Dual Spectral Projected Gradient Method for Generalized Log-det Semidefinite Programming

Log-det semidefinite programming (SDP) problems are optimization problems that often arise from Gaussian graphic models. A log-det SDP problem with an l1-norm term has been examined in many methods, and the dual spectral projected gradient (DSPG) method by Nakagaki et al.~in 2020 is designed to efficiently solve the dual problem of the log-det SDP by … Read more

An inertial projective splitting method for the sum of two maximal monotone operators

We propose a projective splitting type method to solve the problem of finding a zero of the sum of two maximal monotone operators. Our method considers inertial and relaxation steps, and also allows inexact solutions of the proximal subproblems within a relative-error criterion.We study the asymptotic convergence of the method, as well as its iteration-complexity. … Read more

Second-Order Contingent Derivatives: Computation and Application

It is known that second-order (Studniarski) contingent derivatives can be used to compute tangents to the solution set of a generalized equation when standard (first-order) regularity conditions are absent, but relaxed (second-order) regularity conditions are fulfilled. This fact, roughly speaking, is only relevant in practice as long as the computation of second-order contingent derivatives itself … Read more

Double-proximal augmented Lagrangian methods with improved convergence condition

In this paper, we consider a family of linearly constrained convex minimization problems whose objective function is not necessarily smooth. A basic double-proximal augmented Lagrangian method (DP-ALM) is developed, which enjoys a flexible dual stepsize and a proximal subproblem with relatively smaller proximal parameter. By a novel prediction-correction reformulation for the proposed DP-ALM and by … Read more

Universal subgradient and proximal bundle methods for convex and strongly convex hybrid composite optimization

This paper develops two parameter-free methods for solving convex and strongly convex hybrid composite optimization problems, namely, a composite subgradient type method and a proximal bundle type method. Both functional and stationary complexity bounds for the two methods are established in terms of the unknown strong convexity parameter. To the best of our knowledge, the … Read more

Generalized Ellipsoids

We introduce a family of symmetric convex bodies called generalized ellipsoids of degree \(d\) (GE-\(d\)s), with ellipsoids corresponding to the case of \(d=0\). Generalized ellipsoids (GEs) retain many geometric, algebraic, and algorithmic properties of ellipsoids. We show that the conditions that the parameters of a GE must satisfy can be checked in strongly polynomial time, … Read more

An Adaptive Proximal ADMM for Nonconvex Linearly-Constrained Composite Programs

This paper develops an adaptive Proximal Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (P-ADMM) for solving linearly-constrained, weakly convex, composite optimization problems. This method is adaptive to all problem parameters, including smoothness and weak convexity constants. It is assumed that the smooth component of the objective is weakly convex and possibly nonseparable, while the non-smooth component is … Read more

Black-box Optimization Algorithms for Regularized Least-squares Problems

We consider the problem of optimizing the sum of a smooth, nonconvex function for which derivatives are unavailable, and a convex, nonsmooth function with easy-to-evaluate proximal operator. Of particular focus is the case where the smooth part has a nonlinear least-squares structure. We adapt two existing approaches for derivative-free optimization of nonsmooth compositions of smooth … Read more

On the strength of Burer’s lifted convex relaxation to quadratic programming with ball constraints

We study quadratic programs with m ball constraints, and the strength of a lifted convex relaxation for it recently proposed by Burer (2024). Burer shows this relaxation is exact when m=2. For general m, Burer (2024) provides numerical evidence that this lifted relaxation is tighter than the Kronecker product based Reformulation Linearization Technique (RLT) inequalities … Read more

A combinatorial approach to Ramana’s exact dual for semidefinite programming

Thirty years ago, in a seminal paper Ramana derived an exact dual for Semidefinite Programming (SDP). Ramana’s dual has the following remarkable features: i) it assumes feasibility of the primal, but it does not make any regularity assumptions, such as strict feasibility ii) its optimal value is the same as the optimal value of the … Read more