Universal Approximation of Operators with Transformers and Neural Integral Operators

Abstract

We study the universal approximation properties of transformers and neural integral operators for operators in Banach spaces. In particular, we show that the transformer architecture is a universal approximator of integral operators between Hölder spaces. Moreover, we show that a generalized version of neural integral operators, based on the Gavurin integral, are universal approximators of arbitrary operators between Banach spaces. Lastly, we show that a modified version of transformer, which uses Leray-Schauder mappings, is a universal approximator of operators between arbitrary Banach spaces.

15 pages. Comments are welcome! v3: Some proofs have been rewritten for clarity. References have been added to give more context to the work