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Siva Athreya

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Published work

13 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

Adynamical systems view of training generativemodels and the memorization phenomenon

Using recent works of one of the authors (VSB) on collapse in generative models and two time scale dynamics in stochastic gradient descent in high dimensions, we give a system theoretic explanation of the memorization phenomenon in generative models. This relies purely on the dynamic aspects of the training phase. Specifically, we use a result of Austin [2016] to motivate a stylized model for the loss function for stochastic gradient descent (SGD) wherein the loss function has a strong dependence on some variables and weak dependence on the rest in a precise sense. This naturally leads to two distinct time scales in the constant step size SGD that is commonly used in machine learning. This fact has been used to explain the double descent phenomenon in SGD in Borkar [2026]. In conjunction with a mathematical model for collapse phenomenon in SGD developed in Borkar [2025a], we analyze the constant step size SGD using the recent results of Azizian et al. [2024] in order to explain the phenomenon of memorization wherein a generative model that is concurrently being tuned yields the same or similar outputs for significant stretches of time. This gives a novel perspective on the aforementioned phenomena reported in machine learning literature and their interrelationships, using a dynamical systems viewpoint.

preprint2022arXiv

Volume Approximation of Strongly ${\mathbb C}$-Convex Domains by Random Polyhedra

Polyhedral-type approximations of convex-like domains in $\mathbb{C}^d$ have been considered recently by the second author. In particular, the decay rate of the error in optimal volume approximation as a function of the number of facets has been obtained. In this article, we take these studies further by investigating polyhedra constructed using random points (Poisson or binomial process) on the boundary of a strongly $\mathbb{C}$-convex domain. We determine the rate of error in volume approximation of the domain by random polyhedra, and conjecture the precise value of the minimal limiting constant. Analogous to the real case, the exponent appearing in the error rate of random volume approximation coincides with that of optimal volume approximation, and can be interpreted in terms of the Hausdorff dimension of a naturally-occurring metric space. Moreover, the limiting constant is conjectured to depend on the Möbius-Fefferman measure, which is a complex analogue of the Blaschke surface area measure. Finally, we also prove $L^1$-convergence, variance bounds, and normal approximation.

preprint2022arXiv

Well-posedness of stochastic heat equation with distributional drift and skew stochastic heat equation

We study stochastic reaction--diffusion equation $$ \partial_tu_t(x)=\frac12 \partial^2_{xx}u_t(x)+b(u_t(x))+\dot{W}_{t}(x), \quad t>0,\, x\in D $$ where $b$ is a generalized function in the Besov space $\mathcal{B}^β_{q,\infty}({\mathbb R})$, $D\subset{\mathbb R}$ and $\dot W$ is a space-time white noise on ${\mathbb R}_+\times D$. We introduce a notion of a solution to this equation and obtain existence and uniqueness of a strong solution whenever $β-1/q\ge-1$, $β>-1$ and $q\in[1,\infty]$. This class includes equations with $b$ being measures, in particular, $b=δ_0$ which corresponds to the skewed stochastic heat equation. For $β-1/q > -3/2$, we obtain existence of a weak solution. Our results extend the work of Bass and Chen (2001) to the framework of stochastic partial differential equations and generalizes the results of Gyöngy and Pardoux (1993) to distributional drifts. To establish these results, we exploit the regularization effect of the white noise through a new strategy based on the stochastic sewing lemma introduced in Lê~(2020).

preprint2021arXiv

Small ball probabilities and a support theorem for the stochastic heat equation

We consider the following stochastic partial differential equation on $t \geq 0, x\in[0,J], J \geq 1$ where we consider $[0,J]$ to be the circle with end points identified: \begin{equation*} \partial_t{\mathbf u}(t,x) =\frac{1}{2}\,\partial_x^2 {\mathbf u}(t,x) + {\mathbf g}(t,x,\mathbf u) + {\mathbf σ}(t,x, {\mathbf u})\dot {\mathbf W}(t,x) , \end{equation*} and $\dot {\mathbf W }(t,x)$ is 2-parameter $d$-dimensional vector valued white noise and ${\mathbf σ}$ is function from ${\mathbb R}_+\times {\mathbb R} \times {\mathbb R}^d \rightarrow {\mathbb R}^d$ to space of symmetric $d\times d$ matrices which is Lipschitz in $\mathbf u$. We assume that $σ$ is uniformly elliptic and that $\mathbf g$ is uniformly bounded. Assuming that ${\mathbf u}(0,x) \equiv \mathbf 0$, we prove small-ball probabilities for the solution $\mathbf u$. We also prove a support theorem for solutions, when ${\mathbf u}(0,x)$ is not necessarily zero.

