Preconditioning for rational approximation

In this paper, we show that minimax rational approximations can be enhanced by introducing a controlling parameter on the denominator of the rational function. This is implemented by adding a small set of linear constraints to the underlying optimization problem. The modification integrates naturally into approximation models formulated as linear programming problems. We demonstrate our … Read more

On Vectorization Strategies in Set Optimization

In this paper, we investigate solution approaches in set optimization that are based on so-called vectorization strategies. Thereby, the original set-valued problems are reformulated as multi-objective optimization problems, whose optimal solution sets approximate those of the original ones in a certain sense. We consider both infinite-dimensional and finite-dimensional vectorization approaches. In doing so, we collect … Read more

Strength of the Upper Bounds for the Edge-Weighted Maximum Clique Problem

We theoretically and computationally compare the strength of the two main upper bounds from the literature on the optimal value of the Edge-Weighted Maximum Clique Problem (EWMCP). We provide a set of instances for which the ratio between either of the two upper bounds and the optimal value of the EWMCP is unbounded. This result … Read more

Optimized methods for composite optimization: a reduction perspective

Recent advances in convex optimization have leveraged computer-assisted proofs to develop optimized first-order methods that improve over classical algorithms. However, each optimized method is specially tailored for a particular problem setting, and it is a well-documented challenge to extend optimized methods to other settings due to their highly bespoke design and analysis. We provide a general … Read more

Maximal entropy in the moment body

A moment body is a linear projection of the spectraplex, the convex set of trace-one positive semidefinite matrices. Determining whether a given point lies within a given moment body is a problem with numerous applications in quantum state estimation or polynomial optimization. This moment body membership oracle can be addressed with semidefinite programming, for which … Read more

Complexity of normalized stochastic first-order methods with momentum under heavy-tailed noise

In this paper, we propose practical normalized stochastic first-order methods with Polyak momentum, multi-extrapolated momentum, and recursive momentum for solving unconstrained optimization problems. These methods employ dynamically updated algorithmic parameters and do not require explicit knowledge of problem-dependent quantities such as the Lipschitz constant or noise bound. We establish first-order oracle complexity results for finding … Read more

First-order methods for stochastic and finite-sum convex optimization with deterministic constraints

In this paper, we study a class of stochastic and finite-sum convex optimization problems with deterministic constraints. Existing methods typically aim to find an \(\epsilon\)-expectedly feasible stochastic optimal solution, in which the expected constraint violation and expected optimality gap are both within a prescribed tolerance ϵ. However, in many practical applications, constraints must be nearly … Read more

Random-Restart Best-Response Dynamics for Large-Scale Integer Programming Games and Their Applications

This paper presents scalable algorithms for computing pure Nash equilibria (PNEs) in large-scale integer programming games (IPGs), where existing exact methods typically handle only small numbers of players. Motivated by a county-level aquatic invasive species (AIS) prevention problem with 84 decision makers, we develop and analyze random-restart best-response dynamics (RR-BRD), a randomized search framework for … Read more

A Variational Analysis Approach for Bilevel Hyperparameter Optimization with Sparse Regularization

We study a bilevel optimization framework for hyperparameter learning in variational models, with a focus on sparse regression and classification tasks. In particular, we consider a weighted elastic-net regularizer, where feature-wise regularization parameters are learned through a bilevel formulation. A key novelty of our approach is the use of a Forward-Backward (FB) reformulation of the … Read more