Stochastic subgradient method converges at the rate (k^{-1/4})$ on weakly convex function

We prove that the projected stochastic subgradient method, applied to a weakly convex problem, drives the gradient of the Moreau envelope to zero at the rate $O(k^{-1/4})$. Article Download View Stochastic subgradient method converges at the rate (k^{-1/4})$ on weakly convex function

Complexity of a quadratic penalty accelerated inexact proximal point method for solving linearly constrained nonconvex composite programs

This paper analyzes the iteration-complexity of a quadratic penalty accelerated inexact proximal point method for solving linearly constrained nonconvex composite programs. More specifically, the objective function is of the form f + h where f is a differentiable function whose gradient is Lipschitz continuous and h is a closed convex function with a bounded domain. … Read more

The proximal alternating direction method of multipliers in the nonconvex setting: convergence analysis and rates

We propose two numerical algorithms for minimizing the sum of a smooth function and the composition of a nonsmooth function with a linear operator in the fully nonconvex setting. The iterative schemes are formulated in the spirit of the proximal and, respectively, proximal linearized alternating direction method of multipliers. The proximal terms are introduced through … Read more

GEP-MSCRA for computing the group zero-norm regularized least squares estimator

This paper concerns with the group zero-norm regularized least squares estimator which, in terms of the variational characterization of the zero-norm, can be obtained from a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC). By developing the global exact penalty for the MPEC, this estimator is shown to arise from an exact penalization problem that not only … Read more

An Algorithm for Piecewise Linear Optimization of Objective Functions in Abs-normal Form

In the paper [11] we derived first order (KKT) and second order (SSC) optimality conditions for functions defined by evaluation programs involving smooth elementals and absolute values. For this class of problems we showed in [12] that the natural algorithm of successive piecewise linear optimization with a proximal term (SPLOP) achieves a linear or even … Read more

”Active-set complexity” of proximal gradient: How long does it take to find the sparsity pattern?

Proximal gradient methods have been found to be highly effective for solving minimization problems with non-negative constraints or L1-regularization. Under suitable nondegeneracy conditions, it is known that these algorithms identify the optimal sparsity pattern for these types of problems in a finite number of iterations. However, it is not known how many iterations this may … Read more

Unifying abstract inexact convergence theorems and block coordinate variable metric iPiano

An abstract convergence theorem for a class of generalized descent methods that explicitly models relative errors is proved. The convergence theorem generalizes and unifies several recent abstract convergence theorems. It is applicable to possibly non-smooth and non-convex lower semi-continuous functions that satisfy the Kurdyka–Lojasiewicz (KL) inequality, which comprises a huge class of problems. Most of … Read more

Relaxing kink qualifications and proving convergence rates in piecewise smooth optimization

Abstract. In the paper [9] we derived first order (KKT) and second order (SSC) optimality conditions for functions defined by evaluation programs involving smooth elementals and absolute values. In that analysis, a key assumption on the local piecewise linearization was the Linear Independence Kink Qualification (LIKQ), a generalization of the Linear Independence Constraint Qualification (LICQ) … Read more

The nonsmooth landscape of phase retrieval

We consider a popular nonsmooth formulation of the real phase retrieval problem. We show that under standard statistical assumptions, a simple subgradient method converges linearly when initialized within a constant relative distance of an optimal solution. Seeking to understand the distribution of the stationary points of the problem, we complete the paper by proving that … Read more

Characterizing and testing subdifferential regularity for piecewise smooth objective functions

Functions defined by evaluation programs involving smooth elementals and absolute values as well as the max- and min-operator are piecewise smooth. Using piecewise linearization we derived in [7] for this class of nonsmooth functions first and second order conditions for local optimality (MIN). They are necessary and sufficient, eespectively. These generalizations of the classical KKT … Read more