Sensitivity of geometric median to moving one point

convex optimizationgeometrystatistics

The geometric median of a finite set $S$ of points in the Euclidean plane is defined as the point $m$ for which $\sum_{s\in S} d(m,s)$ is minimized, where $d(x,y)$ is the Euclidean distance between $x$ and $y$. As long as $S$ is not colinear, the geometric median is unique.

My question is this; if you replace a point $s\in S$ with some $s'$ for which $d(s,s')<\epsilon$, will the geometric median of the new set be at most $\epsilon$ away from the geometric median of the original?

The reason I want to know is that I could use this result in order to solve the puzzle here: Algorithm for people to congregate with limited relative location information.

I have verified this is true when $|S|=3$ and $|S|=4$, where the geometric median can be described explicitly. For example, when $S$ is the set of vertices of a convex quadrilateral, it can be shown the median of $S$ is the intersection of the diagonals. This intersection moves by less than $\epsilon$ when any vertex moves by $\epsilon$.

Best Answer

False. Let $S = \{(-2,0),(-1,1/4),(1,0),(2,0)\}$. Then $m = (1,0)$ (via mathematica, or by showing $(1,0)$ is a local minimum by analyzing small perturbations). Let $s = (1,0)$ and $s' = (1,1/4)$. Now, by symmetry and uniqueness of median, the new median, $m'$, has $x$-coordinate $0$. So $|m-m'| \ge 1$.

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