arXiv Statistics ML

Sparse Separable Factor Analysis in the Complex Domain with an Application to Local Field Potential Data

The paper introduces Sparse Separable Factor Analysis (SSFA), a latent factor model designed for complex-valued arrays that preserves amplitude and phase information. SSFA models each mode’s covariance with a low‑rank Hermitian factor structure plus a diagonal residual, applying element‑wise lasso penalties to achieve interpretable, phase‑preserving loadings via complex soft‑thresholding. The method is validated through simulations showing improved covariance estimation over vectorization approaches and applied to local field potential data from mice to compare separability across brain region, frequency, and time, as well as to impute missing recordings due to electrode misplacement.