In mathematics, a ridge function is any function that can be written as the composition of a univariate function with an affine transformation, that is: for some and .
Coinage of the term 'ridge function' is often attributed to B.F. Logan and L.A. Shepp.[1]
Relevance
A ridge function is not susceptible to the curse of dimensionality[clarification needed], making it an instrumental tool in various estimation problems. This is a direct result of the fact that ridge functions are constant in directions:
Let be independent vectors that are orthogonal to , such that these vectors span dimensions.
Then
for all .
In other words, any shift of in a direction perpendicular to does not change the value of .