Concept

Bias variance — where it appears

The split of an estimator's error into a systematic part, from what the method smooths away, and a random part, from the noise it lets through. A regularisation parameter or an iteration count trades one for the other, and the best setting is where their sum is least rather than where either vanishes.

Named by 2 essays across one field — each of them below, with the objects they name alongside it.

each method's best, dimensionconjugate gradients24Tikhonov23truncated SVD21and the error thereconjugate gradients0.14Tikhonov0.14truncated SVD0.140510152025301effective dimensionrelative errorconjugate gradientsTikhonovtruncated SVDdashed vertical: the iteration's bestthe iteration drawn while its dimension still rises

One arc, and what each filter pays to be on it

Conjugate gradients and Tikhonov stop at the same effective dimension, and that could have meant two curves crossing once or one curve. It is one curve over a stretch — on six problems, Tikhonov and truncation reach the iteration's error at the iteration's dimension to within 7.2 per cent from 0.7 of the answer to its top — and the two separate on either side. But the curve is shared by a trade, not by an identical answer: at the same dimension Tikhonov carries 22 to 42 per cent more noise than the iteration and up to five per cent less bias.

combination · Iterative regularisation
sum with overshoot clippedwidest departure, 1.1 to 1.30.17widest departure, 0.3 to 0.50.690.30.50.70.91.11.30.7511.251.51.7522.252.5clipped sum ÷ the answer'serror ÷ the iteration'sTikhonovtruncated SVDshaded column: 0.7 to 1.0 of the answerthe axis decides the band above the top

The overshoot was the lead

Past its best, conjugate gradients' error rose more slowly than Tikhonov's at the same effective dimension — on the narrow blur at 0.1% noise Tikhonov was 2.35 times worse at 1.3 of the answer — and the reading was that the iteration spends its dimension where the data has content. Count admitted directions instead of summing factors, so that a factor of 1.81 counts once, and the lead is gone: 0.96 on that problem, and within 0.17 of one on all six from 1.1 to 1.3. Tikhonov now carries less noise than the iteration there. Below half the answer, where the three filters also disagree, the count changes nothing.

combination · Iterative regularisation

Named alongside it

The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.

Conjugate gradientsDeconvolutionEffective dimensionFilter factorsIterative regularisationSemi-convergenceTikhonov regularisationTruncated SVDPicard condition

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