Definition 3.2: Oracle, Oracle Risk, Oracle Inequality #
Let R(·) be a risk function and let H = {φ₁,...,φ_M} be a dictionary of functions from ℝ^d to ℝ. Let K ⊆ ℝ^M. The oracle on K w.r.t. R is φ_{θ̄} where θ̄ ∈ K minimizes R(φ_θ). The oracle risk is R_K = R(φ_{θ̄}).
An oracle inequality in expectation holds if there exists C ≥ 1 such that 𝔼[R(f̂)] ≤ C · inf_{θ∈K} R(φ_θ) + φ_{n,M}(K).
An oracle inequality with high probability holds if there exists C ≥ 1 s.t. ℙ{R(f̂) ≤ C · inf_{θ∈K} R(φ_θ) + φ_{n,M,δ}(K)} ≥ 1 - δ, ∀ δ > 0.
If C = 1 the oracle inequality is called exact.
The linear combination φ_θ = ∑ j, θ_j · φ_j for a dictionary of M functions
from ℝ^d to ℝ, evaluated at a point. Here φ j is the j-th dictionary
element as a function Fin d → ℝ (i.e., evaluated at the n data points in the
fixed-design setting, or representing the function values).
Instances For
Oracle inequality in expectation with constant C ≥ 1 and remainder r: 𝔼[R(f̂)] ≤ C · inf_{θ∈K} R(φ_θ) + r. The estimator f̂ : Ω → (Fin d → ℝ) is random.
Instances For
Oracle inequality with high probability: C ≥ 1 and ℙ{R(f̂) ≤ C · inf_{θ∈K} R(φ_θ) + rem(δ)} ≥ 1 - δ for all δ > 0.
Instances For
For any θ ∈ K, the oracle risk is at most R(φ_θ), given that R is bounded below on the dictionary over K.