Bernd Hofmann

Martin Burger, Jens Flemming, Bernd Hofmann

Variational sparsity regularization based on $\ell^1$-norms and other nonlinear functionals has gained enormous attention recently, both with respect to its applications and its mathematical analysis. A focus in regularization theory has been to develop error estimation in terms of regularization parameter and noise strength. For this sake specific error measures such as Bregman distances and specific conditions on the solution such as source conditions or variational inequalities have been developed and used. In this paper we provide, for a certain class of ill-posed linear operator equations, a convergence analysis that works for solutions that are not completely sparse, but have a fast decaying nonzero part. This case is not covered by standard source conditions, but surprisingly can be treated with an appropriate variational inequality. As a consequence the paper also provides the first examples where the variational inequality approach, which was often believed to be equivalent to appropriate source conditions, can indeed go farther than the latter.

Ye Zhang, Bernd Hofmann

In this paper, we establish an initial theory regarding the Second Order Asymptotical Regularization (SOAR) method for the stable approximate solution of ill-posed linear operator equations in Hilbert spaces, which are models for linear inverse problems with applications in the natural sciences, imaging and engineering. We show the regularizing properties of the new method, as well as the corresponding convergence rates. We prove that, under the appropriate source conditions and by using Morozov's conventional discrepancy principle, SOAR exhibits the same power-type convergence rate as the classical version of asymptotical regularization (Showalter's method). Moreover, we propose a new total energy discrepancy principle for choosing the terminating time of the dynamical solution from SOAR, which corresponds to the unique root of a monotonically non-increasing function and allows us to also show an order optimal convergence rate for SOAR. A damped symplectic iterative regularizing algorithm is developed for the realization of SOAR. Several numerical examples are given to show the accuracy and the acceleration affect of the proposed method. A comparison with other state-of-the-art methods are provided as well.

Bernd Hofmann, Peter Mathé

We study the Tikhonov regularization for ill-posed non-linear operator equations in Hilbert scales. Our focus is on the interplay between the smoothness-promoting properties of the penalty and the smoothness inherent in the solution. The objective is to study the situation when the unknown solution fails to have a finite penalty value, hence when the penalty is oversmoothing. By now this case was only studied for linear operator equations in Hilbert scales. We extend those results to certain classes of non-linear problems. The main result asserts that under appropriate assumptions order optimal reconstruction is still possible. In an appendix we highlight that the non-linearity assumption underlying the present analysis is met for specific applications.

Herbert Egger, Bernd Hofmann

Conditional stability estimates allow us to characterize the degree of ill-posedness of many inverse problems, but without further assumptions they are not sufficient for the stable solution in the presence of data perturbations. We here consider the stable solution of nonlinear inverse problems satisfying a conditional stability estimate by Tikhonov regularization in Hilbert scales. Order optimal convergence rates are established for a-priori and a-posteriori parameter choice strategies. The role of a hidden source condition is investigated and the relation to previous results for regularization in Hilbert scales is elaborated. The applicability of the results is discussed for some model problems, and the theoretical results are illustrated by numerical tests.

Bernd Hofmann, Barbara Kaltenbacher, Elena Resmerita

In this paper, we deal with nonlinear ill-posed problems involving monotone operators and consider Lavrentiev's regularization method. This approach, in contrast to Tikhonov's regularization method, does not make use of the adjoint of the derivative. There are plenty of qualitative and quantitative convergence results in the literature, both in Hilbert and Banach spaces. Our aim here is mainly to contribute to convergence rates results in Hilbert spaces based on some types of error estimates derived under various source conditions and to interpret them in some settings. In particular, we propose and investigate new variational source conditions adapted to these Lavrentiev-type techniques. Another focus of this paper is to exploit the concept of approximate source conditions.

Radu Ioan Bot, Bernd Hofmann

In the literature on singular perturbation (Lavrentiev regularization) for the stable approximate solution of operator equations with monotone operators in the Hilbert space the phenomena of conditional stability and local well-posedness and ill-posedness are rarely investigated. Our goal is to present some studies which try to bridge this gap. So we discuss the impact of conditional stability on error estimates and convergence rates for the Lavrentiev regularization and distinguish for linear problems well-posedness and ill-posedness in a specific manner motivated by a saturation result. The role of the regularization error in the noise-free case, called bias, is a crucial point in the paper for nonlinear and linear problems. In particular, for linear operator equations general convergence rates, including logarithmic rates, are derived by means of the method of approximate source conditions. This allows us to extend well-known convergence rates results for the Lavrentiev regularization that were based on general source conditions to the case of non-selfadjoint linear monotone forward operators for which general source conditions fail. Examples presenting the self-adjoint multiplication operator as well as the non-selfadjoint fractional integral operator and Cesàro operator illustrate the theoretical results. Extensions to the nonlinear case under specific conditions on the nonlinearity structure complete the paper.

