REVISION AND PRACTICE

The complete JL proof

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Learning goal: Connect the complete probability argument into one chain.

Conditions and notation

  • Exponentiate, apply Markov, factor by independence, and use the Gaussian MGF.
  • Control both tails for one pair, then all pairs with the union bound.
  • For fixed failure probability, the target dimension grows like log⁡n\log n divided by ε2\varepsilon ^{2}.
  1. Map: , independent.

    For points x, y, put ; linearity gives .

  2. One measurement: , independent across rows (W1 L8).
  3. Rescale: and (W1 L9).
  4. Same event: (W1 L9).
  5. Chernoff: for , (Markov, independence, MGF; W2 Lesson 1).
  6. Simplify: the Taylor step gives , and λ = ε/4 gives (W2 Lesson 1).
  7. Both tails: the too-small side is bounded the same way, so one pair fails with probability (W2 Lesson 2).
  8. All pairs: union bound over fewer than n² pairs gives (W1 L5, W2 Lesson 2).
  9. Choose k: set that ≤ δ, so .

    With probability ≥ 1 − δ every pairwise squared distance lies within . ∎

Using it in practice

  1. Pick ε (allowed distortion) and δ (allowed failure chance), then compute .

    Check that k is well below d, otherwise there's no gain.

  2. Draw R (k × d) with independent N(0,1) entries once, and set .
  3. Replace every data point x by Mx (cost: about k·d multiplications per point).
  4. Run your distance-based algorithm (nearest neighbours, k-means, …) on the k-dimensional points.

    Each distance now costs k instead of d.

Key points to remember

  • Exponentiate, apply Markov, factor by independence, and use the Gaussian MGF.
  • Control both tails for one pair, then all pairs with the union bound.
  • For fixed failure probability, the target dimension grows like log⁡n\log n divided by ε2\varepsilon ^{2}.
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