Minimum Trace Factor Analysis Research Articles

Asymptotic behaviors of semidefinite programming with a covariance perturbation

In this paper, we study asymptotic behaviors of semidefinite programming with a covariance perturbation. We obtain some moderate deviations, Cramer-type moderate deviations and a law of the iterated logarithm of estimates of the respective optimal value and optimal solutions when the covariance matrix is estimated by its sample covariance. As an example, we also apply the main results to the Minimum Trace factor Analysis.

Statistical inference of semidefinite programming

In this paper we consider covariance structural models with which we associate semidefinite programming problems. We discuss statistical properties of estimates of the respective optimal value and optimal solutions when the ‘true’ covariance matrix is estimated by its sample counterpart. The analysis is based on perturbation theory of semidefinite programming. As an example we consider asymptotics of the so-called minimum trace factor analysis. We also discuss the minimum rank matrix completion problem and its SDP counterparts.

Factor Analysis From Quadratic Sampling

Factor analysis decomposition, i.e., decomposition of a covariance matrix as a sum of a low-rank positive semidefinite matrix and a diagonal matrix is an important problem in a variety of areas, such as signal processing, machine learning, system identification, and statistical inference. In this letter, the focus is on computing the factor analysis decomposition from a set of quadratic (or symmetric rank-one) measurements of a covariance matrix. Commonly used minimum trace factor analysis heuristic can be adapted to solve this problem when all the measurements are available. However, the resulting convex program is not suitable for processing large-scale or streaming data. Therefore, this letter presents a low-complexity iterative algorithm, which recovers the unknowns through a series of rank-one updates. The iterative algorithm performs better than the convex program when only a finite number of data snapshots are available.

Comparing the Effects of Different Smoothing Algorithms on the Assessment of Dimensionality of Ordered Categorical Items with Parallel Analysis.

The analysis of polychoric correlations via principal component analysis and exploratory factor analysis are well-known approaches to determine the dimensionality of ordered categorical items. However, the application of these approaches has been considered as critical due to the possible indefiniteness of the polychoric correlation matrix. A possible solution to this problem is the application of smoothing algorithms. This study compared the effects of three smoothing algorithms, based on the Frobenius norm, the adaption of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and on minimum-trace factor analysis, on the accuracy of various variations of parallel analysis by the means of a simulation study. We simulated different datasets which varied with respect to the size of the respondent sample, the size of the item set, the underlying factor model, the skewness of the response distributions and the number of response categories in each item. We found that a parallel analysis and principal component analysis of smoothed polychoric and Pearson correlations led to the most accurate results in detecting the number of major factors in simulated datasets when compared to the other methods we investigated. Of the methods used for smoothing polychoric correlation matrices, we recommend the algorithm based on minimum trace factor analysis.

Diagonal and Low-Rank Matrix Decompositions, Correlation Matrices, and Ellipsoid Fitting

In this paper we establish links between, and new results for, three problems that are not usually considered together. The first is a matrix decomposition problem that arises in areas such as statistical modeling and signal processing: given a matrix $X$ formed as the sum of an unknown diagonal matrix and an unknown low rank positive semidefinite matrix, decompose $X$ into these constituents. The second problem we consider is to determine the facial structure of the set of correlation matrices, a convex set also known as the elliptope. This convex body, and particularly its facial structure, plays a role in applications from combinatorial optimization to mathematical finance. The third problem is a basic geometric question: given points $v_1,v_2,...,v_n\in \R^k$ (where $n > k$) determine whether there is a centered ellipsoid passing \emph{exactly} through all of the points. We show that in a precise sense these three problems are equivalent. Furthermore we establish a simple sufficient condition on a subspace $U$ that ensures any positive semidefinite matrix $L$ with column space $U$ can be recovered from $D+L$ for any diagonal matrix $D$ using a convex optimization-based heuristic known as minimum trace factor analysis. This result leads to a new understanding of the structure of rank-deficient correlation matrices and a simple condition on a set of points that ensures there is a centered ellipsoid passing through them.

Positive Definiteness via Off-diagonal Scaling of a Symmetric Indefinite Matrix

Indefinite symmetric matrices that are estimates of positive definite population matrices occur in a variety of contexts such as correlation matrices computed from pairwise present missing data and multinormal based theory for discretized variables. This note describes a methodology for scaling selected off-diagonal rows and columns of such a matrix to achieve positive definiteness. As a contrast to recently developed ridge procedures, the proposed method does not need variables to contain measurement errors. When minimum trace factor analysis is used to implement the theory, only correlations that are associated with Heywood cases are shrunk.

