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We consider minimization of functions that are compositions of convex or prox-regular functions (possibly extended-valued) with smooth vector functions. A wide variety of important optimization problems fall into this framework. We describe…
We consider the nonlinear integer programming problem of minimizing a quadratic function over the integer points in variable dimension satisfying a system of linear inequalities. We show that when the Graver basis of the matrix defining the…
We consider the task of decentralized minimization of the sum of smooth strongly convex functions stored across the nodes of a network. For this problem, lower bounds on the number of gradient computations and the number of communication…
Submodular function minimization is a fundamental optimization problem that arises in several applications in machine learning and computer vision. The problem is known to be solvable in polynomial time, but general purpose algorithms have…
We study the general integer programming (IP) problem of optimizing a separable convex function over the integer points of a polytope: $\min \{f(\mathbf{x}) \mid A\mathbf{x} = \mathbf{b}, \, \mathbf{l} \leq \mathbf{x} \leq \mathbf{u}, \,…
In this paper we propose a method for the approximation of high-dimensional functions over finite intervals with respect to complete orthonormal systems of polynomials. An important tool for this is the multivariate classical analysis of…
We identity the optimal non-infinitesimal direction of descent for a convex function. An algorithm is developed that can theoretically minimize a subset of (non-convex) functions.
We address the problem of minimizing a convex smooth function $f(x)$ over a compact polyhedral set $D$ given a stochastic zeroth-order constraint feedback model. This problem arises in safety-critical machine learning applications, such as…
The approximate degree of a Boolean function $f(x_{1},x_{2},\ldots,x_{n})$ is the minimum degree of a real polynomial that approximates $f$ pointwise within $1/3$. Upper bounds on approximate degree have a variety of applications in…
This paper presents a novel proof that for any convex cone, the size of conically independent generators is at most twice that of minimum cardinality generators. While this result is known for linear spaces, we extend it to general cones…
The study of convex functions - in particular, of their optimization (really minimization) is one of the most important fields of applied mathematics. Convexity seems to be one of those incredibly well-chosen hypotheses which is just…
In this paper, we develop a theory of new classes of discrete convex functions, called L-extendable functions and alternating L-convex functions, defined on the product of trees. We establish basic properties for optimization: a…
We consider the minimization of submodular functions subject to ordering constraints. We show that this optimization problem can be cast as a convex optimization problem on a space of uni-dimensional measures, with ordering constraints…
We consider box-constrained integer programs with objective $g(Wx) + c^T x$, where $g$ is a "complicated" function with an $m$ dimensional domain. Here we assume we have $n \gg m$ variables and that $W \in \mathbb Z^{m \times n}$ is an…
We study the problem of developing efficient approaches for proving worst-case bounds of non-deterministic recursive programs. Ranking functions are sound and complete for proving termination and worst-case bounds of nonrecursive programs.…
A new algorithm for one-dimensional minimization is described in detail and the results of some tests on practical cases are reported and illustrated. The method requires only punctual computation of the function, and is suitable to be…
We present two new classes of orthogonal functions, log orthogonal functions (LOFs) and generalized log orthogonal functions (GLOFs), which are constructed by applying a $\log$ mapping to Laguerre polynomials. We develop basic approximation…
We consider the general problem of minimizing an objective function which is the sum of a convex function (not strictly convex) and absolute values of a subset of variables (or equivalently the l1-norm of the variables). This problem…
This paper provides an alternate characterization of type-two polynomial-time computability, with the goal of making second-order complexity theory more approachable. We rely on the usual oracle machines to model programs with subroutine…
This paper considers the minimization problem of relaxed submodular functions. For a positive integer $k$, a set function is called $k$-distant submodular if the submodular inequality holds for every pair whose symmetric difference is at…