Finding Structure with Randomness: Probabilistic Algorithms for Constructing Approximate Matrix Decompositions
Abstract¶
Low-rank matrix approximations, such as the truncated singular value decomposition and the rank-revealing QR decomposition, play a central role in data analysis and scientific computing. This work surveys and extends recent research which demonstrates that randomization offers a powerful tool for performing low-rank matrix approximation. These techniques exploit modern computational architectures more fully than classical methods and open the possibility of dealing with truly massive data sets. This paper presents a modular framework for constructing randomized algorithms that compute partial matrix decompositions. These methods use random sampling to identify a subspace that captures most of the action of a matrix. The input matrix is then compressed - either explicitly or implicitly - to this subspace, and the reduced matrix is manipulated deterministically to obtain the desired low-rank factorization. In many cases, this approach beats its classical competitors in terms of accuracy, speed, and robustness. These claims are supported by extensive numerical experiments and a detailed error analysis.
Summary¶
Surveys and analyzes randomized algorithms for constructing approximate matrix decompositions such as low-rank SVDs. The paper helped popularize randomized numerical linear algebra as a practical tool for large data matrices.