Research
On-device research index

arXiv research

A locally-built, LLM-digested index of recent arXiv papers in quant finance, geometry/topology, and statistical ML — keyword search served straight from SQLite on this machine.

168,695 papers · 148 categories

Trend · papers per month

3875113150 · Jun 202019922001200920172026
48 results for piecewise-polynomial activations

Deep neural networks with piecewise-polynomial activations can approximate smooth functions and their derivatives.

problem Approximating smooth functions and their derivatives with neural networks.
method Derives the depth, width, and sparsity required for approximation in Hölder norms.
result Deep neural networks with bounded weights can approximate Hölder smooth functions and their derivatives.

The paper analyzes a simple neural network model with algebraic methods.

problem Finding minima of a ridge-regularized mean squared error for ReLU perceptrons.
method Developed a Divide-Enumerate-Merge strategy using computational algebra.
result Identifies both isolated and connected minima of the RR-MSE.

Study extends GNN VC dimension bounds to Pfaffian activation functions.

problem Bounding GNN VC dimension for new activation functions.
method Pfaffian function theory applied to GNNs with sigmoid and hyperbolic tangent activations.
result Bounds on GNN VC dimension for various architectures and graph properties.

This work interprets GELU and related activations via a first-order loss function.

problem Understanding and optimizing activation functions in neural networks.
method Complementary interpretation using the Gaussian first-order loss function.
result Calibrated or learned uniform-threshold gates are competitive and often outperform GELU, ReLU, and SiLU/Swish.

The paper approximates Levi-Civita connection and curvature on 2D manifolds using finite elements.

problem Approximating Levi-Civita connection and curvature on 2D manifolds with finite elements.
method Using Regge finite elements, piecewise polynomial symmetric (0,2)-tensor fields, and distributional sense for non-regular tensors.
result Distributional quantities converge to their smooth counterparts under refinement of triangulation.

New algorithm reduces dynamic regret for noisy gradient feedback with piecewise polynomial comparators.

problem Online estimation of piecewise polynomial trends with noisy feedback.
method Introduces variational constraint for piecewise polynomial comparators, designs adaptive algorithm.
result Achieves nearly optimal dynamic regret of $ ilde{O}(n^{ rac{1}{2k+3}}C_n^{ rac{2}{2k+3}})$.

SURF simplifies distribution estimation with simple, robust, and fast algorithms.

problem Efficient and accurate distribution estimation in statistics and machine learning.
method Piecewise polynomial approximation using empirical probability interpolation and divide-and-conquer merging.
result Surpassing state-of-the-art algorithms in efficiency and accuracy, SURF estimates distributions robustly and quickly.

We give a highly efficient "semi-agnostic" algorithm for learning univariate probability distributions that are well approximated by piecewise polynomial density functions. Let pp be an arbitrary distribution over an interval II which is ττ-close (in total variation distance) to an unknown probability distribution $…

2013-05-14abs ↗pdf ↗

Neural networks with ReLU^k approximate Sobolev functions efficiently via Radon transform.

problem Approximating functions from Sobolev spaces using shallow ReLU^k neural networks.
method Utilizing the Radon transform and discrepancy theory, we provide nearly optimal approximation rates.
result Optimal approximation rates for smoothness up to order s = k + (d+1)/2.

Constructs finite element spaces for (p,q)(p,q)-forms, excluding one subspace.

problem Constructing finite element spaces for (p,q)(p,q)-forms.
method Piecewise polynomial finite element spaces for all natural subspaces of (p,q)(p,q)-forms, excluding one subspace.
result Recovers known finite element spaces and introduces new ones.

For any positive integer kk, there exist neural networks with Θ(k3)Θ(k^3) layers, Θ(1)Θ(1) nodes per layer, and Θ(1)Θ(1) distinct parameters which can not be approximated by networks with O(k)\mathcal{O}(k) layers unless they are exponentially large --- they must possess Ω(2k)Ω(2^k) nodes. This result is proved here for a class o…

2016-02-14abs ↗pdf ↗

Paper proposes algorithms to accurately identify breakpoints in piecewise regression.

problem Identifying accurate breakpoints in piecewise regression for better data fitting.
method Proposes novel greedy algorithms to minimize error and determine optimal breakpoints.
result The proposed algorithms outperform existing methods in accuracy and efficiency.

Normalizing flows attempt to model an arbitrary probability distribution through a set of invertible mappings. These transformations are required to achieve a tractable Jacobian determinant that can be used in high-dimensional scenarios. The first normalizing flow designs used coupling layer mappings built upon affine …

2020-01-15abs ↗pdf ↗

We consider the fundamental learning problem of estimating properties of distributions over large domains. Using a novel piecewise-polynomial approximation technique, we derive the first unified methodology for constructing sample- and time-efficient estimators for all sufficiently smooth, symmetric and non-symmetric, …

2019-11-08abs ↗pdf ↗

While all kinds of mixed data -from personal data, over panel and scientific data, to public and commercial data- are collected and stored, building probabilistic graphical models for these hybrid domains becomes more difficult. Users spend significant amounts of time in identifying the parametric form of the random va…

2017-10-09abs ↗pdf ↗

POUnets combine partitions of unity and monomials for efficient deep learning.

problem Efficiently approximating functions with deep neural networks in high dimensions.
method Integrates partitions of unity and monomials into neural network architecture.
result POUnets achieve hp-convergence for smooth functions and outperform MLPs for discontinuous functions.

