Related papers: Analysis of Optimization Algorithms via Sum-of-Squ…
First-order methods underpin most large-scale learning algorithms, yet their classical convergence guarantees hinge on carefully scheduled step-sizes that depend on the total horizon $T$, which is rarely known in advance. The Schedule-Free…
Finding a global solution to the optimal power flow (OPF) problem is difficult due to its nonconvexity. A convex relaxation in the form of semidefinite programming (SDP) has attracted much attention lately as it yields a global solution in…
Necessary conditions for high-order optimality in smooth nonlinear constrained optimization are explored and their inherent intricacy discussed. A two-phase minimization algorithm is proposed which can achieve approximate first-, second-…
The Semi-Algebraic framework for the approximate Canonical Polyadic (CP) decomposition via SImultaneaous matrix diagonalization (SECSI) is an efficient tool for the computation of the CP decomposition. The SECSI framework reformulates the…
We introduce a new approach to develop stochastic optimization algorithms for a class of stochastic composite and possibly nonconvex optimization problems. The main idea is to combine two stochastic estimators to create a new hybrid one. We…
This paper optimizes the step coefficients of first-order methods for smooth convex minimization in terms of the worst-case convergence bound (i.e., efficiency) of the decrease in the gradient norm. This work is based on the performance…
We develop a novel primal-dual algorithm to solve a class of nonsmooth and nonlinear compositional convex minimization problems, which covers many existing and brand-new models as special cases. Our approach relies on a combination of a new…
Gradient-based (a.k.a. `first order') optimization algorithms are routinely used to solve large scale non-convex problems. Yet, it is generally hard to predict their effectiveness. In order to gain insight into this question, we revisit the…
We introduce a detailed analysis of the convergence of first-order methods with composite noise (sum of relative and absolute) in gradient for convex and smooth function minimization. This paper illustrates instances of practical problems…
First-order optimization methods have attracted a lot of attention due to their practical success in many applications, including in machine learning. Obtaining convergence guarantees and worst-case performance certificates for first-order…
We address black-box convex optimization problems, where the objective and constraint functions are not explicitly known but can be sampled within the feasible set. The challenge is thus to generate a sequence of feasible points converging…
First Order Bayesian Optimization (FOBO) is a sample efficient sequential approach to find the global maxima of an expensive-to-evaluate black-box objective function by suitably querying for the function and its gradient evaluations. Such…
We consider semidefinite programs (SDPs) of size n with equality constraints. In order to overcome scalability issues, Burer and Monteiro proposed a factorized approach based on optimizing over a matrix Y of size $n$ by $k$ such that $X =…
We consider the problem of maximizing a homogeneous polynomial on the unit sphere and its hierarchy of Sum-of-Squares (SOS) relaxations. Exploiting the polynomial kernel technique, we obtain a quadratic improvement of the known convergence…
We introduce a verification framework to exactly verify the worst-case performance of sequential convex programming (SCP) algorithms for parametric non-convex optimization. The verification problem is formulated as an optimization problem…
We develop fast spectral algorithms for tensor decomposition that match the robustness guarantees of the best known polynomial-time algorithms for this problem based on the sum-of-squares (SOS) semidefinite programming hierarchy. Our…
Measuring how quickly iterative methods converge is essential in computational mathematics, but current approaches have significant limitations. Q-order analysis requires strict smoothness conditions, while R-order analysis lacks precision…
"Classical" First Order (FO) algorithms of convex optimization, such as Mirror Descent algorithm or Nesterov's optimal algorithm of smooth convex optimization, are well known to have optimal (theoretical) complexity estimates which do not…
Proximal operations are among the most common primitives appearing in both practical and theoretical (or high-level) optimization methods. This basic operation typically consists in solving an intermediary (hopefully simpler) optimization…
Two OFFO (Objective-Function Free Optimization) noise tolerant algorithms are presented that handle bound constraints, inexact gradients and use second-order information when available.The first is a multi-level method exploiting a…