A unified framework for change point detection in high-dimensional linear models

Abstract: In recent years, change point detection for high dimensional data has become increasingly important in many scientific fields. Most literature develop a variety of separate methods designed for specified models (e.g. mean shift model, vector auto-regressive model, graphical model). In this paper, we provide a unified framework for structural break detection which is suitable for a large class of models. Moreover, the proposed algorithm automatically achieves consistent parameter estimates during the change point detection process, without the need for refitting the model. Specifically, we introduce a three-step procedure. The first step utilizes the block segmentation strategy combined with a fused lasso based estimation criterion, leads to significant computational gains without compromising the statistical accuracy in identifying the number and location of the structural breaks. This procedure is further coupled with hard-thresholding and exhaustive search steps to consistently estimate the number and location of the break points. The strong guarantees are proved on both the number of estimated change points and the rates of convergence of their locations. The consistent estimates of model parameters are also provided. The numerical studies provide further support of the theory and validate its competitive performance for a wide range of models. The developed algorithm is implemented in the R package LinearDetect.