Method estimates observation functions in state-space models without supervision.

problem Unsupervised learning of non-invertible observation functions in nonlinear state-space models.
method Nonparametric generalized moment method using constrained regression.
result Estimates function space of identifiability from state process.

Finite element method approximates scalar curvature in arbitrary dimensions.

problem Approximating scalar curvature using finite elements in arbitrary dimensions.
method Piecewise polynomial interpolants of a smooth Riemannian metric on a triangulated polyhedral domain.
result Finite element interpolants converge to scalar curvature with rate O(hr+1)O(h^{r+1}) in H2(Ω)H^{-2}(Ω) norm.

The paper calculates volumes of moduli spaces of flat metrics on spheres with specific angles.

problem Calculating volumes of moduli spaces of flat metrics on spheres with prescribed angles.
method Recursive formula and application of Kontsevich's formula.
result The volume of moduli spaces of flat metrics on spheres is a continuous piecewise polynomial function of the angles.

General lower bounds on neural network approximation in L^p norm.

problem Fundamental limits of neural network expressivity.
method General lower bound proof on approximation in L^p norm, applied to feed-forward neural networks.
result Neural networks can't approximate certain functions as well as previously thought.

We provide a differentially private algorithm for hypothesis selection. Given samples from an unknown probability distribution PP and a set of mm probability distributions H\mathcal{H}, the goal is to output, in a ε\varepsilon-differentially private manner, a distribution from H\mathcal{H} whose total variation di…

2019-05-30abs ↗pdf ↗

We propose to use deep neural networks for generating samples in Monte Carlo integration. Our work is based on non-linear independent components estimation (NICE), which we extend in numerous ways to improve performance and enable its application to integration problems. First, we introduce piecewise-polynomial couplin…

2018-08-11abs ↗pdf ↗

Many functions of interest are in a high-dimensional space but exhibit low-dimensional structures. This paper studies regression of a ss-Hölder function ff in RD\mathbb{R}^D which varies along a central subspace of dimension dd while dDd\ll D. A direct approximation of ff in RD\mathbb{R}^D with an ε\varepsilon acc…

2020-01-22abs ↗pdf ↗

We study additive models built with trend filtering, i.e., additive models whose components are each regularized by the (discrete) total variation of their kkth (discrete) derivative, for a chosen integer k0k \geq 0. This results in kkth degree piecewise polynomial components, (e.g., k=0k=0 gives piecewise constant co…

2017-02-16abs ↗pdf ↗

Unified analysis of kernel-based and locally adaptive bandit optimization methods.

problem Performance of bandit optimization algorithms in RKHS functions.
method Investigates the relationship between kernel regularity and algorithmic performance, characterizing spectral properties of various kernels.
result Unified framework for analyzing kernel-based and locally adaptive bandit algorithms, deriving explicit regret bounds.

Many activation functions have been proposed in the past, but selecting an adequate one requires trial and error. We propose a new methodology of designing activation functions within a neural network at each layer. We call this technique an "activation ensemble" because it allows the use of multiple activation functio…

2017-02-24abs ↗pdf ↗

This paper studies activation sparsity in large language models, finding key trends and implications.

problem Activation sparsity in large language models (LLMs) can be improved for efficiency and interpretability.
method Proposes PPL-p%p\% sparsity, analyzes trends with training data, width-depth ratio, and parameter scale.
result ReLU is more efficient for sparsity than SiLU, and deeper architectures can improve sparsity.

Many neural network architectures rely on the choice of the activation function for each hidden layer. Given the activation function, the neural network is trained over the bias and the weight parameters. The bias catches the center of the activation, and the weights capture the scale. Here we propose to train the netw…

2019-01-28abs ↗pdf ↗

BinaryDuo improves BNNs by coupling binary activations, outperforming state-of-the-art models.

problem Gradient mismatch in BNNs due to binarizing activations.
method Using gradient of smoothed loss function to estimate gradient mismatch, proposing BinaryDuo scheme with coupled ternary activations.
result BinaryDuo outperforms state-of-the-art BNNs on various benchmarks.

Evolutionary algorithms improve neural network performance by discovering better activation functions.

problem The choice of activation function affects neural network performance, but ReLU remains dominant.
method Defined a tree-based search space of candidate activation functions and used evolutionary algorithms (mutation, crossover, exhaustive search) to explore and discover better functions.
result Replacing ReLU with evolved activation functions statistically significantly increases network accuracy.

The field of statistical relational learning aims at unifying logic and probability to reason and learn from data. Perhaps the most successful paradigm in the field is probabilistic logic programming: the enabling of stochastic primitives in logic programming, which is now increasingly seen to provide a declarative bac…

2018-07-15abs ↗pdf ↗