Iteration-complexity of first-order penalty methods

This paper considers a special but broad class of convex programing (CP) problems whose feasible region is a simple compact convex set intersected with the inverse image of a closed convex cone under an affine transformation. We study two first-order penalty methods for solving the above class of problems, namely: the quadratic penalty method and … Read more

Asymptotic convergence to the optimal value of diagonal proximal iterations in convex minimization

Given an approximation $\{f_n\}$ of a given objective function $f$, we provide simple and fairly general conditions under which a diagonal proximal point algorithm approximates the value $\inf f$ at a reasonable rate. We also perform some numerical tests and present a short survey on finite convergence. Citation To appear in Journal of Convex Analysis, … Read more

A Coordinate Gradient Descent Method for L_1-regularized Convex Minimization

In applications such as signal processing and statistics, many problems involve finding sparse solutions to under-determined linear systems of equations. These problems can be formulated as a structured nonsmooth optimization problems, i.e., the problem of minimizing L_1-regularized linear least squares problems. In this paper, we propose a block coordinate gradient descent method (abbreviated as CGD) … Read more

Probing the Pareto frontier for basis pursuit solutions

The basis pursuit problem seeks a minimum one-norm solution of an underdetermined least-squares problem. Basis pursuit denoise (BPDN) fits the least-squares problem only approximately, and a single parameter determines a curve that traces the optimal trade-off between the least-squares fit and the one-norm of the solution. We prove that this curve is convex and continuously … Read more

An Information Geometric Approach to Polynomial-time Interior-point Algorithms: Complexity Bound via Curvature Integral

In this paper, we study polynomial-time interior-point algorithms in view of information geometry. Information geometry is a differential geometric framework which has been successfully applied to statistics, learning theory, signal processing etc. We consider information geometric structure for conic linear programs introduced by self-concordant barrier functions, and develop a precise iteration-complexity estimate of the polynomial-time … Read more

Robust Efficient Frontier Analysis with a Separable Uncertainty Model

Mean-variance (MV) analysis is often sensitive to model mis-specification or uncertainty, meaning that the MV efficient portfolios constructed with an estimate of the model parameters (i.e., the expected return vector and covariance of asset returns) can give very poor performance for another set of parameters that is similar and statistically hard to distinguish from the … Read more

A Minimax Theorem with Applications to Machine Learning, Signal Processing, and Finance

This paper concerns a fractional function of the form $x^Ta/\sqrt{x^TBx}$, where $B$ is positive definite. We consider the game of choosing $x$ from a convex set, to maximize the function, and choosing $(a,B)$ from a convex set, to minimize it. We prove the existence of a saddle point and describe an efficient method, based on … Read more

Controlling the dose distribution with gEUD-type constraints within the convex IMRT optimization framework

Radiation therapy is an important modality in treating various cancers. Various treatment planning and delivery technologies have emerged to support Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), creating significant opportunities to advance this type of treatment. We investigate the possibility of including the dose prescription, specified by the DVH, within the convex optimization framework for inverse IMRT … Read more

Graph Implementations for Nonsmooth Convex Programs

We describe graph implementations, a generic method for representing a convex function via its epigraph, described in a disciplined convex programming framework. This simple and natural idea allows a very wide variety of smooth and nonsmooth convex programs to be easily specified and efficiently solved, using interior-point methods for smooth or cone convex programs. Citation … Read more

Processor Speed Control with Thermal Constraints

We consider the problem of adjusting speeds of multiple computer processors sharing the same thermal environment, such as a chip or multi-chip package. We assume that the speed of processor (and associated variables, such as power supply voltage) can be controlled, and we model the dissipated power of a processor as a positive and strictly … Read more