Related papers: The gap between a variational problem and its occu…
This thesis explores algorithmic applications and limitations of convex relaxation hierarchies for approximating some discrete and continuous optimization problems. - We show a dichotomy of approximability of constraint satisfaction…
In this paper we study the relationship between the optimal value of a homogeneous quadratic optimization problem and that of its Semidefinite Programming (SDP) relaxation. We consider two quadratic optimization models: (1) $\min \{x^* C x…
We show that the recent hierarchy of semidefinite programming relaxations based on non-commutative polynomial optimization and reduced density matrix variational methods exhibits an interesting paradox when applied to the bosonic case: even…
We study episodic linear mixture MDPs with the unknown transition and adversarial rewards under full-information feedback, employing dynamic regret as the performance measure. We start with in-depth analyses of the strengths and limitations…
Signal processing is rich in inherently continuous and often nonlinear applications, such as spectral estimation, optical imaging, and super-resolution microscopy, in which sparsity plays a key role in obtaining state-of-the-art results.…
Classically, a mainstream approach for solving a convex-concave min-max problem is to instead solve the variational inequality problem arising from its first-order optimality conditions. Is it possible to solve min-max problems faster by…
For a given domain $\Omega \subset \Bbb{R}^n$, we consider the variational problem of minimizing the $L^1$-norm of the gradient on $\Omega$ of a function $u$ with prescribed continuous boundary values and satisfying a continuous lower…
We present a general technique for the analysis of first-order methods. The technique relies on the construction of a duality gap for an appropriate approximation of the objective function, where the function approximation improves as the…
We consider the problem of minimizing a sum of non-convex functions over a compact domain, subject to linear inequality and equality constraints. Approximate solutions can be found by solving a convexified version of the problem, in which…
We present a coordinate ascent method for a class of semidefinite programming problems that arise in non-convex quadratic integer optimization. These semidefinite programs are characterized by a small total number of active constraints and…
The paper is concerned with a class of nonlinear free boundary problems, which are usually solved by variational methods based on primal (or primal-dual) variational settings. We deduce and investigate special relations (error identities).…
In the last two decades the study of random instances of constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) has flourished across several disciplines, including computer science, mathematics and physics. The diversity of the developed methods, on the…
Graph matching---aligning a pair of graphs to minimize their edge disagreements---has received wide-spread attention from both theoretical and applied communities over the past several decades, including combinatorics, computer vision, and…
We present a new approach for computing approximate global minimizers to a large class of non-local pairwise interaction problems defined over probability distributions. The approach predicts candidate global minimizers, with a recovery…
Based on recent developments in the theory of fractional Sobolev spaces, an interesting new class of nonlocal variational problems has emerged in the literature. These problems, which are the focus of this work, involve integral functionals…
We show that a wide class of risk-constrained nonconvex functional optimization problems exhibit strong duality, regardless of nonconvexity. We develop two novel results under distinct sets of assumptions, establishing strong duality over…
In this paper, we study the uniform capacitated $k$-median problem. Obtaining a constant approximation algorithm for this problem is a notorious open problem; most previous works gave constant approximations by either violating the capacity…
We give necessary and sufficient conditions for minimality of generalized minimizers for linear-growth functionals of the form \[ \mathcal F[u] := \int_\Omega f(x,u(x)) \, \text{d}x, \qquad u:\Omega \subset \mathbb R^N\to \mathbb R^d, \]…
A new relaxed variant of interior point method for low-rank semidefinite programming problems is proposed in this paper. The method is a step outside of the usual interior point framework. In anticipation to converging to a low-rank primal…
The paper studies coincidence points of parameterized set-valued mappings (multifunctions), which provide an extended framework to cover several important topics in variational analysis and optimization that include the existence of…