{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,24]],"date-time":"2026-10-24T00:05:50Z","timestamp":1792800350730,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"Institute of Mathematical Statistics","issue":"5","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Ann. Statist."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>We provide nonasymptotic rates of convergence of the Wasserstein Generative Adversarial networks (WGAN) estimator. We build neural networks classes representing the generators and discriminators which yield a GAN that achieves the minimax optimal rate for estimating a certain probability measure \u03bc with support in Rp. The probability \u03bc is considered to be the push forward of the Lebesgue measure on the d-dimensional torus Td by a map g\u22c6:Td\u2192Rp of smoothness \u03b2+1. Measuring the error with the \u03b3-H\u00f6lder Integral Probability Metric (IPM), we obtain up to logarithmic factors, the minimax optimal rate O(n\u2212\u03b2+\u03b32\u03b2+d\u2228n\u221212) where n is the sample size, \u03b2 determines the smoothness of the target measure \u03bc, \u03b3 is the smoothness of the IPM (\u03b3=1 is the Wasserstein case) and d\u2264p is the intrinsic dimension of \u03bc. In the process, we derive a sharp interpolation inequality between H\u00f6lder IPMs. This novel result of theory of functions spaces generalizes classical interpolation inequalities to the case where the measures involved have densities on different manifolds.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1214\/24-aos2430","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,21]],"date-time":"2024-11-21T01:27:43Z","timestamp":1732152463000},"page":"2167-2193","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Wasserstein generative adversarial networks are minimax optimal distribution estimators"],"prefix":"10.1214","volume":"52","author":[{"given":"Arthur","family":"St\u00e9phanovitch","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"D\u00e9partement de Math\u00e9matiques et Applications, \u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure, Universit\u00e9 PSL, CNRS"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eddie","family":"Aamari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"D\u00e9partement de Math\u00e9matiques et Applications, \u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure, Universit\u00e9 PSL, CNRS"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cl\u00e9ment","family":"Levrard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institut de recherche math\u00e9matique de Rennes, Universit\u00e9 de Rennes, CNRS"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"108","reference":[{"key":"10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>DIVOL, V.<\/small> (2022). Measure estimation on manifolds: An optimal transport approach. <i>Probab. Theory Related Fields<\/i> <b>183<\/b> 581\u2013647.","DOI":"10.1007\/s00440-022-01118-z"},{"key":"25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>M\u00dcLLER, A.<\/small> (1997). Integral probability metrics and their generating classes of functions. <i>Adv. in Appl. Probab.<\/i> <b>29<\/b> 429\u2013443.","DOI":"10.2307\/1428011"},{"key":"12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>GENOVESE, C. R.<\/small>, <small>PERONE-PACIFICO, M.<\/small>, <small>VERDINELLI, I.<\/small> and <small>WASSERMAN, L.<\/small> (2012). Manifold estimation and singular deconvolution under Hausdorff loss. <i>Ann. Statist.<\/i> <b>40<\/b> 941\u2013963.","DOI":"10.1214\/12-AOS994"},{"key":"11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>FEDERER, H.<\/small> (1959). Curvature measures. <i>Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.<\/i> <b>93<\/b> 418\u2013491.","DOI":"10.2307\/1993504"},{"key":"1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>Aamari, E.