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We consider (stochastic) convex-concave saddle point (SP) problems with high-dimensional decision variables, arising in various applications including machine learning problems. To contend with the challenges in computing full gradients, we…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-09-30 Erfan Yazdandoost Hamedani , Afrooz Jalilzadeh , Necdet Serhat Aybat

In this paper, we present novel randomized algorithms for solving saddle point problems whose dual feasible region is given by the direct product of many convex sets. Our algorithms can achieve an ${\cal O}(1/N)$ and ${\cal O}(1/N^2)$ rate…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2015-11-16 Cong Dang , Guanghui Lan

We show that on the manifold of fixed-rank and symmetric positive semi-definite matrices, the Riemannian gradient descent algorithm almost surely escapes some spurious critical points on the boundary of the manifold. Our result is the first…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-06-13 Thomas Y. Hou , Zhenzhen Li , Ziyun Zhang

Stochastic coordinate descent algorithms are efficient methods in which each iterate is obtained by fixing most coordinates at their values from the current iteration, and approximately minimizing the objective with respect to the remaining…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-04-02 Eméric Gbaguidi

One of the most attractive recent approaches to processing well-structured large-scale convex optimization problems is based on smooth convex-concave saddle point reformu-lation of the problem of interest and solving the resulting problem…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2014-05-22 Aharon Ben-Tal , Arkadi Nemirovski

We consider the case of derivative-free algorithms for non-convex optimization, also known as zero order algorithms, that use only function evaluations rather than gradients. For a wide variety of gradient approximators based on finite…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-10-30 Lampros Flokas , Emmanouil-Vasileios Vlatakis-Gkaragkounis , Georgios Piliouras

Distributed nonconvex optimization underpins key functionalities of numerous distributed systems, ranging from power systems, smart buildings, cooperative robots, vehicle networks to sensor networks. Recently, it has also merged as a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-03-18 Yanan Bo , Yongqiang Wang

It is known that step size adaptive evolution strategies (ES) do not converge (prematurely) to regular points of continuously differentiable objective functions. Among critical points, convergence to minima is desired, and convergence to…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2022-06-22 Tobias Glasmachers

This is a continuation of our previous work entitled \enquote{Alternating Proximity Mapping Method for Convex-Concave Saddle-Point Problems}, in which we proposed the alternating proximal mapping method and showed convergence results on the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-11-01 Hui Ouyang

We extend upon the saddle-point equation presented in [1] to derive large-time model-implied volatility smiles, providing its theoretical foundation and studying its applications in classical models. As long as characteristic function…

Mathematical Finance · Quantitative Finance 2022-12-13 Chun Yat Yeung , Ali Hirsa

We present a simple way to discretize and precondition mixed variational formulations. Our theory connects with, and takes advantage of, the classical theory of symmetric saddle point problems and the theory of preconditioning symmetric…

Numerical Analysis · Mathematics 2018-05-18 Constantin Bacuta , Jacob Jacavage

The paper considers distributed gradient flow (DGF) for multi-agent nonconvex optimization. DGF is a continuous-time approximation of distributed gradient descent that is often easier to study than its discrete-time counterpart. The paper…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-08-13 Brian Swenson , Ryan Murray , H. Vincent Poor , Soummya Kar

This paper provides a direct method of establishing the existence and uniqueness of saddle-node bifurcations for nonlinear equations in general domains. The method employs the scaled extended quotient whose saddle points correspond to the…

Analysis of PDEs · Mathematics 2024-04-09 Yavdat Il'yasov

We generalize the well-known primal-dual algorithm proposed by Chambolle and Pock for saddle point problems, and improve the condition for ensuring its convergence. The improved convergence-guaranteeing condition is effective for the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-12-02 Bingsheng He , Feng Ma , Shengjie Xu , Xiaoming Yuan

We consider strongly-convex-strongly-concave saddle point problems assuming we have access to unbiased stochastic estimates of the gradients. We propose a stochastic accelerated primal-dual (SAPD) algorithm and show that SAPD sequence,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-09-04 Xuan Zhang , Necdet Serhat Aybat , Mert Gürbüzbalaban

We present a comprehensive theoretical analysis of first-order methods for escaping strict saddle points in smooth non-convex optimization. Our main contribution is a Perturbed Saddle-escape Descent (PSD) algorithm with fully explicit…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-08-25 Faruk Alpay , Hamdi Alakkad

In this paper, we propose a primal-dual algorithm with a novel momentum term using the partial gradients of the coupling function that can be viewed as a generalization of the method proposed by Chambolle and Pock in 2016 to solve saddle…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-10-22 Erfan Yazdandoost Hamedani , Necdet Serhat Aybat

This paper studies the role of over-parametrization in solving non-convex optimization problems. The focus is on the important class of low-rank matrix sensing, where we propose an infinite hierarchy of non-convex problems via the lifting…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-02-16 Ziye Ma , Igor Molybog , Javad Lavaei , Somayeh Sojoudi

We develop stochastic first-order primal-dual algorithms to solve a class of convex-concave saddle-point problems. When the saddle function is strongly convex in the primal variable, we develop the first stochastic restart scheme for this…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-04-13 Renbo Zhao

In this paper we solve mixed-integer linear programs (MILPs) via distributed asynchronous saddle point computation. This work is motivated by the MILPs being able to model problems in multi-agent autonomy, such as task assignment problems…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-10-16 Luke Fina , Christopher Petersen , Matthew Hale