Scalar soundness for phased ReLU relaxations (over ℝ) #
This file proves the operator-level soundness facts used by phased α-CROWN at ReLU nodes:
phaseRelaxUpperScalaris an upper bound onrelufor anyx ∈ [l,u].phaseRelaxLowerScalaris a lower bound onrelufor anyx ∈ [l,u](with0 ≤ α ≤ 1).
The phase cases (inactive/active) are exact, and the unstable case reduces to the
standard CROWN (upper) and α-CROWN (lower) relaxations.
An accepted inactive phase has nonpositive upper endpoint.
An accepted active phase has nonnegative lower endpoint.
The phase-aware upper relaxation is sound for any phase the interval bounds actually admit.
The consistency hypothesis is what makes this true: on a claimed-inactive neuron the relaxation is
the constant zero line, which only dominates relu because u ≤ 0 was checked first.
The phase-aware lower relaxation is sound, for every slope a ∈ [0, 1].
The free a is the α of α-CROWN: on an unstable neuron any slope in the unit interval gives a valid
lower line, and the search is allowed to pick whichever one tightens the final bound.