Stability of the scattering transform for deformations with minimal regularity

Abstract: Within the mathematical analysis of deep convolutional neural networks, the wavelet scattering transform introduced by St\'ephane Mallat is a unique example of how the ideas of multiscale analysis can be combined with a cascade of modulus nonlinearities to build a nonexpansive, translation invariant signal representation with provable geometric stability properties, namely Lipschitz continuity to the action of small $C^2$ diffeomorphisms - a remarkable result for both theoretical and practical purposes, inherently depending on the choice of the filters and their arrangement into a hierarchical architecture. In this note, we further investigate the intimate relationship between the scattering structure and the regularity of the deformation in the H\"older regularity scale $C^\alpha$, $\alpha >0$. We are able to precisely identify the stability threshold, proving that stability is still achievable for deformations of class $C^{\alpha}$, $\alpha>1$, whereas instability phenomena can occur at lower regularity levels modelled by $C^\alpha$, $0\le \alpha <1$. While the behaviour at the threshold given by Lipschitz (or even $C^1$) regularity remains beyond reach, we are able to prove a stability bound in that case, up to $\varepsilon$ losses.