<\/small> and <small>Levrard, C.<\/small> (2019). Nonasymptotic rates for manifold, tangent space and curvature estimation. <i>Ann. Statist.<\/i> <b>47<\/b> 177\u2013204.","DOI":"10.1214\/18-AOS1685"},{"key":"13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>Gin\u00e9, E.<\/small> and <small>Nickl, R.<\/small> (2016). <i>Mathematical Foundations of Infinite-Dimensional Statistical Models<\/i>. <i>Cambridge Series in Statistical and Probabilistic Mathematics<\/i> <b>40<\/b>. Cambridge Univ. Press, New York.","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9781107337862"},{"key":"33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>Villani, C.<\/small> (2009). <i>Optimal Transport<\/i>: <i>Old and New<\/i>. <i>Grundlehren der Mathematischen Wissenschaften<\/i> [<i>Fundamental Principles of Mathematical Sciences<\/i>] <b>338<\/b>. Springer, Berlin.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-71050-9"},{"key":"31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>TANG, R.<\/small> and <small>YANG, Y.<\/small> (2023). Minimax rate of distribution estimation on unknown submanifolds under adversarial losses. <i>Ann. Statist.<\/i> <b>51<\/b> 1282\u20131308.","DOI":"10.1214\/23-aos2291"},{"key":"2","unstructured":"<small>ARJOVSKY, M.<\/small>, <small>CHINTALA, S.<\/small> and <small>BOTTOU, L.<\/small> (2017). Wasserstein generative adversarial networks. In <i>Proceedings of the<\/i> 34<i>th International Conference on Machine Learning<\/i> (D. Precup and Y. W. Teh, eds.) <b>70<\/b> 214\u2013223. PMLR."},{"key":"3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>BELOMESTNY, D.<\/small>, <small>NAUMOV, A.<\/small>, <small>PUCHKIN, N.<\/small> and <small>SAMSONOV, S.<\/small> (2023). Simultaneous approximation of a smooth function and its derivatives by deep neural networks with piecewise-polynomial activations. <i>Neural Netw.<\/i> <b>161<\/b> 242\u2013253.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neunet.2023.01.035"},{"key":"4","unstructured":"<small>CHAE, M.<\/small> (2022). Rates of convergence for nonparametric estimation of singular distributions using generative adversarial networks. Preprint. Available at arXiv:<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2202.02890\">2202.02890<\/a>."},{"key":"5","unstructured":"<small>CHEN, M.<\/small>, <small>LIAO, W.<\/small>, <small>ZHA, H.<\/small> and <small>ZHAO, T.<\/small> (2020). Distribution approximation and statistical estimation guarantees of generative adversarial networks. Preprint. Available at arXiv:<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2002.03938\">2002.03938<\/a>."},{"key":"6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>DAUBECHIES, I.<\/small> (1988). Orthonormal bases of compactly supported wavelets. <i>Comm. Pure Appl. Math.<\/i> <b>41<\/b> 909\u2013996.","DOI":"10.1002\/cpa.3160410705"},{"key":"7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>DAUBECHIES, I.<\/small>, <small>DEVORE, R.<\/small>, <small>DYM, N.<\/small>, <small>FAIGENBAUM-GOLOVIN, S.<\/small>, <small>KOVALSKY, S. Z.<\/small>, <small>LIN, K.-C.<\/small>, <small>PARK, J.<\/small>, <small>PETROVA, G.<\/small> and <small>SOBER, B.<\/small> (2023). Neural network approximation of refinable functions. <i>IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory<\/i> <b>69<\/b> 482\u2013495.","DOI":"10.1109\/tit.2022.3199601"},{"key":"8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>DAUBECHIES, I.<\/small> and <small>LAGARIAS, J. C.<\/small> (1991). Two-scale difference equations. I. Existence and global regularity of solutions. <i>SIAM J. Math. Anal.<\/i> <b>22<\/b> 1388\u20131410.","DOI":"10.1137\/0522089"},{"key":"9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>DE RYCK, T.<\/small>, <small>LANTHALER, S.<\/small> and <small>MISHRA, S.