Wei Wang, Shuai Lu, Bernd Hofmann et al.

Measuring the error by an l^1-norm, we analyze under sparsity assumptions an l^0-regularization approach, where the penalty in the Tikhonov functional is complemented by a general stabilizing convex functional. In this context, ill-posed operator equations Ax = y with an injective and bounded linear operator A mapping between l^2 and a Banach space Y are regularized. For sparse solutions, error estimates as well as linear and sublinear convergence rates are derived based on a variational inequality approach, where the regularization parameter can be chosen either a priori in an appropriate way or a posteriori by the sequential discrepancy principle. To further illustrate the balance between the l^0-term and the complementing convex penalty, the important special case of the l^2-norm square penalty is investigated showing explicit dependence between both terms. Finally, some numerical experiments verify and illustrate the sparsity promoting properties of corresponding regularized solutions.

Daniel Gerth, Bernd Hofmann, Christopher Hofmann

Conditional stability estimates are a popular tool for the regularization of ill-posed problems. A drawback in particular under nonlinear operators is that additional regularization is needed for obtaining stable approximate solutions if the validity area of such estimates is not completely known. In this paper we consider Tikhonov regularization under conditional stability estimates for nonlinear ill-posed operator equations in Hilbert scales. We summarize assertions on convergence and convergence rate in three cases describing the relative smoothness of the penalty in the Tikhonov functional and of the exact solution. For oversmoothing penalties, for which the rue solution no longer attains a finite value, we present a result with modified assumptions for a priori choices of the regularization parameter yielding convergence rates of optimal order for noisy data. We strongly highlight the local character of the conditional stability estimate and demonstrate that pitfalls may occur through incorrect stability estimates. Then convergence can completely fail and the stabilizing effect of conditional stability may be lost. Comprehensive numerical case studies for some nonlinear examples illustrate such effects.

Bernd Hofmann, Stefan Kindermann, Peter Mathé

The authors study Tikhonov regularization of linear ill-posed problems with a general convex penalty defined on a Banach space. It is well known that the error analysis requires smoothness assumptions. Here such assumptions are given in form of inequalities involving only the family of noise-free minimizers along the regularization parameter and the (unknown) penalty-minimizing solution. These inequalities control, respectively, the defect of the penalty, or likewise, the defect of the whole Tikhonov functional. The main results provide error bounds for a Bregman distance, which split into two summands: the first smoothness-dependent term does not depend on the noise level, whereas the second term includes the noise level. This resembles the situation of standard quadratic Tikhonov regularization Hilbert spaces. It is shown that variational inequalities, as these were studied recently, imply the validity of the assumptions made here. Several examples highlight the results in specific applications.

Markus Hegland, Bernd Hofmann

Based on the variable Hilbert scale interpolation inequality bounds for the error of regularisation methods are derived under range inclusions. In this context, new formulae for the modulus of continuity of the inverse of bounded operators with non-closed range are given. Even if one can show the equivalence of this approach to the version used previously in the literature, the new formulae and corresponding conditions are simpler than the former ones. Several examples from image processing and spectral enhancement illustrate how the new error bounds can be applied.

Ronny Ramlau, Christoph Koutschan, Bernd Hofmann

In theory and practice of inverse problems, linear operator equations $Tx=y$ with compact linear forward operators $T$ having a non-closed range $\mathcal{R}(T)$ and mapping between infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces plays some prominent role. As a consequence of the ill-posedness of such problems, regularization approaches are required, and due to its unlimited qualification spectral cut-off is an appropriate method for the stable approximate solution of corresponding inverse problems. For this method, however, the singular system $\{σ_i(T),u_i(T),v_i(T)\}_{i=1}^\infty$ of the compact operator $T$ is needed, at least for $i=1,2,...,N$, up to some stopping index $N$. In this note we consider $n$-fold integration operators $T=J^n\;(n=1,2,...)$ in $L^2([0,1])$ occurring in numerous applications, where the solution of the associated operator equation is characterized by the $n$-th generalized derivative $x=y^{(n)}$ of the Sobolev space function $y \in H^n([0,1])$. Almost all textbooks on linear inverse problems present the whole singular system $\{σ_i(J^1),u_i(J^1),v_i(J^1)\}_{i=1}^\infty$ in an explicit manner. However, they do not discuss the singular systems for $J^n,\;n \ge 2$. We will emphasize that this seems to be a consequence of the fact that for higher $n$ the eigenvalues $σ^2_i(J^n)$ of the associated ODE boundary value problems obey transcendental equations, the complexity of which is growing with $n$. We present the transcendental equations for $n=2,3,...$ and discuss and illustrate the associated eigenfunctions and some of their properties.

