The curse of dimensionality for numerical integration on general domains
For researchers in numerical analysis and complexity theory, this work establishes fundamental lower bounds for integration on convex domains, though it is an incremental extension of existing results.
The paper proves the curse of dimensionality for numerical integration on general domains, including volume-normalized ℓ_p^d-balls for 2 ≤ p ≤ ∞, extending previous results and providing a unified approach.
We prove the curse of dimensionality in the worst case setting for multivariate numerical integration for various classes of smooth functions. We prove the results when the domains are isotropic convex bodies with small diameter satisfying a universal $ψ_2$-estimate. In particular, we obtain the result for the important class of volume-normalized $\ell_p^d$-balls in the complete regime $2\leq p \leq \infty$. This extends a result in a work of A. Hinrichs, E. Novak, M. Ullrich and H. Woźniakowski [J. Complexity, 30(2), 117-143, 2014] to the whole range $2\leq p \leq \infty$, and additionally provides a unified approach. The key ingredient in the proof is a deep result from the theory of Asymptotic Geometric Analysis, the thin-shell volume concentration estimate due to O. Guédon and E. Milman. The connection of Asymptotic Geometric Analysis and Information-based Complexity revealed in this work seems promising and is of independent interest.