Convex and Nonsmooth Optimization

Sharpness and well-conditioning of nonsmooth convex formulations in statistical signal recovery

  • Lijun Ding
  • Alex L. Wang
    • Categories Nonsmooth Optimization, Optimization in Data Science, Statistics Tags , , , , ,

    \(\) We study a sample complexity vs. conditioning tradeoff in modern signal recovery problems where convex optimization problems are built from sampled observations. We begin by introducing a set of condition numbers related to sharpness in \(\ell_p\) or Schatten-p norms (\(p\in[1,2]\)) based on nonsmooth reformulations of a class of convex optimization problems, including sparse recovery, … Read more

    Provably Faster Gradient Descent via Long Steps

  • Benjamin Grimmer
    • Categories Convex Optimization, Semi-definite Programming Tags , , , , , ,

    This work establishes provably faster convergence rates for gradient descent in smooth convex optimization via a computer-assisted analysis technique. Our theory allows nonconstant stepsize policies with frequent long steps potentially violating descent by analyzing the overall effect of many iterations at once rather than the typical one-iteration inductions used in most first-order method analyses. We … Read more

    Variational Theory and Algorithms for a Class of Asymptotically Approachable Nonconvex Problems

  • Hanyang Li
  • Ying Cui
    • Categories Nonlinear Optimization, Nonsmooth Optimization Tags , , ,

    We investigate a class of composite nonconvex functions, where the outer function is the sum of univariate extended-real-valued convex functions and the inner function is the limit of difference-of-convex functions. A notable feature of this class is that the inner function can be merely lower semicontinuous instead of continuously differentiable. It covers a range of … Read more

    A new single-layer inverse-free fixed-time dynamical system for absolute value equations

  • Xin Han
    • Categories Complementarity and Variational Inequalities, Nonsmooth Optimization Tags , , ,

    In this technical note, a novel single-layer inverse-free fixed-time dynamical system (SIFDS) is proposed to address absolute value equations. The proposed SIFDS directly employs coefficient matrix and absolute value equation function that aims at circumventing matrix inverse operation and achieving fixed-time convergence. The equilibria of the proposed SIFDS is proved to be the unique solution … Read more

    Behavior of Newton-type methods near critical solutions of nonlinear equations with semismooth derivatives

  • Andreas Fischer
  • Alexey F. Izmailov
  • Mario Jelitte
    • Categories Nonlinear Optimization, Nonsmooth Optimization Tags , ,

    Having in mind singular solutions of smooth reformulations of complementarity problems, arising unavoidably when the solution in question violates strict complementarity, we study the behavior of Newton-type methods near singular solutions of nonlinear equations, assuming that the operator of the equation possesses a strongly semismooth derivative, but is not necessarily twice differentiable. These smoothness restrictions … Read more

    Searching for Optimal Per-Coordinate Step-sizes with Multidimensional Backtracking

  • Frederik Kunstner
  • Mark Schmidt
    • Categories Convex Optimization, Nonlinear Optimization Tags , ,

    The backtracking line-search is an effective technique to automatically tune the step-size in smooth optimization. It guarantees similar performance to using the theoretically optimal step-size. Many approaches have been developed to instead tune per-coordinate step-sizes, also known as diagonal preconditioners, but none of the existing methods are provably competitive with the optimal per-coordinate stepsizes. We … Read more

    Adaptive Importance Sampling Based Surrogation Methods for Bayesian Hierarchical Models, via Logarithmic Integral Optimization

  • Ziyu He
  • Junyi Liu
  • Jong-Shi Pang
    • Categories Constrained Nonlinear Optimization, Nonsmooth Optimization, Stochastic Programming Tags , ,

    We explore Maximum a Posteriori inference of Bayesian Hierarchical Models (BHMs) with intractable normalizers, which are increasingly prevalent in contemporary applications and pose computational challenges when combined with nonconvexity and nondifferentiability. To address these, we propose the Adaptive Importance Sampling-based Surrogation method, which efficiently handles nonconvexity and nondifferentiability while improving the sampling approximation of the … Read more

    Asynchronous Iterations in Optimization: New Sequence Results and Sharper Algorithmic Guarantees

  • Hamid Reza Feyzmahdavian
  • Mikael Johansson
    • Categories Convex Optimization, Global Optimization, Parallel Algorithms Tags , , , ,

    We introduce novel convergence results for asynchronous iterations that appear in the analysis of parallel and distributed optimization algorithms. The results are simple to apply and give explicit estimates for how the degree of asynchrony impacts the convergence rates of the iterates. Our results shorten, streamline and strengthen existing convergence proofs for several asynchronous optimization … Read more

    Learning in Inverse Optimization: Incenter Cost, Augmented Suboptimality Loss, and Algorithms

  • Pedro Zattoni Scroccaro
  • Bilge Atasoy
  • Peyman Mohajerin Esfahani
    • Categories Convex and Nonsmooth Optimization Tags ,

    In Inverse Optimization (IO), an expert agent solves an optimization problem parametric in an exogenous signal. From a learning perspective, the goal is to learn the expert’s cost function given a dataset of signals and corresponding optimal actions. Motivated by the geometry of the IO set of consistent cost vectors, we introduce the “incenter” concept, … Read more

    The complexity of first-order optimization methods from a metric perspective

  • Adrian Lewis
  • Tonghua Tian
    • Categories Nonsmooth Optimization, Other Topics Tags , , , , ,

    A central tool for understanding first-order optimization algorithms is the Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz inequality. Standard approaches to such methods rely crucially on this inequality to leverage sufficient decrease conditions involving gradients or subgradients. However, the KL property fundamentally concerns not subgradients but rather “slope”, a purely metric notion. By highlighting this view, and avoiding any use of … Read more