# Bounds on Dimension Reduction in the Nuclear Norm

## TL;DR

This paper establishes lower bounds on the dimension required for approximate embeddings of certain matrix metric spaces, using Clifford algebra representations and quantum information theory techniques.

## Contribution

It provides explicit constructions demonstrating that low-dimensional approximations of these matrix spaces are impossible under certain conditions, highlighting fundamental limits in dimension reduction.

## Key findings

- Any approximate embedding must have dimension at least exponential in n.
- Explicit matrix constructions show tight bounds on dimension reduction.
- Uses Clifford algebra and quantum information tools for proof.

## Abstract

$ \newcommand{\schs}{\scriptstyle{\mathsf{S}}_1} $For all $n \ge 1$, we give an explicit construction of $m \times m$ matrices $A_1,\ldots,A_n$ with $m = 2^{\lfloor n/2 \rfloor}$ such that for any $d$ and $d \times d$ matrices $A'_1,\ldots,A'_n$ that satisfy \[ \|A'_i-A'_j\|_{\schs} \,\leq\, \|A_i-A_j\|_{\schs}\,\leq\, (1+\delta) \|A'_i-A'_j\|_{\schs} \] for all $i,j\in\{1,\ldots,n\}$ and small enough $\delta = O(n^{-c})$, where $c> 0$ is a universal constant, it must be the case that $d \ge 2^{\lfloor n/2\rfloor -1}$. This stands in contrast to the metric theory of commutative $\ell_p$ spaces, as it is known that for any $p\geq 1$, any $n$ points in $\ell_p$ embed exactly in $\ell_p^d$ for $d=n(n-1)/2$. Our proof is based on matrices derived from a representation of the Clifford algebra generated by $n$ anti-commuting Hermitian matrices that square to identity, and borrows ideas from the analysis of nonlocal games in quantum information theory.