Olov Schavemaker

Palina Salanevich, Olov Schavemaker

A Random Vector Functional Link (RVFL) network is a depth-2 neural network with random inner weights and biases. Only the outer weights of such an architecture are to be learned, so the learning process boils down to a linear optimization task, allowing one to sidestep the pitfalls of nonconvex optimization problems. In this paper, we prove that an RVFL with ReLU activation functions can approximate Lipschitz continuous functions in $L_\infty$ norm. To the best of our knowledge, our result is the first approximation result in $L_\infty$ norm using nice inner weights; namely, Gaussians. We give a nonasymptotic lower bound for the number of hidden-layer nodes to achieve a given accuracy with high probability, depending on, among other things, the Lipschitz constant of the target function, the desired accuracy, and the input dimension. Our method of proof is rooted in probability theory and harmonic analysis.

Paul Geuchen, Palina Salanevich, Olov Schavemaker et al.

In this paper, we prove sharp upper and lower bounds for the approximation of Sobolev functions by sums of multivariate ridge functions, i.e., for approximation by functions of the form $\mathbb{R}^d \ni x \mapsto \sum_{k=1}^n \varrho_k(A_k x) \in \mathbb{R}$ with $\varrho_k : \mathbb{R}^\ell \to \mathbb{R}$ and $A_k \in \mathbb{R}^{\ell \times d}$. We show that the order of approximation asymptotically behaves as $n^{-r/(d-\ell)}$, where $r$ is the regularity (order of differentiability) of the Sobolev functions to be approximated. Our lower bound even holds when approximating $L^\infty$-Sobolev functions of regularity $r$ with error measured in $L^1$, while our upper bound applies to the approximation of $L^p$-Sobolev functions in $L^p$ for any $1 \leq p \leq \infty$. These bounds generalize well-known results regarding the approximation properties of univariate ridge functions to the multivariate case. We use our results to obtain sharp asymptotic bounds for the approximation of Sobolev functions using generalized translation networks and complex-valued neural networks.