Concentration Inequalities for Exchangeable Tensors and Matrix-valued Data

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Authors: Chen Cheng, Rina Foygel Barber
Cited by: 0

Abstract

We study concentration inequalities for structured weighted sums of random data, including (i) tensor inner products and (ii) sequential matrix sums. We are interested in tail bounds and concentration inequalities for those structured weighted sums under exchangeability, extending beyond the classical framework of independent terms. We develop Hoeffding and Bernstein bounds provided with structure-dependent exchangeability. Along the way, we recover known results in weighted sum of exchangeable random variables and i.i.d. sums of random matrices to the optimal constants. Notably, we develop a sharper concentration bound for combinatorial sum of matrix arrays than the results previously derived from Chatterjee's method of exchangeable pairs. For applications, the richer structures provide us with novel analytical tools for estimating the average effect of multi-factor response models and studying fixed-design sketching methods in federated averaging. We apply our results to these problems, and find that our theoretical predictions are corroborated by numerical evidence.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Probability and Statistical Research Stochastic Gradient Optimization Techniques Random Matrices and Applications

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
28 January 2026
Document type
Preprint