Smoothness Adaptivity in Constant-Depth Neural Networks: Optimal Rates via Smooth Activations

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.19691v2
• Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2026 11:33:36 GMT
• Title: Smoothness Adaptivity in Constant-Depth Neural Networks: Optimal Rates via Smooth Activations
• Authors: Yuhao Liu, Zilin Wang, Lei Wu, Shaobo Zhang,
• Abstract summary: We study approximation and statistical properties of neural networks with smooth activations for learning functions in the Sobolev space.<n>We prove that constant-depth networks equipped with smooth activations achieve smoothness adaptivity.<n>We identify activation smoothness as a fundamental mechanism, complementary to depth, for achieving optimal rates over Sobolev function classes.
• Score: 11.1057367593811
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Smooth activation functions are ubiquitous in modern deep learning, yet their theoretical advantages over non-smooth counterparts remain poorly understood. In this work, we study both approximation and statistical properties of neural networks with smooth activations for learning functions in the Sobolev space $W^{s,\infty}([0,1]^d)$ with $s>0$. We prove that constant-depth networks equipped with smooth activations achieve smoothness adaptivity: increasing width alone suffices to attain the minimax-optimal approximation and estimation error rates (up to logarithmic factors). In contrast, for non-smooth activations such as ReLU, smoothness adaptivity is fundamentally limited by depth: the attainable approximation order is bounded by depth, and higher-order smoothness requires proportional depth growth. These results identify activation smoothness as a fundamental mechanism, complementary to depth, for achieving optimal rates over Sobolev function classes. Technically, our analysis is based on a multi-scale approximation framework that yields explicit neural network approximators with controlled parameter norms and model size. This complexity control ensures statistical learnability under empirical risk minimization (ERM) and avoids the impractical $\ell^0$-sparsity constraints commonly required in prior analyses.

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