<\/small> (2021). On the approximation of functions by tanh neural networks. <i>Neural Netw.<\/i> <b>143<\/b> 732\u2013750.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neunet.2021.08.015"},{"key":"14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"<small>GONZ\u00c1LEZ-PRIETO, \u00c1.<\/small>, <small>MOZO, A.<\/small>, <small>TALAVERA, E.<\/small> and <small>G\u00d3MEZ-CANAVAL, S.<\/small> (2021). Dynamics of Fourier modes in torus generative adversarial networks. <i>Mathematics<\/i> <b>9<\/b> 325.","DOI":"10.3390\/math9040325"},{"key":"15","unstructured":"<small>GOODFELLOW, I. J.<\/small>, <small>POUGET-ABADIE, J.<\/small>, <small>MIRZA, M.<\/small>, <small>XU, B.<\/small>, <small>WARDE-FARLEY, D.<\/small>, <small>OZAIR, S.<\/small>, <small>COURVILLE, A.<\/small> and <small>BENGIO, Y.<\/small> (2014). Generative adversarial nets. In <i>Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems<\/i> (Z. Ghahramani, M. Welling, C. Cortes, N. D. Lawrence and K. Q. Weinberger, eds.) <b>27<\/b> 2672\u20132680. Curran Associates, Red Hook, NY."},{"key":"16","unstructured":"<small>GULRAJANI, I.<\/small>, <small>AHMED, F.<\/small>, <small>ARJOVSKY, M.<\/small>, <small>DUMOULIN, V.<\/small> and <small>COURVILLE, A. C.<\/small> (2017). Improved training of Wasserstein GANs. In <i>Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems<\/i> (I. Guyon, U. von Luxburg, S. Bengio, H. Wallach, R. Fergus, S. Vishwanathan and R. Garnett, eds.) <b>30<\/b> 5767\u20135777. Curran Associates, Red Hook, NY."},{"key":"17","unstructured":"<small>HAROSKE, D. D.<\/small> (2007). <i>Envelopes and Sharp Embeddings of Function Spaces<\/i>. <i>Chapman &amp; Hall\/CRC Research Notes in Mathematics<\/i> <b>437<\/b>. CRC Press\/CRC, Boca Raton, FL."},{"key":"18","unstructured":"<small>KARRAS, T.<\/small>, <small>AITTALA, M.<\/small>, <small>LAINE, S.<\/small>, <small>H\u00c4RK\u00d6NEN, E.<\/small>, <small>HELLSTEN, J.<\/small>, <small>LEHTINEN, J.<\/small> and <small>AILA, T.<\/small> (2021). Alias-free generative adversarial networks. Preprint. Available at arXiv:<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2106.12423\">2106.12423<\/a>."},{"key":"19","unstructured":"<small>LI, C.-L.<\/small>, <small>CHANG, W.-C.<\/small>, <small>CHENG, Y.<\/small>, <small>YANG, Y.<\/small> and <small>P\u00d3CZOS, B.<\/small> (2017). Mmd gan: Towards deeper understanding of moment matching network."},{"key":"20","unstructured":"<small>LIANG, T.<\/small> (2018). How well generative adversarial networks learn distributions: A nonparametric view."},{"key":"21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"<small>LIANG, T.<\/small> (2021). How well generative adversarial networks learn distributions. <i>J. Mach. Learn. Res.<\/i> <b>22<\/b> Paper No. 228, 41 pp.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.3714011"},{"key":"22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"<small>LIU, Y.<\/small>, <small>ZHOU, Y.<\/small>, <small>LIU, X.<\/small>, <small>DONG, F.<\/small>, <small>WANG, C.<\/small> and <small>WANG, Z.<\/small> (2019). Wasserstein gan-based small-sample augmentation for new-generation artificial intelligence: A case study of cancer-staging data in biology. <i>Engineering<\/i> <b>5<\/b> 156\u2013163.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eng.2018.11.018"},{"key":"23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"<small>LUO, Y.<\/small> and <small>LU, B.-L.<\/small> (2018). Eeg data augmentation for emotion recognition using a conditional Wasserstein gan. In 2018 40<i>th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society<\/i> (<i>EMBC<\/i>) 2535\u20132538. IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/EMBC.2018.8512865"},{"key":"24","unstructured":"<small>MROUEH, Y.<\/small>, <small>LI, C.-L.<\/small>, <small>SERCU, T.