Sparse approximation property and stable recovery of sparse signals from noisy measurements

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new sparse approximation property for measurement matrices, weaker than restricted isometry, which guarantees stable recovery of compressible signals from noisy measurements using -minimization.

Contribution

The paper defines the sparse approximation property and demonstrates its effectiveness for stable recovery of signals, expanding the theoretical understanding beyond existing properties.

Findings

Sparse approximation property is a weaker condition than restricted isometry.

Stable recovery is guaranteed if the property holds with -minimization.

The property is necessary and sufficient for stable recovery under certain conditions.

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a sparse approximation property of order $s$ for a measurement matrix ${\bf A}$: $$\|{\bf x}_s\|_2\le D \|{\bf A}{\bf x}\|_2+ \beta \frac{\sigma_s({\bf x})}{\sqrt{s}} \quad {\rm for\ all} \ {\bf x},$$ where ${\bf x}_s$ is the best $s$-sparse approximation of the vector ${\bf x}$ in $\ell^2$, $\sigma_s({\bf x})$ is the $s$-sparse approximation error of the vector ${\bf x}$ in $\ell^1$, and $D$ and $\beta$ are positive constants. The sparse approximation property for a measurement matrix can be thought of as a weaker version of its restricted isometry property and a stronger version of its null space property. In this paper, we show that the sparse approximation property is an appropriate condition on a measurement matrix to consider stable recovery of any compressible signal from its noisy measurements. In particular, we show that any compressible signalcan be stably recovered from its noisy measurements via solving an $\ell^1$-minimization problem if the measurement matrix has the sparse approximation property with $\beta\in (0,1)$, and conversely the measurement matrix has the sparse approximation property with $\beta\in (0,\infty)$ if any compressible signal can be stably recovered from its noisy measurements via solving an $\ell^1$-minimization problem.