The Replica Symmetric Approximation of the Analogical Neural Network

In this paper we continue our investigation of the analogical neural network, by introducing and studying its replica symmetric approximation in the absence of external fields. Bridging the neural network to a bipartite spin-glass, we introduce and apply a new interpolation scheme to its free energy, that naturally extends the interpolation via cavity fields or stochastic perturbations from the usual spin glass case to these models. While our methods allow the formulation of a fully broken replica symmetry scheme, in this paper we limit ourselves to the replica symmetric case, in order to give the basic essence of our interpolation method. The order parameters in this case are given by the assumed averages of the overlaps for the original spin variables, and for the new Gaussian variables. As a result, we obtain the free energy of the system as a sum rule, which, at least at the replica symmetric level, can be solved exactly, through a self-consistent mini-max variational principle. The so gained replica symmetric approximation turns out to be exactly correct in the ergodic region, where it coincides with the annealed expression for the free energy, and in the low density limit of stored patterns. Moreover, in the spin glass limit it gives the correct expression for the replica symmetric approximation in this case. We calculate also the entropy density in the low temperature region, where we find that it becomes negative, as expected for this kind of approximation. Interestingly, in contrast with the case where the stored patterns are digital, no phase transition is found in the low temperature limit, as a function of the density of stored patterns.