mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Convergence of Adam in Deep ReLU Networks via Directional Complexity and Kakeya Bounds

arXiv 2505.15013 ↗First posted 21 May 2025stat.ML cs.LGcited by 1

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Abstract (arXiv)

First-order adaptive optimization methods like Adam are the default choices for training modern deep neural networks. Despite their empirical success, the theoretical understanding of these methods in non-smooth settings, particularly in Deep ReLU networks, remains limited. ReLU activations create exponentially many region boundaries where standard smoothness assumptions break down. textbfWe derive the first (tildeO!bigl(√deff/nbigr)) generalization bound for Adam in Deep ReLU networks and the first global-optimal convergence for Adam in the non smooth, non convex relu landscape without a global PL or convexity assumption. Our analysis is based on stratified Morse theory and novel results in Kakeya sets. We develop a multi-layer refinement framework that progressively tightens bounds on region crossings. We prove that the number of region crossings collapses from exponential to near-linear in the effective dimension. Using a Kakeya based method, we give a tighter generalization bound than PAC-Bayes approaches and showcase convergence using a mild uniform low barrier assumption.

Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 21 of its 34 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 21 May 2025.

Builds on

21 of 34 references.

References · 21

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  2. 2019On the Convergence of Adam and Beyondcited by 841
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  5. 2016Linear Convergence of Gradient and Proximal-Gradient Methods Under the Polyak-Lojasiewicz Conditioncited by 539
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9 more
  1. 2019Deep ReLU Networks Have Surprisingly Few Activation Patternscited by 161
  2. 2018On the importance of single directions for generalizationcited by 99
  3. 2023Convergence of Adam Under Relaxed Assumptionscited by 99
  4. 2020Bypassing the Ambient Dimension: Private SGD with Gradient Subspace Identificationcited by 90
  5. 2024Heavy-Tailed Class Imbalance and Why Adam Outperforms Gradient Descent on Language Modelscited by 80
  6. 2020Coherent Gradients: An Approach to Understanding Generalization in Gradient Descent-based Optimizationcited by 41
  7. 2024On Convergence of Adam for Stochastic Optimization under Relaxed Assumptionscited by 21
  8. 2019Sparsely Activated Networkscited by 5
  9. 2025Connecting Independently Trained Modes via Layer-Wise Connectivitycited by 3

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Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.

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