The categorical models of the differential lambda-calculus are additive categories because of the Leibniz rule which requires the summation of two expressions. This means that, as far as the differential lambda-calculus and differential linear logic are concerned, these models feature finite non-determinism and indeed these languages are essentially non-deterministic. In a previous paper we introduced a categorical framework for differentiation which does not require additivity and is compatible with deterministic models such as coherence spaces and probabilistic models such as probabilistic coherence spaces. Based on this semantics we develop a syntax of a deterministic version of the differential lambda-calculus. One nice feature of this new approach to differentiation is that it is compatible with general fixpoints of terms, so our language is actually a differential extension of PCF for which we provide a fully deterministic operational semantics.
We introduce a gradient-based approach for the problem of Bayesian optimal experimental design to learn causal models in a batch setting -- a critical component for causal discovery from finite data where interventions can be costly or risky. Existing methods rely on greedy approximations to construct a batch of experiments while using black-box methods to optimize over a single target-state pair to intervene with. In this work, we completely dispose of the black-box optimization techniques and greedy heuristics and instead propose a conceptually simple end-to-end gradient-based optimization procedure to acquire a set of optimal intervention target-state pairs. Such a procedure enables parameterization of the design space to efficiently optimize over a batch of multi-target-state interventions, a setting which has hitherto not been explored due to its complexity. We demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms baselines and existing acquisition strategies in both single-target and multi-target settings across a number of synthetic datasets.
As a computational alternative to Markov chain Monte Carlo approaches, variational inference (VI) is becoming more and more popular for approximating intractable posterior distributions in large-scale Bayesian models due to its comparable efficacy and superior efficiency. Several recent works provide theoretical justifications of VI by proving its statistical optimality for parameter estimation under various settings; meanwhile, formal analysis on the algorithmic convergence aspects of VI is still largely lacking. In this paper, we consider the common coordinate ascent variational inference (CAVI) algorithm for implementing the mean-field (MF) VI towards optimizing a Kullback--Leibler divergence objective functional over the space of all factorized distributions. Focusing on the two-block case, we analyze the convergence of CAVI by leveraging the extensive toolbox from functional analysis and optimization. We provide general conditions for certifying global or local exponential convergence of CAVI. Specifically, a new notion of generalized correlation for characterizing the interaction between the constituting blocks in influencing the VI objective functional is introduced, which according to the theory, quantifies the algorithmic contraction rate of two-block CAVI. As illustrations, we apply the developed theory to a number of examples, and derive explicit problem-dependent upper bounds on the algorithmic contraction rate.
Recent studies have discovered that Chain-of-Thought prompting (CoT) can dramatically improve the performance of Large Language Models (LLMs), particularly when dealing with complex tasks involving mathematics or reasoning. Despite the enormous empirical success, the underlying mechanisms behind CoT and how it unlocks the potential of LLMs remain elusive. In this paper, we take a first step towards theoretically answering these questions. Specifically, we examine the expressivity of LLMs with CoT in solving fundamental mathematical and decision-making problems. We start by giving an impossibility result showing that bounded-depth Transformers are unable to directly produce correct answers for basic arithmetic/equation tasks unless the model size grows super-polynomially with respect to the input length. In contrast, we then prove by construction that autoregressive Transformers of constant size suffice to solve both tasks by generating CoT derivations using a commonly-used math language format. Moreover, we show LLMs with CoT are capable of solving a general class of decision-making problems known as Dynamic Programming, thus justifying its power in tackling complex real-world tasks. Finally, extensive experiments on four tasks show that, while Transformers always fail to predict the answers directly, they can consistently learn to generate correct solutions step-by-step given sufficient CoT demonstrations.
In this paper we discuss potentially practical ways to produce expander graphs with good spectral properties and a compact description. We focus on several classes of uniform and bipartite expander graphs defined as random Schreier graphs of the general linear group over the finite field of size two. We perform numerical experiments and show that such constructions produce spectral expanders that can be useful for practical applications. To find a theoretical explanation of the observed experimental results, we used the method of moments to prove upper bounds for the expected second largest eigenvalue of the random Schreier graphs used in our constructions. We focus on bounds for which it is difficult to study the asymptotic behaviour but it is possible to compute non-trivial conclusions for relatively small graphs with parameters from our numerical experiments (e.g., with less than 2^200 vertices and degree at least logarithmic in the number of vertices).
In this paper, we discuss reduced order modelling approaches to bifurcating systems arising from continuum mechanics benchmarks. The investigation of the beam's deflection is a relevant topic of investigation with fundamental implications on their design for structural analysis and health. When the beams are exposed to external forces, their equilibrium state can undergo to a sudden variation. This happens when a compression, acting along the axial boundaries, exceeds a certain critical value. Linear elasticity models are not complex enough to capture the so-called beam's buckling, and nonlinear constitutive relations, as the hyperelastic laws, are required to investigate this behavior, whose mathematical counterpart is represented by bifurcating phenomena. The numerical analysis of the bifurcating modes and the post-buckling behavior, is usually unaffordable by means of standard high-fidelity techniques such (as the Finite Element method) and the efficiency of Reduced Order Models (ROMs), e.g.\ based on Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD), are necessary to obtain consistent speed-up in the reconstruction of the bifurcation diagram. The aim of this work is to provide insights regarding the application of POD-based ROMs for buckling phenomena occurring for 2-D and 3-D beams governed by different constitutive relations. The benchmarks will involve multi-parametric settings with geometrically parametrized domains, where the buckling's location depends on the material and geometrical properties induced by the parameter. Finally, we exploit the acquired notions from these toy problems, to simulate a real case scenario coming from the Norwegian petroleum industry.
