Related papers: How to trap a gradient flow
Gradient methods are widely used in optimization problems. In practice, while the smoothness parameter can be estimated utilizing techniques such as backtracking, estimating the strong convexity parameter remains a challenge; moreover, even…
We study the implicit regularization imposed by gradient descent for learning multi-layer homogeneous functions including feed-forward fully connected and convolutional deep neural networks with linear, ReLU or Leaky ReLU activation. We…
We present the Trust Region Adversarial Functional Subdifferential (TRAFS) algorithm for constrained optimization of nonsmooth convex Lipschitz functions. Unlike previous methods that assume a subgradient oracle model, we work with the…
Constrained non-convex optimization is fundamentally challenging, as global solutions are generally intractable and constraint qualifications may not hold. However, in many applications, including safe policy optimization in control and…
In this paper we study a gradient flow approach to the problem of quantization of measures in one dimension. By embedding our problem in $L^2$, we find a continuous version of it that corresponds to the limit as the number of particles…
One of the most popular approaches for solving total variation-regularized optimization problems in the space of measures are Particle Gradient Flows (PGFs). These restrict the problem to linear combinations of Dirac deltas and then perform…
Zeroth-order optimization is the process of minimizing an objective $f(x)$, given oracle access to evaluations at adaptively chosen inputs $x$. In this paper, we present two simple yet powerful GradientLess Descent (GLD) algorithms that do…
Gradient descent algorithms have been used in countless applications since the inception of Newton's method. The explosion in the number of applications of neural networks has re-energized efforts in recent years to improve the standard…
We consider stochastic gradient descents on the space of large symmetric matrices of suitable functions that are invariant under permuting the rows and columns using the same permutation. We establish deterministic limits of these random…
Over the several recent years, there has been a boom in development of Flow Matching (FM) methods for generative modeling. One intriguing property pursued by the community is the ability to learn flows with straight trajectories which…
Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) on a low-rank factorization is commonly employed to speed up matrix problems including matrix completion, subspace tracking, and SDP relaxation. In this paper, we exhibit a step size scheme for SGD on a…
We propose a family of nonconvex optimization algorithms that are able to save gradient and negative curvature computations to a large extent, and are guaranteed to find an approximate local minimum with improved runtime complexity. At the…
We consider unreliable distributed learning systems wherein the training data is kept confidential by external workers, and the learner has to interact closely with those workers to train a model. In particular, we assume that there exists…
We present a variant of accelerated gradient descent algorithms, adapted from Nesterov's optimal first-order methods, for weakly-quasi-convex and weakly-quasi-strongly-convex functions. We show that by tweaking the so-called estimate…
Motivated by recent applications in min-max optimization, we employ tools from nonlinear control theory in order to analyze a class of "historical" gradient-based methods, for which the next step lies in the span of the previously observed…
Recent research has observed that in machine learning optimization, gradient descent (GD) often operates at the edge of stability (EoS) [Cohen, et al., 2021], where the stepsizes are set to be large, resulting in non-monotonic losses…
One specific subset of quantum algorithms is Grovers Ordered Search Problem (OSP), the quantum counterpart of the classical binary search algorithm, which utilizes oracle functions to produce a specified value within an ordered database.…
Regularization is a widely recognized technique in mathematical optimization. It can be used to smooth out objective functions, refine the feasible solution set, or prevent overfitting in machine learning models. Due to its simplicity and…
We consider two greedy algorithms for minimizing a convex function in a bounded convex set: an algorithm by Jones [1992] and the Frank-Wolfe (FW) algorithm. We first consider approximate versions of these algorithms. For smooth convex…
Depth first search (DFS) tree is a fundamental data structure for solving various graph problems. The classical DFS algorithm requires $O(m+n)$ time for a graph having $n$ vertices and $m$ edges. In the streaming model, an algorithm is…