On the optimal approximation of Sobolev and Besov functions using deep ReLU neural networks
It provides a theoretical foundation for neural network approximation in function spaces, which is incremental but clarifies optimal rates for researchers in approximation theory.
This paper tackles the problem of approximating Sobolev and Besov functions using deep ReLU neural networks, showing that the optimal rate O((WL)^{-2s/d}) holds under Sobolev embedding conditions, generalizing prior results.
This paper studies the problem of how efficiently functions in the Sobolev spaces $\mathcal{W}^{s,q}([0,1]^d)$ and Besov spaces $\mathcal{B}^s_{q,r}([0,1]^d)$ can be approximated by deep ReLU neural networks with width $W$ and depth $L$, when the error is measured in the $L^p([0,1]^d)$ norm. This problem has been studied by several recent works, which obtained the approximation rate $\mathcal{O}((WL)^{-2s/d})$ up to logarithmic factors when $p=q=\infty$, and the rate $\mathcal{O}(L^{-2s/d})$ for networks with fixed width when the Sobolev embedding condition $1/q -1/p<s/d$ holds. We generalize these results by showing that the rate $\mathcal{O}((WL)^{-2s/d})$ indeed holds under the Sobolev embedding condition. It is known that this rate is optimal up to logarithmic factors. The key tool in our proof is a novel encoding of sparse vectors by using deep ReLU neural networks with varied width and depth, which may be of independent interest.