Learning Decision-Sufficient Representations for Linear Optimization

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2603.18551v1
• Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2026 07:07:48 GMT
• Title: Learning Decision-Sufficient Representations for Linear Optimization
• Abstract summary: Recent work by Bennouna et al. provides an exact geometric characterization of sufficient decision datasets (SDDs) via an intrinsic decision-relevant dimension $dstar$.<n>We establish hardness results showing that computing $dstar$ is NP-hard and deciding whether a dataset is globally sufficient is coNP-hard.<n>We propose a cumulative algorithm that aggregates decision-relevant directions across samples, yielding a stable compression scheme of size at most $dstar$.
• Score: 2.867517731896504
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: We study how to construct compressed datasets that suffice to recover optimal decisions in linear programs with an unknown cost vector $c$ lying in a prior set $\mathcal{C}$. Recent work by Bennouna et al. provides an exact geometric characterization of sufficient decision datasets (SDDs) via an intrinsic decision-relevant dimension $d^\star$. However, their algorithm for constructing minimum-size SDDs requires solving mixed-integer programs. In this paper, we establish hardness results showing that computing $d^\star$ is NP-hard and deciding whether a dataset is globally sufficient is coNP-hard, thereby resolving a recent open problem posed by Bennouna et al. To address this worst-case intractability, we introduce pointwise sufficiency, a relaxation that requires sufficiency for an individual cost vector. Under nondegeneracy, we provide a polynomial-time cutting-plane algorithm for constructing pointwise-sufficient decision datasets. In a data-driven regime with i.i.d.\ costs, we further propose a cumulative algorithm that aggregates decision-relevant directions across samples, yielding a stable compression scheme of size at most $d^\star$. This leads to a distribution-free PAC guarantee: with high probability over the training sample, the pointwise sufficiency failure probability on a fresh draw is at most $\tilde{O}(d^\star/n)$, and this rate is tight up to logarithmic factors. Finally, we apply decision-sufficient representations to contextual linear optimization, obtaining compressed predictors with generalization bounds scaling as $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{d^\star/n})$ rather than $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{d/n})$, where $d$ is the ambient cost dimension.

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