mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

PAC-Bayes Bounds for Gibbs Posteriors via Singular Learning Theory

arXiv 2604.17219 ↗First posted 19 Apr 2026stat.ML cs.LGcited by 0

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Abstract (arXiv)

We derive explicit non-asymptotic PAC-Bayes generalization bounds for Gibbs posteriors, that is, data-dependent distributions over model parameters obtained by exponentially tilting a prior with the empirical risk. Unlike classical worst-case complexity bounds based on uniform laws of large numbers, which require explicit control of the model space in terms of metric entropy (integrals), our analysis yields posterior-averaged risk bounds that can be applied to overparameterized models and adapt to the data structure and the intrinsic model complexity. The bound involves a marginal-type integral over the parameter space, which we analyze using tools from singular learning theory to obtain explicit and practically meaningful characterizations of the posterior risk. Applications to low-rank matrix completion and ReLU neural network regression and classification show that the resulting bounds are analytically tractable and substantially tighter than classical complexity-based bounds. Our results highlight the potential of PAC-Bayes analysis for precise finite-sample generalization guarantees in modern overparameterized and singular models.

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References · 28

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16 more
  1. 2018Rademacher Complexity for Adversarially Robust Generalizationcited by 132
  2. 2018Non-Vacuous Generalization Bounds at the ImageNet Scale: A PAC-Bayesian Compression Approachcited by 125
  3. 2022PAC-Bayes Compression Bounds So Tight That They Can Explain Generalizationcited by 75
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  6. 2023Non-Vacuous Generalization Bounds for Large Language Modelscited by 53
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  8. 2013A Bayesian information criterion for singular modelscited by 22
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  15. 2023Bayesian Free Energy of Deep ReLU Neural Network in Overparametrized Casescited by 5
  16. 2020Gibbs posterior inference on multivariate quantilescited by 3

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