Catalog.VC.EpsilonApproximationBound

Verification

Lemma

Let \(X\) be a finite set of \(n\) points, let \(\mathcal{S}\) be a set system of VC-dimension (Definition VCDimension) at most \(d\) on \(X\), and let \(r \ge 2\). Then there exists a \(\frac{1}{r}\)-approximation (Definition EpsilonApproximation) \(Y\) for \((X, \mathcal{S})\) of size \[|Y| \le C(d)\, r^2 \log r,\] where \(C(d)\) is a constant depending only on \(d\).

Review notes

Matoušek Lemma 5.13.

The constant \(C\) is quantified before the ground-set type \(\alpha\), ensuring it depends only on the VC-dimension bound \(d\).

The proof uses repeated halving with random coloring (the “random coloring lemma”): starting from \(Y_0 = X\), each step halves \(|Y_i|\) while accumulating error \(\varepsilon_i = O(\sqrt{\ln n_i / n_i})\) using Catalog.VC.ShatterFunctionLemma. Stopping at \(|Y_\ell| < C r^2 \log r\) gives cumulative error \(\le 1/r\).

The random coloring lemma itself is not a separate catalog entry; it will be proved as a helper within the Full.lean of this entry during Phase 5.

Catalog/VC/EpsilonApproximationBound/Contract.lean (full)

1import Catalog.VC.VCDimension.Contract
2import Catalog.VC.EpsilonApproximation.Contract
3import Mathlib.Analysis.SpecialFunctions.Log.Basic
4import Mathlib.Analysis.SpecialFunctions.Pow.Real
5
6namespace Catalog.VC.EpsilonApproximationBound
7
8/-- For any finite set family of VC-dimension at most `d`, and `r ≥ 2`,
9 there exists a `(1/r)`-approximation of size `O(r² log r)`.
10 The constant `C` depends only on `d`. (Lemma 5.13) -/
11axiom epsilonApproxBound (d : ℕ) : ∃ C : ℝ, 0 < C ∧
12 ∀ (α : Type*) [DecidableEq α] [Fintype α] (𝒜 : Finset (Finset α)),
13 𝒜.vcDim ≤ d →
14 ∀ (r : ℝ), 2 ≤ r →
15 ∃ Y : Finset α, Catalog.VC.EpsilonApproximation.IsEpsilonApprox 𝒜 (1 / r) Y ∧
16 (Y.card : ℝ) ≤ C * r ^ 2 * Real.log r
17
18end Catalog.VC.EpsilonApproximationBound
19