A rate optimal procedure for sparse signal recovery under dependence

The paper considers the problem of identifying the sparse different components between two high dimensional means of column-wise dependent random vectors. We show that the dependence can be utilized to lower the identification boundary for signal recovery. Moreover, an optimal convergence rate for the marginal false non-discovery rate (mFNR) is established under the dependence. The convergence rate is faster than the optimal rate without dependence. To recover the sparse signal bearing dimensions, we propose a Dependence-Assisted Thresholding and Excising (DATE) procedure, which is shown to be rate optimal for the mFNR with the marginal false discovery rate (mFDR) controlled at a pre-specified level. Simulation studies and case study are given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed signal identification procedure.