We consider a binary supervised learning classification problem where instead of having data in a finite-dimensional Euclidean space, we observe measures on a compact space $\mathcal{X}$. Formally, we observe data $D_N = (\mu_1, Y_1), \ldots, (\mu_N, Y_N)$ where $\mu_i$ is a measure on $\mathcal{X}$ and $Y_i$ is a label in $\{0, 1\}$. Given a set $\mathcal{F}$ of base-classifiers on $\mathcal{X}$, we build corresponding classifiers in the space of measures. We provide upper and lower bounds on the Rademacher complexity of this new class of classifiers that can be expressed simply in terms of corresponding quantities for the class $\mathcal{F}$. If the measures $\mu_i$ are uniform over a finite set, this classification task boils down to a multi-instance learning problem. However, our approach allows more flexibility and diversity in the input data we can deal with. While such a framework has many possible applications, this work strongly emphasizes on classifying data via topological descriptors called persistence diagrams. These objects are discrete measures on $\mathbb{R}^2$, where the coordinates of each point correspond to the range of scales at which a topological feature exists. We will present several classifiers on measures and show how they can heuristically and theoretically enable a good classification performance in various settings in the case of persistence diagrams.
In Linear Logic ($\mathsf{LL}$), the exponential modality $!$ brings forth a distinction between non-linear proofs and linear proofs, where linear means using an argument exactly once. Differential Linear Logic ($\mathsf{DiLL}$) is an extension of Linear Logic which includes additional rules for $!$ which encode differentiation and the ability of linearizing proofs. On the other hand, Graded Linear Logic ($\mathsf{GLL}$) is a variation of Linear Logic in such a way that $!$ is now indexed over a semiring $R$. This $R$-grading allows for non-linear proofs of degree $r \in R$, such that the linear proofs are of degree $1 \in R$. There has been recent interest in combining these two variations of $\mathsf{LL}$ together and developing Graded Differential Linear Logic ($\mathsf{GDiLL}$). In this paper we present a sequent calculus for $\mathsf{GDiLL}$, as well as introduce its categorical semantics, which we call graded differential categories, using both coderelictions and deriving transformations. We prove that symmetric powers always give graded differential categories, and provide other examples of graded differential categories. We also discuss graded versions of (monoidal) coalgebra modalities, additive bialgebra modalities, and the Seely isomorphisms, as well as their implementations in the sequent calculus of $\mathsf{GDiLL}$.
Knowledge graph embedding (KGE) is a increasingly popular technique that aims to represent entities and relations of knowledge graphs into low-dimensional semantic spaces for a wide spectrum of applications such as link prediction, knowledge reasoning and knowledge completion. In this paper, we provide a systematic review of existing KGE techniques based on representation spaces. Particularly, we build a fine-grained classification to categorise the models based on three mathematical perspectives of the representation spaces: (1) Algebraic perspective, (2) Geometric perspective, and (3) Analytical perspective. We introduce the rigorous definitions of fundamental mathematical spaces before diving into KGE models and their mathematical properties. We further discuss different KGE methods over the three categories, as well as summarise how spatial advantages work over different embedding needs. By collating the experimental results from downstream tasks, we also explore the advantages of mathematical space in different scenarios and the reasons behind them. We further state some promising research directions from a representation space perspective, with which we hope to inspire researchers to design their KGE models as well as their related applications with more consideration of their mathematical space properties.
Classic algorithms and machine learning systems like neural networks are both abundant in everyday life. While classic computer science algorithms are suitable for precise execution of exactly defined tasks such as finding the shortest path in a large graph, neural networks allow learning from data to predict the most likely answer in more complex tasks such as image classification, which cannot be reduced to an exact algorithm. To get the best of both worlds, this thesis explores combining both concepts leading to more robust, better performing, more interpretable, more computationally efficient, and more data efficient architectures. The thesis formalizes the idea of algorithmic supervision, which allows a neural network to learn from or in conjunction with an algorithm. When integrating an algorithm into a neural architecture, it is important that the algorithm is differentiable such that the architecture can be trained end-to-end and gradients can be propagated back through the algorithm in a meaningful way. To make algorithms differentiable, this thesis proposes a general method for continuously relaxing algorithms by perturbing variables and approximating the expectation value in closed form, i.e., without sampling. In addition, this thesis proposes differentiable algorithms, such as differentiable sorting networks, differentiable renderers, and differentiable logic gate networks. Finally, this thesis presents alternative training strategies for learning with algorithms.
The conjoining of dynamical systems and deep learning has become a topic of great interest. In particular, neural differential equations (NDEs) demonstrate that neural networks and differential equation are two sides of the same coin. Traditional parameterised differential equations are a special case. Many popular neural network architectures, such as residual networks and recurrent networks, are discretisations. NDEs are suitable for tackling generative problems, dynamical systems, and time series (particularly in physics, finance, ...) and are thus of interest to both modern machine learning and traditional mathematical modelling. NDEs offer high-capacity function approximation, strong priors on model space, the ability to handle irregular data, memory efficiency, and a wealth of available theory on both sides. This doctoral thesis provides an in-depth survey of the field. Topics include: neural ordinary differential equations (e.g. for hybrid neural/mechanistic modelling of physical systems); neural controlled differential equations (e.g. for learning functions of irregular time series); and neural stochastic differential equations (e.g. to produce generative models capable of representing complex stochastic dynamics, or sampling from complex high-dimensional distributions). Further topics include: numerical methods for NDEs (e.g. reversible differential equations solvers, backpropagation through differential equations, Brownian reconstruction); symbolic regression for dynamical systems (e.g. via regularised evolution); and deep implicit models (e.g. deep equilibrium models, differentiable optimisation). We anticipate this thesis will be of interest to anyone interested in the marriage of deep learning with dynamical systems, and hope it will provide a useful reference for the current state of the art.