preprint2020arXiv

S.L.L.N. and C.L.T. for Random Walks in I.I.D. Random Environment on Cayley Trees

We consider the random walk in an independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) random environment on a Cayley graph of a finite free product of copies of $\mathbb{Z}$ and $\mathbb{Z}_2$. Such a Cayley graph is readily seen to be a regular tree. Under a uniform elipticity assumption on the i.i.d. environment we show that the walk has positive speed and establish the annealed central limit theorem for the graph distance of the walker from the starting point.

preprint2016arXiv

The gap between Gromov-vague and Gromov-Hausdorff-vague topology

In Athreya, Löhr, Winter (2016), an invariance principle is stated for a class of strong Markov processes on tree-like metric measure spaces. It is shown that if the underlying spaces converge Gromov vaguely, then the processes converge in the sense of finite dimensional distributions. Further, if the underlying spaces converge Gromov-Hausdorff vaguely, then the processes converge weakly in path space. In this paper we systematically introduce and study the Gromov-vague and the Gromov-Hausdorff-vague topology on the space of equivalence classes of metric boundedly finite measure spaces. The latter topology is closely related to the Gromov-Hausdorff-Prohorov metric which is defined on different equivalence classes of metric measure spaces. We explain the necessity of these two topologies via several examples, and close the gap between them. That is, we show that convergence in Gromov-vague topology implies convergence in Gromov-Hausdorff-vague topology if and only if the so-called lower mass-bound property is satisfied. Furthermore, we prove and disprove Polishness of several spaces of metric measure spaces in the topologies mentioned above (summarized in Figure~1). As an application, we consider the Galton-Watson tree with critical offspring distribution of finite variance conditioned to not get extinct, and construct the so-called Kallenberg-Kesten tree as the weak limit in Gromov-Hausdorff-vague topology when the edge length are scaled down to go to zero.

preprint2014arXiv

Random Walks in I.I.D. Random Environment on Cayley Trees

We consider the random walk in an \emph{i.i.d.} random environment on the infinite $d$-regular tree for $d \geq 3$. We consider the tree as a Cayley graph of free product of finitely many copies of $\Zbold$ and $\Zbold_2$ and define the i.i.d. environment as invariant under the action of this group. Under a mild non-degeneracy assumption we show that the walk is always transient.

preprint2012arXiv

Systems of branching, annihilating, and coalescing particles

This paper studies systems of particles following independent random walks and subject to annihilation, binary branching, coalescence, and deaths. In the case without annihilation, such systems have been studied in our 2005 paper "Branching-coalescing particle systems". The case with annihilation is considerably more difficult, mainly as a consequence of the non-monotonicity of such systems and a more complicated duality. Nevertheless, we show that adding annihilation does not significantly change the long-time behavior of the process and in fact, systems with annihilation can be obtained by thinning systems without annihilation.

preprint2011arXiv

Brownian motion on R trees

The real trees form a class of metric spaces that extends the class of trees with edge lengths by allowing behavior such as infinite total edge length and vertices with infinite branching degree. We use Dirichlet form methods to construct Brownian motion on any given locally compact $R$-tree {$(T,r)$} equipped with a Radon measure $ν$ {on $(T,{\mathcal B}(T))$}. We specify a criterion under which the Brownian motion is recurrent or transient. For compact recurrent $R$-trees we provide bounds on the mixing time. In this revised version, assumption (A3) for an $R$-tree has been removed.

preprint1999arXiv

On a singular semilinear elliptic boundary value problem and the boundary Harnack principle

We consider the singular boundary-value problem Δu = f(u) in D; u|_dD= phi, where 1. D is a bounded C^2-domain of R^d, d >= 3 2. f: (0,1) -> (0,1) is a locally Hölder continuous function such that f(u) -> 1 as u -> 0 at the rate u^{-α}, for some αin (0,1), 3. and phi is a positive continuous function satisfying certain growth assumptions. We show existence of solutions bounded below by a positive harmonic function, which are smooth in D and continuous in D-bar. Such solutions are shown to satisfy a boundary Harnack principle. Probabilistic techniques are used in proving the main results.