Related papers: Analysis of Optimization Algorithms via Sum-of-Squ…
When sum-of-squares (SOS) programs are recast as semidefinite programs (SDPs) using the standard monomial basis, the constraint matrices in the SDP possess a structural property that we call \emph{partial orthogonality}. In this paper, we…
In recent years, copositive programming has received significant attention for its ability to model hard problems in both discrete and continuous optimization. Several relaxations of copositive programs based on semidefinite programming…
We study a class of polynomial optimization problems with a robust polynomial matrix inequality (PMI) constraint where the uncertainty set itself is defined also by a PMI. These can be viewed as matrix generalizations of semi-infinite…
Zeroth-order optimization (ZO) has been a powerful framework for solving black-box problems, which estimates gradients using zeroth-order data to update variables iteratively. The practical applicability of ZO critically depends on the…
We introduce a method for proving Sum-of-Squares (SoS)/ Lasserre hierarchy lower bounds when the initial problem formulation exhibits a high degree of symmetry. Our main technical theorem allows us to reduce the study of the positive…
In recent years, optimization theory has been greatly impacted by the advent of sum of squares (SOS) optimization. The reliance of this technique on large-scale semidefinite programs however, has limited the scale of problems to which it…
Handling an infinite number of inequality constraints in infinite-dimensional spaces occurs in many fields, from global optimization to optimal transport. These problems have been tackled individually in several previous articles through…
We use the Sum of Squares method to develop new efficient algorithms for learning well-separated mixtures of Gaussians and robust mean estimation, both in high dimensions, that substantially improve upon the statistical guarantees achieved…
This paper establishes a statistical versus computational trade-off for solving a basic high-dimensional machine learning problem via a basic convex relaxation method. Specifically, we consider the {\em Sparse Principal Component Analysis}…
We study first-order optimization algorithms under the constraint that the descent direction is quantized using a pre-specified budget of $R$-bits per dimension, where $R \in (0 ,\infty)$. We propose computationally efficient optimization…
We propose a deep learning approach to the obstacle problem inspired by the first-order system least-squares (FOSLS) framework. This method reformulates the problem as a convex minimization task; by simultaneously approximating the…
We introduce the notion of $t$-sum of squares (sos) submodularity, which is a hierarchy, indexed by $t$, of sufficient algebraic conditions for certifying submodularity of set functions. We show that, for fixed $t$, each level of the…
This paper proposes low-complexity algorithms for finding approximate second-order stationary points (SOSPs) of problems with smooth non-convex objective and linear constraints. While finding (approximate) SOSPs is computationally…
Let $P:\{0,1\}^k \to \{0,1\}$ be a nontrivial $k$-ary predicate. Consider a random instance of the constraint satisfaction problem $\mathrm{CSP}(P)$ on $n$ variables with $\Delta n$ constraints, each being $P$ applied to $k$ randomly chosen…
The Lasserre/Sum-of-Squares (SoS) hierarchy is a systematic procedure for constructing a sequence of increasingly tight semidefinite relaxations. It is known that the hierarchy converges to the 0/1 polytope in n levels and captures the…
The Sum-of-Squares (SoS) hierarchy is a semi-definite programming meta-algorithm that captures state-of-the-art polynomial time guarantees for many optimization problems such as Max-$k$-CSPs and Tensor PCA. On the flip side, a SoS lower…
We prove lower bounds for higher-order methods in smooth non-convex finite-sum optimization. Our contribution is threefold: We first show that a deterministic algorithm cannot profit from the finite-sum structure of the objective, and that…
An algorithm for unconstrained non-convex optimization is described, which does not evaluate the objective function and in which minimization is carried out, at each iteration, within a randomly selected subspace. It is shown that this…
We propose first order algorithms for convex optimization problems where the feasible set is described by a large number of convex inequalities that is to be explored by subgradient projections. The first algorithm is an adaptation of a…
We present a hierarchy of semidefinite programs (SDPs) for the problem of fitting a shape-constrained (multivariate) polynomial to noisy evaluations of an unknown shape-constrained function. These shape constraints include convexity or…