Related papers: Lipschitz gradients for global optimization in a o…
In this paper we consider large-scale composite nonconvex optimization problems having the objective function formed as a sum of three terms, first has block coordinate-wise Lipschitz continuous gradient, second is twice differentiable but…
Randomized zeroth-order methods are classically analyzed in expectation, but a black-box Markov conversion can give misleading high-probability guarantees, in particular by forcing the finite-difference smoothing radius to shrink with the…
This paper develops and analyzes an accelerated proximal descent method for finding stationary points of nonconvex composite optimization problems. The objective function is of the form $f+h$ where $h$ is a proper closed convex function,…
A regularization algorithm allowing random noise in derivatives and inexact function values is proposed for computing approximate local critical points of any order for smooth unconstrained optimization problems. For an objective function…
We analyze the constant step size subgradient method on nonsmooth, nonconvex functions. We identify geometric assumptions on the objective function under which i) its domain admits a partition (stratification) into smooth manifolds (strata)…
In this paper, we study the problem of minimizing a sum of convex objective functions, which are locally available to agents in a network. Distributed optimization algorithms make it possible for the agents to cooperatively solve the…
Numerous state-feedback and observer designs for nonlinear dynamic systems (NDS) have been developed in the past three decades. These designs assume that NDS nonlinearities satisfy one of the following function set classifications: bounded…
We prove that the finite-difference based derivative-free descent (FD-DFD) methods have a capability to find the global minima for a class of multiple minima problems. Our main result shows that, for a class of multiple minima objectives…
The material presented in this document is intended as a comprehensive, implementation-oriented supplement to the experimental optimization framework presented in a companion document. The issues of physical degradation, unknown Lipschitz…
We study the problem of estimating the average of a Lipschitz continuous function $f$ defined over a metric space, by querying $f$ at only a single point. More specifically, we explore the role of randomness in drawing this sample. Our goal…
There is a recent surge of interest in nonconvex reformulations via low-rank factorization for stochastic convex semidefinite optimization problem in the purpose of efficiency and scalability. Compared with the original convex formulations,…
Many large-scale and distributed optimization problems can be brought into a composite form in which the objective function is given by the sum of a smooth term and a nonsmooth regularizer. Such problems can be solved via a proximal…
We present a stochastic descent algorithm for unconstrained optimization that is particularly efficient when the objective function is slow to evaluate and gradients are not easily obtained, as in some PDE-constrained optimization and…
Decentralized optimization has become a fundamental tool for large-scale learning systems; however, most existing methods rely on the classical Lipschitz smoothness assumption, which is often violated in problems with rapidly varying…
A stochastic-gradient-based interior-point algorithm for minimizing a continuously differentiable objective function (that may be nonconvex) subject to bound constraints is presented, analyzed, and demonstrated through experimental results.…
Stochastic convex optimization is a basic and well studied primitive in machine learning. It is well known that convex and Lipschitz functions can be minimized efficiently using Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD). The Normalized Gradient…
In statistics, it is common to encounter multi-modal and non-smooth likelihood (or objective function) maximization problems, where the parameters have known upper and lower bounds. This paper proposes a novel derivative-free global…
Optimizing expensive, non-convex, black-box Lipschitz continuous functions presents significant challenges, particularly when the Lipschitz constant of the underlying function is unknown. Such problems often demand numerous function…
We consider the long-term dynamics of the vanishing stepsize subgradient method in the case when the objective function is neither smooth nor convex. We assume that this function is locally Lipschitz and path differentiable, i.e., admits a…
We consider the problem of minimizing a $d$-dimensional Lipschitz convex function using a stochastic gradient oracle. We introduce and motivate a setting where the noise of the stochastic gradient is isotropic in that it is bounded in every…