On the Step Size of Symmetric Alternating Directions Method of Multipliers

The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is an application of the Douglas-Rachford splitting method; and the symmetric version of ADMM which updates the Lagrange multiplier twice at each iteration is an application of the Peaceman-Rachford splitting method. Sometimes the symmetric ADMM works empirically; but theoretically its convergence is not guaranteed. It was recently found … Read more

On the Iteration Complexity of Some Projection Methods for Monotone Linear Variational Inequalities

Projection type methods are among the most important methods for solving monotone linear variational inequalities. In this note, we analyze the iteration complexity for two projection methods and accordingly establish their worst-case O(1/t) convergence rates measured by the iteration complexity in both the ergodic and nonergodic senses, where t is the iteration counter. Our analysis … Read more

Block-wise Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers with Gaussian Back Substitution for Multiple-block Convex Programming

We consider the linearly constrained convex minimization model with a separable objective function which is the sum of m functions without coupled variables, and discuss how to design an efficient algorithm based on the fundamental technique of splitting the augmented Lagrangian method (ALM). Our focus is the specific big-data scenario where m is huge. A … Read more

Block-wise Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers for Multiple-block Convex Programming and Beyond

The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is a benchmark for solving a linearly constrained convex minimization model with a two-block separable objective function; and it has been shown that its direct extension to a multiple-block case where the objective function is the sum of more than two functions is not necessarily convergent. For the … Read more

Application of the Strictly Contractive Peaceman-Rachford Splitting Method to Multi-block Separable Convex Programming

Recently, a strictly contractive Peaceman- Rachford splitting method (SC-PRSM) was proposed to solve a convex minimization model with linear constraints and a separable objective function which is the sum of two functions without coupled variables. We show by an example that the SC-PRSM cannot be directly extended to the case where the objective function is … Read more

On the Direct Extension of ADMM for Multi-block Separable Convex Programming and Beyond: From Variational Inequality Perspective

When the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is extended directly to a multi-block separable convex minimization model whose objective function is in form of more than two functions without coupled variables, it was recently shown that the convergence is not guaranteed. This fact urges to develop efficient algorithms that can preserve completely the numerical … Read more

On the Proximal Jacobian Decomposition of ALM for Multiple-block Separable Convex Minimization Problems and its Relationship to ADMM

The augmented Lagrangian method (ALM) is a benchmark for solving convex minimization problems with linear constraints. When the objective function of the model under consideration is representable as the sum of some functions without coupled variables, a Jacobian or Gauss-Seidel decomposition is often implemented to decompose the ALM subproblems so that the functions’ properties could … Read more

The Direct Extension of ADMM for Multi-block Convex Minimization Problems is Not Necessarily Convergent

The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is now widely used in many fields, and its convergence was proved when two blocks of variables are alternatively updated. It is strongly desirable and practically valuable to extend ADMM directly to the case of a multi-block convex minimization problem where its objective function is the sum of … Read more

On full Jacobian decomposition of the augmented Lagrangian method for separable convex programming

The augmented Lagrangian method (ALM) is a benchmark for solving the convex minimization problem with linear constraints. We consider the special case where the objective is in form of the sum of m functions without coupled variables. For solving this separable convex programming model, it is usually required to decompose the ALM subproblem at each … Read more

Convergence rate and iteration complexity on the alternating direction method of multipliers with a substitution procedure for separable convex programming

Recently, in [17] we have showed the first possibility of combining the Douglas-Rachford alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) with a Gaussian back substitution procedure for solving a convex minimization model with a general separable structure. This paper is a further study on theoretical aspects of this theme. We first derive a general algorithmic framework … Read more