G-optimal design 2026-10-14
A G-optimal design minimizes the maximum design sensitivity function over the full design region. Thus it minimizes the worst variance of a fitted regression mean, excluding the separate noise variance of a new observation. The sensitivity average is , so its supremum is at least .
Let and let an approximate experimental design specify the proportions of observations allocated to points of the design region. Its normalized information matrix of an experimental design is
For independent equal-variance observations realizing those proportions, , and the least-squares estimator has covariance matrix . A D-optimal design maximizes , equivalently minimizing the determinant of this covariance at fixed . A G-optimal design minimizes the largest variance of a fitted regression mean over the design region, equivalently
where is the design sensitivity function. This is the variance of the estimated mean multiplied by , not the variance of a new noisy observation.
For continuous regressors spanning a -dimensional parameter space on a compact design region, the general equivalence theorem for optimal design states that, among approximate designs with nonsingular information matrices, the following are equivalent: being a D-optimal design, being a G-optimal design, and
At every support point of an optimal design, . To see the criterion, the sensitivity average is , so the supremum is at least . Adding an infinitesimal allocation at has directional derivative for . At a D-optimum each derivative is nonpositive. Conversely, if all sensitivities are at most , the tangent bound for the concave function shows that no competing design increases it. A nonsingular D-optimum exists by the spanning assumption and compactness of the information-matrix set, so the smallest possible G-value is also . Equality at support points follows from the average. The theorem refers to the full approximate-design class; constrained integer allocations or mandated augmentations require separate comparison.
For the linear mean , take . Equal replication at the four corners gives
All odd corner sums and the sum of vanish, while each squared regressor sum is . If is the mean of the observations at , , the least-squares normal equations give
In particular the intercept is the average of the four cell means, and each slope is the average of its sign-weighted cell means. Independence and equal error variance suffice for this covariance formula; normal errors are not needed for it.
The normalized corner design has , so its sensitivity is
with equality at all four corners. Since , the general equivalence theorem for optimal design proves that the equally weighted corner design is D-optimal and G-optimal.
For the augmentation, all added observations share the regressor . The enlarged design matrix satisfies
By the matrix determinant lemma,
For the permitted nine points, the determinant is at the center, at an edge midpoint and at a corner. Therefore
All four corners tie for the best mandated single-point augmentation. This is optimality among the specified augmented designs, not unrestricted D-optimality with observations: the resulting normalized determinant is , whereas equal corner proportions have determinant one. The restriction that the extra runs all occur at one point is what prevents recovering equal proportions.