Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/iii/paper-205/3/a/solution

With the normalization used here, the Lasso estimator minimizes
Optimality at relative to the feasible point gives
The columns of are centered, so and the centered noise produces the same score function as . Expanding the two squared norms and cancelling the noise norm yields the standard Basic inequality for the Lasso
Thus the displayed inequality in the question has a factor-of-two typo: its left side should be , or both terms on its right should be doubled. No scaling of the usual squared-error Lasso objective produces the three displayed coefficients simultaneously. Parts b and d explicitly ask us to use the stated inequality, so their requested constants follow from that stated version.

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