Related papers: The Global Optimization Geometry of Low-Rank Matri…
Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) seeks a low-rank approximation $X \approx UV^T$ with nonnegative factors and is commonly solved using interior methods that enforce feasibility throughout optimization. We show that such…
Most existing methodologies of estimating low-rank matrices rely on Burer-Monteiro factorization, but these approaches can suffer from slow convergence, especially when dealing with solutions characterized by a large condition number,…
We consider the problem of approximating an affinely structured matrix, for example a Hankel matrix, by a low-rank matrix with the same structure. This problem occurs in system identification, signal processing and computer algebra, among…
In the non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) problem, the input is an $m\times n$ matrix $M$ with non-negative entries and the goal is to factorize it as $M\approx AW$. The $m\times k$ matrix $A$ and the $k\times n$ matrix $W$ are both…
The majorization-minimization (MM) principle is an extremely general framework for deriving optimization algorithms. It includes the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, proximal gradient algorithm, concave-convex procedure, quadratic…
We consider the rank minimization problem from quadratic measurements, i.e., recovering a rank $r$ matrix $X \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times r}$ from $m$ scalar measurements $y_i=a_i^{\top} XX^{\top} a_i,\;a_i\in \mathbb{R}^n,\;i=1,\ldots,m$. Such…
Matrix completion has attracted much interest in the past decade in machine learning and computer vision. For low-rank promotion in matrix completion, the nuclear norm penalty is convenient due to its convexity but has a bias problem.…
Many problems encountered in science and engineering can be formulated as estimating a low-rank object (e.g., matrices and tensors) from incomplete, and possibly corrupted, linear measurements. Through the lens of matrix and tensor…
For the general problem of minimizing a convex function over a compact convex domain, we will investigate a simple iterative approximation algorithm based on the method by Frank & Wolfe 1956, that does not need projection steps in order to…
Numerous applications require algorithms that can align partially overlapping point sets while maintaining invariance to geometric transformations (e.g., similarity, affine, rigid). This paper introduces a novel global optimization method…
This paper presents a practical method for finding the globally optimal solution to the sum-of-ratios problem arising in image processing, engineering and management. Unlike traditional methods which may get trapped in local minima due to…
This paper considers the global geometry of general low-rank minimization problems via the Burer-Monterio factorization approach. For the rank-$1$ case, we prove that there is no spurious second-order critical point for both symmetric and…
Low-rank matrix approximation, which aims to construct a low-rank matrix from an observation, has received much attention recently. An efficient method to solve this problem is to convert the problem of rank minimization into a nuclear norm…
In this paper, we develop a variant of the well-known Gauss-Newton (GN) method to solve a class of nonconvex optimization problems involving low-rank matrix variables. As opposed to the standard GN method, our algorithm allows one to handle…
We study the robust recovery of a low-rank matrix from sparsely and grossly corrupted Gaussian measurements, with no prior knowledge on the intrinsic rank. We consider the robust matrix factorization approach. We employ a robust $\ell_1$…
Optimization models with non-convex constraints arise in many tasks in machine learning, e.g., learning with fairness constraints or Neyman-Pearson classification with non-convex loss. Although many efficient methods have been developed…
Gradient descent dynamics on the deep matrix factorization problem is extensively studied as a simplified theoretical model for deep neural networks. Although the convergence theory for two-layer matrix factorization is well-established, no…
We provide theoretical analysis of the statistical and computational properties of penalized $M$-estimators that can be formulated as the solution to a possibly nonconvex optimization problem. Many important estimators fall in this…
We study global optimization of non-convex functions through optimal control theory. Our main result establishes that (quasi-)optimal trajectories of a discounted control problem converge globally and practically asymptotically to the set…
Optimization problems with rank constraints appear in many diverse fields such as control, machine learning and image analysis. Since the rank constraint is non-convex, these problems are often approximately solved via convex relaxations.…