Robert Plato, Bernd Hofmann

We consider perturbed nonlinear ill-posed equations in Hilbert spaces, with operators that are monotone on a given closed convex subset. A simple stable approach is Lavrentiev regularization, but existence of solutions of the regularized equation on the given subset can be guaranteed only under additional assumptions that are not satisfied in some applications. Lavrentiev regularization of the related variational inequality seems to be a reasonable alternative then. For the latter approach, in this paper we present new error estimates for suitable a priori parameter choices, if the considered operator is cocoercive and if in addition the solution admits an adjoint source representation. Some numerical experiments are included.

Daniel Gerth, Bernd Hofmann

Our focus is on the stable approximate solution of linear operator equations based on noisy data by using $\ell^1$-regularization as a sparsity-enforcing version of Tikhonov regularization. We summarize recent results on situations where the sparsity of the solution slightly fails. In particular, we show how the recently established theory for weak*-to-weak continuous linear forward operators can be extended to the case of weak*-to-weak* continuity. This might be of interest when the image space is non-reflexive. We discuss existence, stability and convergence of regularized solutions. For injective operators, we will formulate convergence rates by exploiting variational source conditions. The typical rate function obtained under an ill-posed operator is strictly concave and the degree of failure of the solution sparsity has an impact on its behavior. Linear convergence rates just occur in the two borderline cases of proper sparsity, where the solutions belong to $\ell^0$, and of well-posedness. For an exemplary operator, we demonstrate that the technical properties used in our theory can be verified in practice. In the last section, we briefly mention the difficult case of oversmoothing regularization where $x^†$ does not belong to $\ell^1$.

Bernd Hofmann, Patrick Bruendl, Huong Giang Nguyen et al.

Ensuring consistent product quality in modern manufacturing is crucial, particularly in safety-critical applications. Conventional quality control approaches, reliant on manually defined thresholds and features, lack adaptability to the complexity and variability inherent in production data and necessitate extensive domain expertise. Conversely, data-driven methods, such as machine learning, demonstrate high detection performance but typically function as black-box models, thereby limiting their acceptance in industrial environments where interpretability is paramount. This paper introduces a methodology for industrial fault detection, which is both data-driven and transparent. The approach integrates a supervised machine learning model for multi-class fault classification, Shapley Additive Explanations for post-hoc interpretability, and a do-main-specific visualisation technique that maps model explanations to operator-interpretable features. Furthermore, the study proposes an evaluation methodology that assesses model explanations through quantitative perturbation analysis and evaluates visualisations by qualitative expert assessment. The approach was applied to the crimping process, a safety-critical joining technique, using a dataset of univariate, discrete time series. The system achieves a fault detection accuracy of 95.9 %, and both quantitative selectivity analysis and qualitative expert evaluations confirmed the relevance and inter-pretability of the generated explanations. This human-centric approach is designed to enhance trust and interpretability in data-driven fault detection, thereby contributing to applied system design in industrial quality control.

Bernd Hofmann, Sven Kreitlein, Joerg Franke et al.

This paper proposes an agent-based approach toward a more natural interface between humans and machines. Large language models equipped with tools and the communication standard OPC UA are utilized to control machines in natural language. Instead of touch interaction, which is currently the state-of-the-art medium for interaction in operations, the proposed approach enables operators to talk or text with machines. This allows commands such as 'Please decrease the temperature by 20 % in machine 1 and set the motor speed to 5000 rpm in machine 2.' The large language model receives the user input and selects one of three predefined tools that connect to an OPC UA server and either change or read the value of a node. Afterwards, the result of the tool execution is passed back to the language model, which then provides a final response to the user. The approach is universally designed and can therefore be applied to any machine that supports the OPC UA standard. The large language model is neither fine-tuned nor requires training data, only the relevant machine credentials and a parameter dictionary are included within the system prompt. The approach is evaluated on a Siemens S7-1500 programmable logic controller with four machine parameters in a case study of fifty synthetically generated commands on five different models. The results demonstrate high success rate, with proprietary GPT 5 models achieving accuracies between 96.0 % and 98.0 %, and open-weight models reaching up to 90.0 %. The proposed approach of this empirical study contributes to advancing natural interaction in industrial human-machine interfaces.

Bernd Hofmann, Albert Scheck, Joerg Franke et al.