The asymptotic bias of minimum trace factor analysis, with applications to the greatest lower bound to reliability

In theory, the greatest lower bound (g.l.b.) to reliability is the best possible lower bound to the reliability based on single test administration. Yet the practical use of the g.l.b. has been severely hindered by sampling bias problems. It is well known that the g.l.b. based on small samples (even a sample of one thousand subjects is not generally enough) may severely overestimate the population value, and statistical treatment of the bias has been badly missing. The only results obtained so far are concerned with the asymptotic variance of the g.l.b. and of its numerator (the maximum possible error variance of a test), based on first order derivatives and the asumption of multivariate normality. The present paper extends these results by offering explicit expressions for the second order derivatives. This yields a closed form expression for the asymptotic bias of both the g.l.b. and its numerator, under the assumptions that the rank of the reduced covariance matrix is at or above the Ledermann bound, and that the nonnegativity constraints on the diagonal elements of the matrix of unique variances are inactive. It is also shown that, when the reduced rank is at its highest possible value (i.e., the number of variables minus one), the numerator of the g.l.b. is asymptotically unbiased, and the asymptotic bias of the g.l.b. is negative. The latter results are contrary to common belief, but apply only to cases where the number of variables is small. The asymptotic results are illustrated by numerical examples.

A quasi-newton method for minimum trace factor analysis

In the past several algorithms have been given to solve the minimum trace factor analysis (MTFA) and the constrained minimum trace factor analysis (CMTFA) problems. Some of these algorithms, depending on the initial value, may converge to points that are not the solution to the above problems, some converge linearly, and some are quadratically convergent but are somewhat difficult to implement. In this paper we propose modified Han–Powell algorithms to solve the MTFA and CMTFA problems. The modifications deal with the problem of multiple eigenvalues. The proposed algorithms are globally convergent and their speed is locally superlinear. We also give a modified Han–Powell algorithm to solve the weighted minimum trace factor analysis (WMTFA) problem. This method is also locally superlinear and is simpler to implement as compared to methods proposed earlier. Four examples are given to show the performance of the proposed algorithms. More generally, our experience with these algorithms shows that, starting at arbitrary points, they converge to the solution in a small number of iterations and reasonable time.

Algorithms for Minimum Trace Factor Analysis

Minimum trace factor analysis is a commonly used technique for providing the greatest lower bound to reliability, and a modification of the basic problem involves the maximization of this greatest lower bound with respect to suitably chosen weights. The underlying mathematical problems can be expressed as optimization problems with eigenvalue constraints, and it is well known that these can be nondifferentiable in the presence of multiple eigenvalues. In this paper, some recent developments in methods for working with constraints of this kind are exploited to provide methods which are second-order independent of the eigenvalue multiplicities. The effectiveness of the algorithms is demonstrated on some test problems.

Minimum rank and minimum trace of covariance matrices

This paper considers some mathematical aspects of minimum trace factor analysis (MTFA). The uniqueness of an optimal point of MTFA is proved and necessary and sufficient conditions for a point x to be optimal are established. Finally, some results about the connection between MTFA and the classical minimum rank factor analysis will be presented.

Weighted minimum trace factor analysis

In the last decade several authors discussed the so-called minimum trace factor analysis (MTFA), which provides the greatest lower bound (g.l.b.) to reliability. However, the MTFA fails to be scale free. In this paper we propose to solve the scale problem by maximization of the g.l.b. as the function of weights. Closely related to the primal problem of the g.l.b. maximization is the dual problem. We investigate the primal and dual problems utilizing convex analysis techniques. The asymptotic distribution of the maximal g.l.b. is obtained provided the population covariance matrix satisfies sone uniqueness and regularity assumptions. Finally we outline computational algorithms and consider numerical examples.

Rank-reducibility of a symmetric matrix and sampling theory of minimum trace factor analysis

One of the intriguing questions of factor analysis is the extent to which one can reduce the rank of a symmetric matrix by only changing its diagonal entries. We show in this paper that the set of matrices, which can be reduced to rankr, has positive (Lebesgue) measure if and only ifr is greater or equal to the Ledermann bound. In other words the Ledermann bound is shown to bealmost surely the greatest lower bound to a reduced rank of the sample covariance matrix. Afterwards an asymptotic sampling theory of so-called minimum trace factor analysis (MTFA) is proposed. The theory is based on continuous and differential properties of functions involved in the MTFA. Convex analysis techniques are utilized to obtain conditions for differentiability of these functions.

Computational aspects of the greatest lower bound to the reliability and constrained minimum trace factor analysis

In the last decade several algorithms for computing the greatest lower bound to reliability or the constrained minimum-trace communality solution in factor analysis have been developed. In this paper convergence properties of these methods are examined. Instead of using Lagrange multipliers a new theorem is applied that gives a sufficient condition for a symmetric matrix to be Gramian. Whereas computational pitfalls for two methods suggested by Woodhouse and Jackson can be constructed it is shown that a slightly modified version of one method suggested by Bentler and Woodward can safely be applied to any set of data. A uniqueness proof for the solution desired is offered.