Researcher profile

Estelle Massart

Estelle Massart contributes to research discovery and scholarly infrastructure.

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Published work

6 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

A Langevin sampler for quantum tomography

Quantum tomography involves obtaining a full classical description of a prepared quantum state from experimental results. We propose a Langevin sampler for quantum tomography, that relies on a new formulation of Bayesian quantum tomography exploiting the Burer-Monteiro factorization of Hermitian positive-semidefinite matrices. If the rank of the target density matrix is known, this formulation allows us to define a posterior distribution that is only supported on matrices whose rank is upper-bounded by the rank of the target density matrix. Conversely, if the target rank is unknown, any upper bound on the rank can be used by our algorithm, and the rank of the resulting posterior mean estimator is further reduced by the use of a low-rank promoting prior density. This prior density is a complex extension of the one proposed in (Annales de l'Institut Henri Poincare Probability and Statistics, 56(2):1465-1483, 2020). We derive a PAC-Bayesian bound on our proposed estimator that matches the best bounds available in the literature, and we show numerically that it leads to strong scalability improvements compared to existing techniques when the rank of the density matrix is known to be small.

preprint2026arXiv

Efficient Techniques for Data Reconstruction, with Finite-Width Recovery Guarantees

Data reconstruction attacks on trained neural networks aim to recover the data on which the network has been trained and pose a significant threat to privacy, especially if the training dataset contains sensitive information. Here, we propose a unified optimization formulation of the data reconstruction problem based on initial and trained parameter values, incorporating state-of-the-art proposals. We show that in the random feature model, this formulation provably leads to training data reconstruction with high probability, provided the network width is sufficiently large; this unprecedented finite-width result uses PAC-style bounds. Furthermore, when the data lies in a low-dimensional subspace, we show that the network width requirement for successful reconstruction can be relaxed, with bounds depending on the subspace dimension rather than the ambient dimension. For general neural network models and unknown data orientations, we propose an efficient reconstruction algorithm that approximates the low-dimensional data subspace through the change in the first-layer weights during training and uses only the last-layer weights for reconstruction, thus reducing the search space dimension and the required network width for high-quality reconstructions. Our numerical experiments on synthetic datasets and CIFAR-10 confirm that our subspace-aware reconstruction approach outperforms standard full-space techniques.

preprint2026arXiv

Riemannian optimization with finite-difference gradient approximations

Derivative-free Riemannian optimization (DFRO) aims to minimize an objective function using only function evaluations, under the constraint that the decision variables lie on a Riemannian manifold. The rapid increase in problem dimensions over the years calls for computationally cheap DFRO algorithms, that is, algorithms requiring as few function evaluations and retractions as possible. We propose a novel DFRO method based on finite-difference gradient approximations that relies on an adaptive selection of the finite-difference accuracy and stepsize that is novel even in the Euclidean setting. When endowed with an intrinsic finite-difference scheme, that measures variations of the objective in tangent directions using retractions, our proposed method requires $O(dε^{-2})$ function evaluations and retractions to find an $ε$-critical point, where $d$ is the manifold dimension. We then propose a variant of our method when the search space is a Riemannian submanifold of an $n$-dimensional Euclidean space. This variant relies on an extrinsic finite-difference scheme, approximating the Riemannian gradient directly in the embedding space, assuming that the objective function can be evaluated outside of the manifold. This approach leads to worst-case complexity bounds of $O(dε^{-2})$ function evaluations and $O(ε^{-2})$ retractions. We also present numerical results showing that the proposed methods achieve superior performance over existing derivative-free methods on various problems in both Euclidean and Riemannian settings.

preprint2020arXiv

Balanced truncation for parametric linear systems using interpolation of Gramians: a comparison of algebraic and geometric approaches

When balanced truncation is used for model order reduction, one has to solve a pair of Lyapunov equations for two Gramians and uses them to construct a reduced-order model. Although advances in solving such equations have been made, it is still the most expensive step of this reduction method. Parametric model order reduction aims to determine reduced-order models for parameter-dependent systems. Popular techniques for parametric model order reduction rely on interpolation. Nevertheless, the interpolation of Gramians is rarely mentioned, most probably due to the fact that Gramians are symmetric positive semidefinite matrices, a property that should be preserved by the interpolation method. In this contribution, we propose and compare two approaches for Gramian interpolation. In the first approach, the interpolated Gramian is computed as a linear combination of the data Gramians with positive coefficients. Even though positive semidefiniteness is guaranteed in this method, the rank of the interpolated Gramian can be significantly larger than that of the data Gramians. The second approach aims to tackle this issue by performing the interpolation on the manifold of fixed-rank positive semidefinite matrices. The results of the interpolation step are then used to construct parametric reduced-order models, which are compared numerically on two benchmark problems.

preprint2020arXiv

Constrained global optimization of functions with low effective dimensionality using multiple random embeddings

We consider the bound-constrained global optimization of functions with low effective dimensionality, that are constant along an (unknown) linear subspace and only vary over the effective (complement) subspace. We aim to implicitly explore the intrinsic low dimensionality of the constrained landscape using feasible random embeddings, in order to understand and improve the scalability of algorithms for the global optimization of these special-structure problems. A reduced subproblem formulation is investigated that solves the original problem over a random low-dimensional subspace subject to affine constraints, so as to preserve feasibility with respect to the given domain. Under reasonable assumptions, we show that the probability that the reduced problem is successful in solving the original, full-dimensional problem is positive. Furthermore, in the case when the objective's effective subspace is aligned with the coordinate axes, we provide an asymptotic bound on this success probability that captures its algebraic dependence on the effective and, surprisingly, ambient dimensions. We then propose X-REGO, a generic algorithmic framework that uses multiple random embeddings, solving the above reduced problem repeatedly, approximately and possibly, adaptively. Using the success probability of the reduced subproblems, we prove that X-REGO converges globally, with probability one, and linearly in the number of embeddings, to an $ε$-neighbourhood of a constrained global minimizer. Our numerical experiments on special structure functions illustrate our theoretical findings and the improved scalability of X-REGO variants when coupled with state-of-the-art global - and even local - optimization solvers for the subproblems.

preprint2020arXiv

Low-rank multi-parametric covariance identification

We propose a differential geometric construction for families of low-rank covariance matrices, via interpolation on low-rank matrix manifolds. In contrast with standard parametric covariance classes, these families offer significant flexibility for problem-specific tailoring via the choice of "anchor" matrices for the interpolation. Moreover, their low-rank facilitates computational tractability in high dimensions and with limited data. We employ these covariance families for both interpolation and identification, where the latter problem comprises selecting the most representative member of the covariance family given a data set. In this setting, standard procedures such as maximum likelihood estimation are nontrivial because the covariance family is rank-deficient; we resolve this issue by casting the identification problem as distance minimization. We demonstrate the power of these differential geometric families for interpolation and identification in a practical application: wind field covariance approximation for unmanned aerial vehicle navigation.