On the Direct Extension of ADMM for Multi-block Separable Convex Programming and Beyond: From Variational Inequality Perspective

When the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is extended directly to a multi-block separable convex minimization model whose objective function is in form of more than two functions without coupled variables, it was recently shown that the convergence is not guaranteed. This fact urges to develop efficient algorithms that can preserve completely the numerical … Read more

Parallel Multi-Block ADMM with o(1/k) Convergence

This paper introduces a parallel and distributed extension to the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). The algorithm decomposes the original problem into N smaller subproblems and solves them in parallel at each iteration. This Jacobian-type algorithm is well suited for distributed computing and is particularly attractive for solving certain large-scale problems. This paper introduces … Read more

Practical Inexact Proximal Quasi-Newton Method with Global Complexity Analysis

Recently several methods were proposed for sparse optimization which make careful use of second-order information [11, 30, 17, 3] to improve local convergence rates. These methods construct a composite quadratic approximation using Hessian information, optimize this approximation using a first-order method, such as coordinate descent and employ a line search to ensure sufficient descent. Here … Read more

Iteration-Complexity of a Generalized Forward Backward Splitting Algorithm

In this paper, we analyze the iteration-complexity of a generalized forward-backward (GFB) splitting algorithm, recently proposed in~\cite{gfb2011}, for minimizing the large class of composite objectives $f + \sum_{i=1}^n h_i$ on a Hilbert space, where $f$ has a Lipschitz-continuous gradient and the $h_i$’s are simple (i.e. whose proximity operator is easily computable ). We derive iteration-complexity … Read more

A Generalized Proximal Point Algorithm and its Convergence Rate

We propose a generalized proximal point algorithm (PPA), in the generic setting of finding a zero point of a maximal monotone operator. In addition to the classical PPA, a number of benchmark operator splitting methods in PDE and optimization literatures such as the Douglas-Rachford splitting method, Peaceman-Rachford splitting method, alternating direction method of multipliers, generalized … Read more

Optimal parameter selection for the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM): quadratic problems

The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) has emerged as a powerful technique for large-scale structured optimization. Despite many recent results on the convergence properties of ADMM, a quantitative characterization of the impact of the algorithm parameters on the convergence times of the method is still lacking. In this paper we find the optimal algorithm … Read more

On full Jacobian decomposition of the augmented Lagrangian method for separable convex programming

The augmented Lagrangian method (ALM) is a benchmark for solving the convex minimization problem with linear constraints. We consider the special case where the objective is in form of the sum of m functions without coupled variables. For solving this separable convex programming model, it is usually required to decompose the ALM subproblem at each … Read more

On the Complexity Analysis of Randomized Block-Coordinate Descent Methods

In this paper we analyze the randomized block-coordinate descent (RBCD) methods for minimizing the sum of a smooth convex function and a block-separable convex function. In particular, we extend Nesterov’s technique (SIOPT 2012) for analyzing the RBCD method for minimizing a smooth convex function over a block-separable closed convex set to the aforementioned more general … Read more

An Augmented Lagrangian Method for Conic Convex Programming

We propose a new first-order augmented Lagrangian algorithm ALCC for solving convex conic programs of the form min{rho(x)+gamma(x): Ax-b in K, x in chi}, where rho and gamma are closed convex functions, and gamma has a Lipschitz continuous gradient, A is mxn real matrix, K is a closed convex cone, and chi is a “simple” … Read more

A random coordinate descent algorithm for optimization problems with composite objective function and linear coupled constraints

In this paper we present a variant of random coordinate descent method for solving linearly constrained convex optimization problems with composite objective function. If the smooth part has Lipschitz continuous gradient, then the method terminates with an ϵ-optimal solution in O(N2/ϵ) iterations, where N is the number of blocks. For the class of problems with … Read more