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A piecewise linear regression-path algorithm which starts at zero, activates a predictor with maximal absolute residual score, and moves in a direction that decreases all active absolute scores equally until another predictor ties them. With $G=X^{\mathsf{T}}X/n$ and active correlation signs $s_A$, the coefficient direction is $G_{AA}^{-1}{s}_A$. Ordinary LAR does not drop a predictor when its coefficient crosses zero; sign compatibility of LAR and Lasso characterizes when its path also obeys the Lasso KKT conditions.

With the centred data, no intercept is needed. Use the Lasso normalizationWrite $r=Y-Xb$ and $c=X^{\mathsf{T}}r/n$. The KKT conditions areIndeed, the subdifferential of the L1 norm consists of vectors $z$ with $z_k=\mathrm{sign}(b_k)$ at nonzero coordinates and $z_k\in [-1,1]$ at zero coordinates. The subgradient optimality condition is $0=-X^{\mathsf{T}}(Y-Xb)/n+\lambda z$. convexity makes these conditions sufficient as well as necessary. These are the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions for the Lasso.

Here is a correlation-parameter version of least angle regression. Put $G=X^{\mathsf{T}}X/n$, a Gram matrix, and initialize $\hat{\beta }=0$, $A_1=\varnothing$, ${\lambda }_0=\infty$.

The two hitting formulas come from $c_j(t)-h{a}_j=\pm (t-h)$. This is LAR hitting time. Active variables are not dropped if a coefficient crosses zero: that is the distinction between this algorithm and the modified Lasso path algorithm.

The active Gram matrix is an invertible matrix under the assumed unique positive hits. Inductively, a candidate column in the span of the current active columns would have $c_j(\lambda )$ equal to a fixed linear combination of their correlations, hence proportional to $\lambda$ on the whole segment. Its ratio $|c_j(\lambda )|/\lambda$ could not first reach one at a positive interior knot. Thus every uniquely entering column adds a new independent direction. This also allows more predictors than observations; the algorithm stops before a dependent direction needs to be added at zero correlation.

We now prove the requested invariant. At the first positive knot the newly active correlation has magnitude ${\lambda }_1$. At a later knot the old active correlations have that knot's magnitude by induction, and the entering correlation has the same magnitude by the hitting rule. Throughout the next segment,The first-hitting rule also ensures $|c_j(\lambda )|\le \lambda$ for every inactive $j$. If no positive hit remains, this inequality continues to zero, where all correlations vanish. Consequently, on every printed closed segment,This is the LAR active correlation invariant.

If active nonzero coefficients have the same signs as their residual correlations, the active equalities are precisely the nonzero-coordinate Lasso KKT conditions. An active coefficient which is zero also satisfies the zero-coordinate KKT conditions, because its correlation is within $[-\lambda ,\lambda ]$. Inactive coefficients are zero and satisfy those same inequalities by construction. Thus every point of the least angle regression path is a Lasso minimizer for $\lambda >0$. Under the stated uniqueness assumption,This proves the desired implication, in fact under the weaker sign compatibility of LAR and Lasso condition requiring agreement only at nonzero coefficients.

There is an endpoint convention in the printed sufficient condition. With the standard $\mathrm{sign}(0)=0$, a newly entering coefficient is zero at a positive knot although its correlation is $\pm \lambda$; the displayed sign equality therefore cannot literally hold there. At the final zero knot the correlation signs are zero as well. Interpret sign compatibility on positive open segments, or in the nonzero-coefficient/subgradient sense just proved. The KKT conditions already handle zero coefficients at knots, and no equality of solution paths at $\lambda =0$ is needed for the requested conclusion.