arXiv Machine Learning
1d ago

High-Dimensional Partial Least Squares: Spectral Analysis and Fundamental Limitations

The paper investigates Partial Least Squares (PLS) in high-dimensional settings, focusing on a model where two data matrices share a low-rank latent structure plus individual-specific components. By analyzing the singular vectors of the cross‑covariance matrix with random matrix theory, the authors derive asymptotic characterizations of how well the estimated latent directions align with the true ones. They show that the PLS variant based on Singular Value Decomposition (PLS‑SVD) outperforms separate principal component analysis in detecting the common latent subspace, while also identifying regimes where PLS‑SVD behaves counter‑intuitively or reaches fundamental limits.

By Victor L\'eger, Florent Chatelain