A Simple First-Order Algorithm for Full-Rank Equality Constrained Optimization

A very simple first-order algorithm is proposed for solving nonlinear optimization problems with deterministic nonlinear equality constraints. This algorithm adaptively selects steps in the plane tangent to the constraints or steps that reduce infeasibility, without using a merit function or a filter. The tangent steps are based on the AdaGrad method for unconstrained minimization. The … Read more

Fast Stochastic Second-Order Adagrad for Nonconvex Bound-Constrained Optimization

ADAGB2, a generalization of the Adagrad algorithm for stochastic optimization is introduced, which is also applicable to bound-constrained problems and capable of using second-order information when available. It is shown that, givenĀ  delta in (0,1) and epsilon in (0,1], the ADAGB2 algorithm needs at most O(epsilon^{-2}) iterations to ensure an epsilon-approximate first-order critical point of … Read more

prunAdag: an adaptive pruning-aware gradient method

A pruning-aware adaptive gradient method is proposed which classifies the variables in two sets before updating them using different strategies. This technique extends the “relevant/irrelevant” approach of Ding (2019) and Zimmer et al. (2022) and allows a posteriori sparsification of the solution of model parameter fitting problems. The new method is proved to be convergent … Read more

Complexity of Adagrad and other first-order methods for nonconvex optimization problems with bounds constraints

A parametric class of trust-region algorithms for constrained nonconvex optimization is analyzed, where the objective function is never computed. By defining appropriate first-order stationarity criteria, we are able to extend the Adagrad method to the newly considered problem and retrieve the standard complexity rate of the projected gradient method that uses both the gradient and … Read more

OFFO minimization algorithms for second-order optimality and their complexity

An Adagrad-inspired class of algorithms for smooth unconstrained optimization is presented in which the objective function is never evaluated and yet the gradient norms decrease at least as fast as O(1/\sqrt{k+1}) while second-order optimality measures converge to zero at least as fast as O(1/(k+1)^{1/3}). This latter rate of convergence is shown to be essentially sharp … Read more

First-Order Objective-Function-Free Optimization Algorithms and Their Complexity

A class of algorithms for unconstrained nonconvex optimization is considered where the value of the objective function is never computed. The class contains a deterministic version of the first-order Adagrad method typically used for minimization of noisy function, but also allows the use of second-order information when available. The rate of convergence of methods in … Read more