative to its predecessor while maintaining competitive accuracy, particularly when the solution admits a sparse representation in the chosen basis. Furthermore, the recovered sparse index sets yield interpretable insights into the relevant variables and parameter interactions.

Daniel Potts, Manfred Tasche

We investigate the approximation of continuous Fourier transforms by trigonometric sampling polynomials and their efficient evaluation by the nonequispaced fast Fourier transform (NFFT). While the NFFT is traditionally used for the evaluation of trigonometric polynomials, we show that it can also serve as an effective computational tool for the approximation of Fourier transform values. Building on ideas of M.~Ehler, K.~Gröchenig, and A.~Klotz \cite{EhGrKl24}, we derive explicit $\ell_\infty$ error bounds between the Fourier transform and suitable sampling polynomials. The resulting estimates quantify the influence of the sampling width and truncation parameter and provide rigorous accuracy guarantees on entire frequency intervals. In contrast to previous analyses focusing mainly on discrete or $L_2$-type errors, our results yield uniform approximation bounds that are directly relevant for practical computations. The derived theory leads to a simple algorithmic framework: first approximate the Fourier transform by a trigonometric sampling polynomial and then evaluate this polynomial efficiently by the NFFT. Numerical experiments confirm the theoretical convergence rates and demonstrate that accurate approximations of continuous Fourier transforms can be obtained with moderate computational effort.

Daniel Potts, Laura Weidensager

We propose two algorithms for boosting random Fourier feature models for approximating high-dimensional functions. These methods utilize the classical and generalized analysis of variance (ANOVA) decomposition to learn low-order functions, where there are few interactions between the variables. Our algorithms are able to find an index set of important input variables and variable interactions reliably. Furthermore, we generalize already existing random Fourier feature models to an ANOVA setting, where terms of different order can be used. Our algorithms have the advantage of interpretability, meaning that the influence of every input variable is known in the learned model, even for dependent input variables. We give theoretical as well as numerical results that our algorithms perform well for sensitivity analysis. The ANOVA-boosting step reduces the approximation error of existing methods significantly.

Kseniya Akhalaya, Franziska Nestler, Daniel Potts

Support Vector Machines (SVMs) are an important tool for performing classification on scattered data, where one usually has to deal with many data points in high-dimensional spaces. We propose solving SVMs in primal form using feature maps based on trigonometric functions or wavelets. In small dimensional settings the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and related methods are a powerful tool in order to deal with the considered basis functions. For growing dimensions the classical FFT-based methods become inefficient due to the curse of dimensionality. Therefore, we restrict ourselves to multivariate basis functions, each of which only depends on a small number of dimensions. This is motivated by the well-known sparsity of effects and recent results regarding the reconstruction of functions from scattered data in terms of truncated analysis of variance (ANOVA) decompositions, which makes the resulting model even interpretable in terms of importance of the features as well as their couplings. The usage of small superposition dimensions has the consequence that the computational effort no longer grows exponentially but only polynomially with respect to the dimension. In order to enforce sparsity regarding the basis coefficients, we use the frequently applied $\ell_2$-norm and, in addition, $\ell_1$-norm regularization. The found classifying function, which is the linear combination of basis functions, and its variance can then be analyzed in terms of the classical ANOVA decomposition of functions. Based on numerical examples we show that we are able to recover the signum of a function that perfectly fits our model assumptions. Furthermore, we perform classification on different artificial and real-world data sets. We obtain better results with $\ell_1$-norm regularization, both in terms of accuracy and clarity of interpretability.

Daniel Potts, Michael Schmischke

The distribution of data points is a key component in machine learning. In most cases, one uses min-max normalization to obtain nodes in $[0,1]$ or Z-score normalization for standard normal distributed data. In this paper, we apply transformation ideas in order to design a complete orthonormal system in the $\mathrm{L}_2$ space of functions with the standard normal distribution as integration weight. Subsequently, we are able to apply the explainable ANOVA approximation for this basis and use Z-score transformed data in the method. We demonstrate the applicability of this procedure on the well-known forest fires data set from the UCI machine learning repository. The attribute ranking obtained from the ANOVA approximation provides us with crucial information about which variables in the data set are the most important for the detection of fires.

Daniel Potts, Michael Schmischke

In this paper we apply the previously introduced approximation method based on the ANOVA (analysis of variance) decomposition and Grouped Transformations to synthetic and real data. The advantage of this method is the interpretability of the approximation, i.e., the ability to rank the importance of the attribute interactions or the variable couplings. Moreover, we are able to generate an attribute ranking to identify unimportant variables and reduce the dimensionality of the problem. We compare the method to other approaches on publicly available benchmark datasets.

Stefan Kunis, Daniel Potts

A fast and reliable algorithm for the optimal interpolation of scattered data on the torus by multivariate trigonometric polynomials is presented. The algorithm is based on a variant of the conjugate gradient method in combination with the fast Fourier transforms for nonequispaced nodes. The main result is that under mild assumptions the total complexity for solving the interpolation problem at M arbitrary nodes is of order O(M logM). This result is obtained by the use of localised trigonometric kernels where the localisation is chosen in accordance to the spatial dimension d. Numerical examples show the efficiency of the new algorithm.