<\/small>, <small>RAJ, A.<\/small> and <small>CHENG, Y.<\/small> (2018). Sobolev GAN. In <i>International Conference on Learning Representations<\/i>."},{"key":"26","unstructured":"<small>PUCHKIN, N.<\/small>, <small>SAMSONOV, S.<\/small>, <small>BELOMESTNY, D.<\/small>, <small>MOULINES, E.<\/small> and <small>NAUMOV, A.<\/small> (2024). Rates of convergence for density estimation with generative adversarial networks. <i>J. Mach. Learn. Res.<\/i> <b>25<\/b> Paper No. [29], 47 pp."},{"key":"27","unstructured":"<small>SCHREUDER, N.<\/small>, <small>BRUNE, V.-E.<\/small> and <small>DALALYAN, A. S.<\/small> (2021). Statistical guarantees for generative models without domination. In <i>Algorithmic Learning Theory<\/i>. <i>Proc. Mach. Learn. Res<\/i>. (<i>PMLR<\/i>) <b>132<\/b> 21."},{"key":"28","unstructured":"<small>SINGH, S.<\/small>, <small>UPPAL, A.<\/small>, <small>LI, B.<\/small>, <small>LI, C.-L.<\/small>, <small>ZAHEER, M.<\/small> and <small>POCZOS, B.<\/small> (2018). Nonparametric density estimation under adversarial losses. In <i>Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems<\/i> (S. Bengio, H. Wallach, H. Larochelle, K. Grauman, N. Cesa-Bianchi and R. Garnett, eds.) <b>31<\/b>. Curran Associates, Red Hook, NY."},{"key":"29","unstructured":"<small>STANCZUK, J.<\/small>, <small>ETMANN, C.<\/small>, <small>KREUSSER, L. M.<\/small> and <small>SCH\u00d6NLIEB, C.-B.<\/small> (2021). Wasserstein gans work because they fail (to approximate the Wasserstein distance). Preprint. Available at arXiv:<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2103.01678\">2103.01678<\/a>."},{"key":"30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"<small>ST\u00c9PHANOVITCH, A.<\/small>, <small>AAMARI, E.<\/small> and <small>LEVRARD, C.<\/small> (2024). Supplement to \u201cWasserstein generative adversarial networks are minimax optimal distribution estimators.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1214\/24-AOS2430SUPP\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1214\/24-AOS2430SUPP<\/a>","DOI":"10.1214\/24-AOS2430"},{"key":"32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"<small>TSYBAKOV, A. B.<\/small> (2004). <i>Introduction to Nonparametric Estimation<\/i>. <i>Springer Series in Statistics<\/i> Springer, New York.","DOI":"10.1007\/b13794"},{"key":"34","unstructured":"<small>VONDRICK, C.<\/small>, <small>PIRSIAVASH, H.<\/small> and <small>TORRALBA, A.<\/small> (2016). Generating videos with scene dynamics. In <i>Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems<\/i> (D. Lee, M. Sugiyama, U. von Luxburg, I. Guyon and R. Garnett, eds.) <b>29<\/b> 613\u2013621. Curran Associates, Red Hook, NY."},{"key":"35","unstructured":"<small>YU, L.<\/small>, <small>ZHANG, W.<\/small>, <small>WANG, J.<\/small> and <small>YU, Y.<\/small> (2017). SeqGAN: Sequence generative adversarial nets with policy gradient. In <i>Proceedings of the Thirty-First AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence<\/i> 2852\u20132858. AAAI Press, Menlo Park."}],"container-title":["The Annals of Statistics"],"original-title":[],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,7]],"date-time":"2026-10-07T17:27:41Z","timestamp":1791394061000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/projecteuclid.org\/journals\/annals-of-statistics\/volume-52\/issue-5\/Wasserstein-generative-adversarial-networks-are-minimax-optimal-distribution-estimators\/10.1214\/24-AOS2430.full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,1]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,1]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1214\/24-aos2430","relation":{},"ISSN":["0090-5364","2168-8966"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0090-5364","type":"print"},{"value":"2168-8966","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,1]]}}}