The positivity of the neural tangent kernel

Abstract

The Neural tangent kernel (NTK) has emerged as a fundamental concept in the study of wide neural networks. In particular, it is known that the positivity of the NTK is directly related to the memorization capacity of sufficiently wide networks, i.e., to the possibility of reaching zero loss in training via gradient descent. Here we will improve on previous works and obtain a sharp result concerning the positivity of the NTK of feedforward networks of any depth. More precisely, we will show that, for any nonpolynomial activation function, the NTK is strictly positive definite. Our results are based on a novel characterization of polynomial functions, which is of independent interest.