An optimal first order method based on optimal quadratic averaging

In a recent paper, Bubeck, Lee, and Singh introduced a new first order method for minimizing smooth strongly convex functions. Their geometric descent algorithm, largely inspired by the ellipsoid method, enjoys the optimal linear rate of convergence. Motivated by their work, we propose a close variant that iteratively maintains a quadratic global under-estimator of the … Read more

Hankel Matrix Rank Minimization with Applications to System Identification and Realization

We introduce a flexible optimization framework for nuclear norm minimization of matrices with linear structure, including Hankel, Toeplitz and moment structures, and catalog applications from diverse fields under this framework. We discuss various first-order methods for solving the resulting optimization problem, including alternating direction methods of multipliers, proximal point algorithms and gradient projection methods. We … Read more

Guaranteed Minimum-Rank Solutions of Linear Matrix Equations via Nuclear Norm Minimization

The affine rank minimization problem consists of finding a matrix of minimum rank that satisfies a given system of linear equality constraints. Such problems have appeared in the literature of a diverse set of fields including system identification and control, Euclidean embedding, and collaborative filtering. Although specific instances can often be solved with specialized algorithms, … Read more