Explicit integral representations and quantitative bounds for two-layer ReLU networks

We prove a depth hierarchy for ReLU neural networks in which every additional ReLU layer can save exponentially many neurons. For all $k\geq2$, we construct a globally $[0,1]$-valued, $1$-Lipschitz function realized by a depth-$(k+1)$ network of width $\mathcal{O}(d^4)$, whereas any depth-$k$ network with unrestricted weights and width at most $\frac{2^d}{2d(k-1)}$ has squared $L_2$ error at least $1/24$ under an absolutely continuous distribution supported at exponential distance from the origin. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first exponential hierarchy across all adjacent fixed depths, and the first exponential separation for ReLU networks between two fixed depths whose shallower network has depth at least $3$. The lower bound also immediately yields the corresponding hierarchy for exact computation. Moreover, the case $k=2$ gives a compactly supported separation between depths $3$ and $2$ with unrestricted shallow-network weights, answering a question raised by Safran, Eldan, and Shamir (2019). The distribution used in our construction nevertheless has all its mass at exponential radius, placing the hierarchy outside the regularity regime in which such a separation would imply major threshold-circuit lower bounds. We also prove an exact separation for a more regular target, which is globally $[0,1]$-valued and $\mathcal{O}(\sqrt d)$-Lipschitz and maps the unit hypercube onto $[0,1]$. It is computed by a polynomial-width depth-$4$ network, whereas any depth-$3$ network agreeing with it on the unit hypercube requires exponentially many first-layer neurons, even with unrestricted weights.

We study the depth required by ReLU networks to exactly represent piecewise linear functions, focusing specifically on the maximum function. This problem has recently received significant attention in both the ML and TCS literature. We prove that $\max_n(x)=\max\{x_1,\ldots,x_n\}$ is exactly representable with two hidden layers for every $n\leq 12$. Previously, this was only known up to $n\leq5$ [Bakaev, Brunck, Hertrich, Stade, Yehudayoff, STOC'26]. We obtain our constructions through an exact computer-assisted search within a space of candidate solutions: After a symmetry reduction, we obtain a finite system of linear equations over $\mathbb{Q}$ such that any solution yields a valid representation of the maximum function. The resulting constructions have a structured first hidden layer, which enables recursive substitution into deeper networks. This yields an exact ReLU representation of $\max_n$ with at most $\lceil \log_6(n/2) \rceil+1$ hidden layers. Consequently, every continuous piecewise-linear function on $\mathbb{R}^d$ admits an exact representation with at most $\lceil\log_6((d+1)/2)\rceil+1$ hidden layers; in particular, two hidden layers suffice for $d\leq 11$. Again, these results improve upon [Bakaev, Brunck, Hertrich, Stade, Yehudayoff, STOC'26], who proved analogous logarithmic bounds with base three.

We establish two related but logically distinct results for shallow ReLU$^k$ neural networks on the unit sphere $\SS^d$. First, for an arbitrary set of inner neural-network parameters, the best $\mathcal{L}^2(\SS^d)$ approximation of a fixed target function with smoothness $r>\tfrac{d+2k+1}{2}$ admits an asymptotic lower bound given by a constant multiple of $n^{-1/2}\underline{h}^{k+1/2}$, where $\underline{h}$ denotes the antipodal separation distance of the normalized inner-parameter set. This lower bound depends explicitly on the parameter configuration through $\underline{h}$ and applies without additional assumptions on the parameters. Second, for antipodally quasi-uniform parameters, $\underline{h}\simeq n^{-1/d}$, and the lower bound establishes the exact saturation order $n^{-\frac{d+2k+1}{2d}}$ for such parameter families: a target function with regularity greater than $\frac{d+2k+1}{2}$ and satisfying the required parity condition can be approximated at this rate, whereas approximation at any strictly faster rate forces the target function to be zero. Our results therefore place linearized neural-network approximation within the classical saturation framework and show that, although ReLU$^k$ network spaces can outperform finite elements of the same degree, this advantage is intrinsically limited.