arXiv:2512.00397stat.MLcs.LG2025-12被引 1

用再生核希尔伯特空间解析树模型,揭示其理论优势与可解释性。

An RKHS Perspective on Tree Ensembles

  • 构建基于随机分叉的树集成核函数,建立理论分析框架
  • 证明随机森林预测是惩罚经验风险的唯一最小化解
  • 提出新可视化方法与变量重要性指标,提升模型可解释性

随机森林和梯度提升是表格数据监督学习中最有效的算法之一,均属于基于树的集成方法,通过聚合多个随机回归树进行预测。本文从再生核希尔伯特空间(RKHS)视角,对这类方法进行理论分析,聚焦于随机回归树生成的随机划分所构建的RKHS。我们建立了随机森林核的基本性质,包括有界性、连续性和普遍性,并证明随机森林预测器可被表征为该RKHS中惩罚经验风险泛函的唯一最小化者,从而为集成学习提供变分解释。进一步将此视角拓展至Dombry和Duchamps提出的梯度提升连续时间形式,发现其对应于由随机森林核诱导的希尔伯特流形上的梯度流。该框架的关键特征在于核与希尔伯特空间几何均依赖数据,为树集成模型的强大经验性能提供了理论解释。最后,我们通过引入基于随机森林核的核主成分分析,提升了集成模型的可解释性,并提出一种新的几何变量重要性度量(GVI)。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Random Forests and Gradient Boosting are among the most effective algorithms for supervised learning on tabular data. Both belong to the class of tree-based ensemble methods, where predictions are obtained by aggregating many randomized regression trees. In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework for analyzing such methods through Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces (RKHSs) constructed on tree ensembles -- more precisely, on the random partitions generated by randomized regression trees. We establish fundamental analytical properties of the resulting Random Forest kernel, including boundedness, continuity, and universality, and show that a Random Forest predictor can be characterized as the unique minimizer of a penalized empirical risk functional in this RKHS, providing a variational interpretation of ensemble learning. We further extend this perspective to the continuous-time formulation of Gradient Boosting introduced by Dombry and Duchamps, and demonstrate that it corresponds to a gradient flow on a Hilbert manifold induced by the Random Forest RKHS. A key feature of this framework is that both the kernel and the RKHS geometry are data-dependent, offering a theoretical explanation for the strong empirical performance of tree-based ensembles. Finally, we illustrate the practical potential of this approach by introducing a kernel principal component analysis built on the Random Forest kernel, which enhances the interpretability of ensemble models, as well as GVI, a new geometric variable importance criterion.

树集成核方法可解释性理论分析

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