Nonlinear conjugate gradient for smooth convex functions

The method of nonlinear conjugate gradients (NCG) is widely used in practice for unconstrained optimization, but it satisfies weak complexity bounds at best when applied to smooth convex functions. In contrast, Nesterov’s accelerated gradient (AG) method is optimal up to constant factors for this class. However, when specialized to quadratic function, conjugate gradient is optimal … Read more

A single potential governing convergence of conjugate gradient, accelerated gradient and geometric descent

Nesterov’s accelerated gradient (AG) method for minimizing a smooth strongly convex function $f$ is known to reduce $f({\bf x}_k)-f({\bf x}^*)$ by a factor of $\epsilon\in(0,1)$ after $k=O(\sqrt{L/\ell}\log(1/\epsilon))$ iterations, where $\ell,L$ are the two parameters of smooth strong convexity. Furthermore, it is known that this is the best possible complexity in the function-gradient oracle model of … Read more

A unified convergence bound for conjugate gradient and accelerated gradient

Nesterov’s accelerated gradient method for minimizing a smooth strongly convex function $f$ is known to reduce $f(\x_k)-f(\x^*)$ by a factor of $\eps\in(0,1)$ after $k\ge O(\sqrt{L/\ell}\log(1/\eps))$ iterations, where $\ell,L$ are the two parameters of smooth strong convexity. Furthermore, it is known that this is the best possible complexity in the function-gradient oracle model of computation. The … Read more

CONJUGATE GRADIENT WITH SUBSPACE OPTIMIZATION

In this paper we present a variant of the conjugate gradient (CG) algorithm in which we invoke a subspace minimization subproblem on each iteration. We call this algorithm CGSO for “conjugate gradient with subspace optimization”. It is related to earlier work by Nemirovsky and Yudin. We apply the algorithm to solve unconstrained strictly convex problems. … Read more