Finite convergence of the inexact proximal gradient method to sharp minima

Attractive properties of subgradient methods, such as robust stability and linear convergence, has been emphasized when they are used to solve nonsmooth optimization problems with sharp minima [12, 13]. In this letter we extend the robustness results to the composite convex models and show that the basic proximal gradient algorithm under the presence of a … Read more

On the first order optimization methods in Deep Image Prior

Deep learning methods have state-of-the-art performances in many image restoration tasks. Their effectiveness is mostly related to the size of the dataset used for the training. Deep Image Prior (DIP) is an energy function framework which eliminates the dependency on the training set, by considering the structure of a neural network as an handcrafted prior … Read more

On Optimal Universal First-Order Methods for Minimizing Heterogeneous Sums

This work considers minimizing a convex sum of functions, each with potentially different structure ranging from nonsmooth to smooth, Lipschitz to non-Lipschitz. Nesterov’s universal fast gradient method provides an optimal black-box first-order method for minimizing a single function that takes advantage of any continuity structure present without requiring prior knowledge. In this paper, we show … Read more

Weighted Geometric Mean, Minimum Mediated Set, and Optimal Second-Order Cone Representation

We study optimal second-order cone representations for weighted geometric means, which turns out to be closely related to minimum mediated sets. Several lower bounds and upper bounds on the size of optimal second-order cone representations are proved. In the case of bivariate weighted geometric means (equivalently, one dimensional mediated sets), we are able to prove … Read more

The Hyperbolic Augmented Lagrangian Algorithm

The hyperbolic augmented Lagrangian algorithm (HALA) is introduced in the area of continuous optimization for solving nonlinear programming problems. Under mild assumptions, such as: convexity, Slater’s qualification and differentiability, the convergence of the proposed algorithm is proved. We also study the duality theory for the case of the hyperbolic augmented Lagrangian function. Finally, in order … Read more

Superiorization as a novel strategy for linearly constrained inverse radiotherapy treatment planning

Objective: We apply the superiorization methodology to the intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment planning problem. In superiorization, linear voxel dose inequality constraints are the fundamental modeling tool within which a feasibility-seeking projection algorithm will seek a feasible point. This algorithm is then perturbed with gradient descent steps to reduce a nonlinear objective function. Approach: Within … Read more

An Improved Unconstrained Approach for Bilevel Optimization

In this paper, we focus on the nonconvex-strongly-convex bilevel optimization problem (BLO). In this BLO, the objective function of the upper-level problem is nonconvex and possibly nonsmooth, and the lower-level problem is smooth and strongly convex with respect to the underlying variable $y$. We show that the feasible region of BLO is a Riemannian manifold. … Read more

An adaptive superfast inexact proximal augmented Lagrangian method for smooth nonconvex composite optimization problems

This work presents an adaptive superfast proximal augmented Lagrangian (AS-PAL) method for solving linearly-constrained smooth nonconvex composite optimization problems. Each iteration of AS-PAL inexactly solves a possibly nonconvex proximal augmented Lagrangian (AL) subproblem obtained by an aggressive/adaptive choice of prox stepsize with the aim of substantially improving its computational performance followed by a full Lagrangian … Read more

A single cut proximal bundle method for stochastic convex composite optimization

This paper considers optimization problems where the objective is the sum of a function given by an expectation and a closed convex composite function, and proposes stochastic composite proximal bundle (SCPB) methods for solving it. Complexity guarantees are established for them without requiring knowledge of parameters associated with the problem instance. Moreover, it is shown … Read more

The superiorization method with restarted perturbations for split minimization problems with an application to radiotherapy treatment planning

In this paper we study the split minimization problem that consists of two constrained minimization problems in two separate spaces that are connected via a linear operator that maps one space into the other. To handle the data of such a problem we develop a superiorization approach that can reach a feasible point with reduced … Read more