Neural network approximation: Three hidden layers are enough.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
A three-hidden-layer neural network with super approximation power is introduced. This network is built with the floor function (⌊x⌋), the exponential function (2x ), the step function (1x≥0 ), or their compositions as the activation function in each neuron and hence we call such networks as Floor-Exponential-Step (FLES) networks. For any width hyper-parameter N∈N+ , it is shown that FLES networks with width max{d,N} and three hidden layers can uniformly approximate a Hölder continuous function f on [0,1]d with an exponential approximation rate 3λ(2d)α 2-αN , where α∈(0,1] and λ>0 are the Hölder order and constant, respectively. More generally for an arbitrary continuous function f on [0,1]d with a modulus of continuity ωf (⋅), the constructive approximation rate is 2ωf (2d)2-N +ωf (2d2-N ). Moreover, we extend such a result to general bounded continuous functions on a bounded set E⊆Rd . As a consequence, this new class of networks overcomes the curse of dimensionality in approximation power when the variation of ωf (r) as r→0 is moderate (e.g., ωf (r)≲rα for Hölder continuous functions), since the major term to be concerned in our approximation rate is essentially d times a function of N independent of d within the modulus of continuity. Finally, we extend our analysis to derive similar approximation results in the Lp -norm for p∈[1,∞) via replacing Floor-Exponential-Step activation functions by continuous activation functions.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Shen, Z; Yang, H; Zhang, S
Published Date
- September 2021
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 141 /
Start / End Page
- 160 - 173
PubMed ID
- 33906082
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1879-2782
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0893-6080
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1016/j.neunet.2021.04.011
Language
- eng