RSP-Based Analysis for Sparsest and Least ℓ1\ell_1-Norm Solutions to Underdetermined Linear Systems

Recently, the worse-case analysis, probabilistic analysis and empirical justification have been employed to address the fundamental question: When does $\ell_1$-minimization find the sparsest solution to an underdetermined linear system? In this paper, a deterministic analysis, rooted in the classic linear programming theory, is carried out to further address this question. We first identify a necessary and sufficient condition for the uniqueness of least $\ell_1$-norm solutions to linear systems. From this condition, we deduce that a sparsest solution coincides with the unique least $\ell_1$-norm solution to a linear system if and only if the so-called \emph{range space property} (RSP) holds at this solution. This yields a broad understanding of the relationship between $\ell_0$- and $\ell_1$-minimization problems. Our analysis indicates that the RSP truly lies at the heart of the relationship between these two problems. Through RSP-based analysis, several important questions in this field can be largely addressed. For instance, how to efficiently interpret the gap between the current theory and the actual numerical performance of $\ell_1$-minimization by a deterministic analysis, and if a linear system has multiple sparsest solutions, when does $\ell_1$-minimization guarantee to find one of them? Moreover, new matrix properties (such as the \emph{RSP of order $K$} and the \emph{Weak-RSP of order $K$}) are introduced in this paper, and a new theory for sparse signal recovery based on the RSP of order $K$ is established

The Lasso Problem and Uniqueness

The lasso is a popular tool for sparse linear regression, especially for problems in which the number of variables p exceeds the number of observations n. But when p>n, the lasso criterion is not strictly convex, and hence it may not have a unique minimum. An important question is: when is the lasso solution well-defined (unique)? We review results from the literature, which show that if the predictor variables are drawn from a continuous probability distribution, then there is a unique lasso solution with probability one, regardless of the sizes of n and p. We also show that this result extends easily to $\ell_1$ penalized minimization problems over a wide range of loss functions. A second important question is: how can we deal with the case of non-uniqueness in lasso solutions? In light of the aforementioned result, this case really only arises when some of the predictor variables are discrete, or when some post-processing has been performed on continuous predictor measurements. Though we certainly cannot claim to provide a complete answer to such a broad question, we do present progress towards understanding some aspects of non-uniqueness. First, we extend the LARS algorithm for computing the lasso solution path to cover the non-unique case, so that this path algorithm works for any predictor matrix. Next, we derive a simple method for computing the component-wise uncertainty in lasso solutions of any given problem instance, based on linear programming. Finally, we review results from the literature on some of the unifying properties of lasso solutions, and also point out particular forms of solutions that have distinctive properties.Comment: 25 pages, 0 figure

New Null Space Results and Recovery Thresholds for Matrix Rank Minimization

Nuclear norm minimization (NNM) has recently gained significant attention for its use in rank minimization problems. Similar to compressed sensing, using null space characterizations, recovery thresholds for NNM have been studied in \cite{arxiv,Recht_Xu_Hassibi}. However simulations show that the thresholds are far from optimal, especially in the low rank region. In this paper we apply the recent analysis of Stojnic for compressed sensing \cite{mihailo} to the null space conditions of NNM. The resulting thresholds are significantly better and in particular our weak threshold appears to match with simulation results. Further our curves suggest for any rank growing linearly with matrix size $n$ we need only three times of oversampling (the model complexity) for weak recovery. Similar to \cite{arxiv} we analyze the conditions for weak, sectional and strong thresholds. Additionally a separate analysis is given for special case of positive semidefinite matrices. We conclude by discussing simulation results and future research directions.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figure

Analysis of A Nonsmooth Optimization Approach to Robust Estimation

In this paper, we consider the problem of identifying a linear map from measurements which are subject to intermittent and arbitarily large errors. This is a fundamental problem in many estimation-related applications such as fault detection, state estimation in lossy networks, hybrid system identification, robust estimation, etc. The problem is hard because it exhibits some intrinsic combinatorial features. Therefore, obtaining an effective solution necessitates relaxations that are both solvable at a reasonable cost and effective in the sense that they can return the true parameter vector. The current paper discusses a nonsmooth convex optimization approach and provides a new analysis of its behavior. In particular, it is shown that under appropriate conditions on the data, an exact estimate can be recovered from data corrupted by a large (even infinite) number of gross errors.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure

From Sparse Signals to Sparse Residuals for Robust Sensing

One of the key challenges in sensor networks is the extraction of information by fusing data from a multitude of distinct, but possibly unreliable sensors. Recovering information from the maximum number of dependable sensors while specifying the unreliable ones is critical for robust sensing. This sensing task is formulated here as that of finding the maximum number of feasible subsystems of linear equations, and proved to be NP-hard. Useful links are established with compressive sampling, which aims at recovering vectors that are sparse. In contrast, the signals here are not sparse, but give rise to sparse residuals. Capitalizing on this form of sparsity, four sensing schemes with complementary strengths are developed. The first scheme is a convex relaxation of the original problem expressed as a second-order cone program (SOCP). It is shown that when the involved sensing matrices are Gaussian and the reliable measurements are sufficiently many, the SOCP can recover the optimal solution with overwhelming probability. The second scheme is obtained by replacing the initial objective function with a concave one. The third and fourth schemes are tailored for noisy sensor data. The noisy case is cast as a combinatorial problem that is subsequently surrogated by a (weighted) SOCP. Interestingly, the derived cost functions fall into the framework of robust multivariate linear regression, while an efficient block-coordinate descent algorithm is developed for their minimization. The robust sensing capabilities of all schemes are verified by simulated tests.Comment: Under review for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (revised version