Survey Descent: A Multipoint Generalization of Gradient Descent for Nonsmooth Optimization

For strongly convex objectives that are smooth, the classical theory of gradient descent ensures linear convergence relative to the number of gradient evaluations. An analogous nonsmooth theory is challenging. Even when the objective is smooth at every iterate, the corresponding local models are unstable and the number of cutting planes invoked by traditional remedies is … Read more

Analysis non-sparse recovery for non-convex relaxed $\ell_q$ minimization

This paper studies construction of signals, which are sparse or nearly sparse with respect to a tight frame $D$ from underdetermined linear systems. In the paper, we propose a non-convex relaxed $\ell_q(0 ArticleDownload View PDF

Modeling Design and Control Problems Involving Neural Network Surrogates

We consider nonlinear optimization problems that involve surrogate models represented by neural net-works. We demonstrate first how to directly embed neural network evaluation into optimization models, highlight a difficulty with this approach that can prevent convergence, and then characterize stationarity of such models. We then present two alternative formulations of these problems in the specific … Read more

Global Complexity Bound of a Proximal ADMM for Linearly-Constrained Nonseperable Nonconvex Composite Programming

This paper proposes and analyzes a dampened proximal alternating direction method of multipliers (DP.ADMM) for solving linearly-constrained nonconvex optimization problems where the smooth part of the objective function is nonseparable. Each iteration of DP.ADMM consists of: (ii) a sequence of partial proximal augmented Lagrangian (AL) updates, (ii) an under-relaxed Lagrange multiplier update, and (iii) a … Read more

An Accelerated Inexact Dampened Augmented Lagrangian Method for Linearly-Constrained Nonconvex Composite Optimization Problems

This paper proposes and analyzes an accelerated inexact dampened augmented Lagrangian (AIDAL) method for solving linearly-constrained nonconvex composite optimization problems. Each iteration of the AIDAL method consists of: (i) inexactly solving a dampened proximal augmented Lagrangian (AL) subproblem by calling an accelerated composite gradient (ACG) subroutine; (ii) applying a dampened and under-relaxed Lagrange multiplier update; … Read more

MPCC Strategies for Nonsmooth NLPs

This paper develops solution strategies for large-scale nonsmooth optimization problems. We transform nonsmooth programs into equivalent mathematical programs with complementarity constraints (MPCCs), and then employ NLP-based strategies for their so- lution. For this purpose, two NLP formulations based on complementarity relaxations are put forward, one of which applies a parameterized formulation and operates with a … Read more

Inertial-relaxed splitting for composite monotone inclusions

In a similar spirit of the extension of the proximal point method developed by Alves et al. \cite{alvegm20}, we propose in this work an Inertial-Relaxed primal-dual splitting method to address the problem of decomposing the minimization of the sum of three convex functions, one of them being smooth, and considering a general coupling subspace. A … Read more

Comparing Solution Paths of Sparse Quadratic Minimization with a Stieltjes Matrix

This paper studies several solution paths of sparse quadratic minimization problems as a function of the weighing parameter of the bi-objective of estimation loss versus solution sparsity. Three such paths are considered: the “L0-path” where the discontinuous L0-function provides the exact sparsity count; the “L1-path” where the L1-function provides a convex surrogate of sparsity count; … Read more

A Local MM Subspace Method for Solving Constrained Variational Problems in Image Recovery

This article introduces a new Penalized Majorization-Minimization Subspace algorithm (P-MMS) for solving smooth, constrained optimization problems. In short, our approach consists of embedding a subspace algorithm in an inexact exterior penalty procedure. The subspace strategy, combined with a Majoration-Minimization step-size search, takes great advantage of the smoothness of the penalized cost function, while the penalty … Read more

Subgradient methods near active manifolds: saddle point avoidance, local convergence, and asymptotic normality

Nonsmooth optimization problems arising in practice, whether in signal processing, statistical estimation, or modern machine learning, tend to exhibit beneficial smooth substructure: their domains stratify into “active manifolds” of smooth variation, which common proximal algorithms “identify” in finite time. Identification then entails a transition to smooth dynamics, and permits the use of second-order information for … Read more