The detection of anomalies in manufacturing processes is crucial to ensure product quality and identify process deviations. Statistical and data-driven approaches remain the standard in industrial anomaly detection, yet their adaptability and usability are constrained by the dependence on extensive annotated datasets and limited flexibility under dynamic production conditions. Recent advances in the perception capabilities of foundation models provide promising opportunities for their adaptation to this downstream task. This paper presents PB-IAD (Prompt-based Industrial Anomaly Detection), a novel framework that leverages the multimodal and reasoning capabilities of foundation models for industrial anomaly detection. Specifically, PB-IAD addresses three key requirements of dynamic production environments: data sparsity, agile adaptability, and domain user centricity. In addition to the anomaly detection, the framework includes a prompt template that is specifically designed for iteratively implementing domain-specific process knowledge, as well as a pre-processing module that translates domain user inputs into effective system prompts. This user-centric design allows domain experts to customise the system flexibly without requiring data science expertise. The proposed framework is evaluated by utilizing GPT-4.1 across three distinct manufacturing scenarios, two data modalities, and an ablation study to systematically assess the contribution of semantic instructions. Furthermore, PB-IAD is benchmarked to state-of-the-art methods for anomaly detection such as PatchCore. The results demonstrate superior performance, particularly in data-sparse scenarios and low-shot settings, achieved solely through semantic instructions.

Bernd Hofmann, Peter Mathé

We study Tikhonov regularization for certain classes of non-linear ill-posed operator equations in Hilbert space. Emphasis is on the case where the solution smoothness fails to have a finite penalty value, as in the preceding study 'Tikhonov regularization with oversmoothing penalty for non-linear ill-posed problems in Hilbert scales'. Inverse Problems 34(1), 2018, by the same authors. Optimal order convergence rates are established for the specific a priori parameter choice, as used for the corresponding linear equations.

Bernd Hofmann, Robert Plato

We consider different concepts of well-posedness and ill-posedness and their relations for solving nonlinear and linear operator equations in Hilbert spaces. First, the concepts of Hadamard and Nashed are recalled which are appropriate for linear operator equations. For nonlinear operator equations, stable respective unstable solvability is considered, and the properties of local well-posedness and ill-posedness are investigated. Those two concepts consider stability in image space and solution space, respectively, and both seem to be appropriate concepts for nonlinear operators which are not onto and/or not, locally or globally, injective. Several example situations for nonlinear problems are considered, including the prominent autoconvolution problems and other quadratic equations in Hilbert spaces. It turns out that for linear operator equations, well-posedness and ill-posedness are global properties valid for all possible solutions, respectively. The special role of the nullspace is pointed out in this case. Finally, non-injectivity also causes differences in the saturation behavior of Tikhonov and Lavrentiev regularization of linear ill-posed equations. This is examined at the end of this study.

Stephan W. Anzengruber, Steven Buerger, Bernd Hofmann et al.

The SD-SPIDER method for the characterization of ultrashort laser pulses requires the solution of a nonlinear integral equation of autoconvolution type with a device-based kernel function. Taking into account the analytical background of a variational regularization approach for solving the corresponding ill-posed operator equation formulated in complex-valued $L^2$-spaces over finite real intervals, we suggest and evaluate numerical procedures using NURBS and the TIGRA method for calculating the regularized solutions in a stable manner. In this context, besides the complex deautoconvolution problem with noisy but full data, a phase retrieval problem is introduced which adapts to the experimental state of the art in laser optics. For the treatment of this problem facet, which is formulated as a tensor product operator equation, we derive well-posedness of variational regularization methods. Case studies with synthetic and real optical data show the capability of the implemented approach as well as its limitation due to measurement deficits.

Radu Ioan Bot, Bernd Hofmann

Convergence rates results for Tikhonov regularization of nonlinear ill-posed operator equations in abstract function spaces require the handling of both smoothness conditions imposed on the solution and structural conditions expressing the character of nonlinearity. Recently, the distinguished role of variational inequalities holding on some level sets was outlined for obtaining convergence rates results. When lower rates are expected such inequalities combine the smoothness properties of solution and forward operator in a sophisticated manner. In this paper, using a Banach space setting we are going to extend the variational inequality approach from Hölder rates to more general rates including the case of logarithmic convergence rates.

Jens Geissler, Bernd Hofmann

This paper addresses Tikhonov like regularization methods with convex penalty functionals for solving nonlinear ill-posed operator equations formulated in Banach or, more general, topological spaces. We present an approach for proving convergence rates which combines advantages of approximate source conditions and variational inequalities. Precisely, our technique provides both a wide range of convergence rates and the capability to handle general and not necessarily convex residual terms as well as nonsmooth operators. Initially formulated for topological spaces, the approach is extensively discussed for Banach and Hilbert space situations, showing that it generalizes some well-known convergence rates results.