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We focus on a class of non-smooth optimization problems over the Stiefel manifold in the decentralized setting, where a connected network of $n$ agents cooperatively minimize a finite-sum objective function with each component being weakly…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-04-03 Jinxin Wang , Jiang Hu , Shixiang Chen , Zengde Deng , Anthony Man-Cho So

We study differentially private (DP) optimization algorithms for stochastic and empirical objectives which are neither smooth nor convex, and propose methods that return a Goldstein-stationary point with sample complexity bounds that…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-06-10 Guy Kornowski , Daogao Liu , Kunal Talwar

We study two log-concave sampling problems: constrained sampling and composite sampling. First, we consider sampling from a target distribution with density proportional to $\exp(-f(x))$ supported on a convex set $K \subset \mathbb{R}^d$,…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-02-17 Thanh Dang , Jiaming Liang

Motivated by recent work on approximation of diffusion equations by deterministic interacting particle systems, we develop a nonlocal approximation for a range of linear and nonlinear diffusion equations and prove convergence of the method…

Analysis of PDEs · Mathematics 2024-04-05 Katy Craig , Matt Jacobs , Olga Turanova

We study stochastic zeroth-order optimization with decision-dependent distributions, where the sampling law depends on the current decision and only noisy function values are available. For the non-smooth non-convex setting, we establish an…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-08 Chengchang Liu , Zongqi Wan , Haishan Ye , John C. S. Lui

In the Bayes paradigm and for a given loss function, we propose the construction of a new type of posterior distributions, that extends the classical Bayes one, for estimating the law of an $n$-sample. The loss functions we have in mind are…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2024-01-05 Yannick Baraud

Universal hypothesis testing refers to the problem of deciding whether samples come from a nominal distribution or an unknown distribution that is different from the nominal distribution. Hoeffding's test, whose test statistic is equivalent…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2017-11-15 Pengfei Yang , Biao Chen

We study the problem of approximate sampling from non-log-concave distributions, e.g., Gaussian mixtures, which is often challenging even in low dimensions due to their multimodality. We focus on performing this task via Markov chain Monte…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-05-30 Tim Tsz-Kit Lau , Han Liu , Thomas Pock

We introduce a new family of particle evolution samplers suitable for constrained domains and non-Euclidean geometries. Stein Variational Mirror Descent and Mirrored Stein Variational Gradient Descent minimize the Kullback-Leibler (KL)…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-04-26 Jiaxin Shi , Chang Liu , Lester Mackey

An algorithm is proposed, analyzed, and tested for minimizing locally Lipschitz objective functions that may be nonconvex and/or nonsmooth. The algorithm, which is built upon the gradient-sampling methodology, is designed specifically for…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-02 Albert S. Berahas , Frank E. Curtis , Lara Zebiane

We prove novel convergence results for a stochastic proximal gradient algorithm suitable for solving a large class of convex optimization problems, where a convex objective function is given by the sum of a smooth and a possibly non-smooth…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2016-08-11 Lorenzo Rosasco , Silvia Villa , Bang Công Vũ

We consider the problem of sampling from a distribution governed by a potential function. This work proposes an explicit score based MCMC method that is deterministic, resulting in a deterministic evolution for particles rather than a…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2023-10-03 Hong Ye Tan , Stanley Osher , Wuchen Li

This paper reviews the gradient sampling methodology for solving nonsmooth, nonconvex optimization problems. An intuitively straightforward gradient sampling algorithm is stated and its convergence properties are summarized. Throughout this…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-05-01 James V. Burke , Frank E. Curtis , Adrian S. Lewis , Michael L. Overton , Lucas E. A. Simões

Image smoothing is a fundamental procedure in applications of both computer vision and graphics. The required smoothing properties can be different or even contradictive among different tasks. Nevertheless, the inherent smoothing nature of…

Graphics · Computer Science 2019-11-28 Wei Liu , Pingping Zhang , Yinjie Lei , Xiaolin Huang , Jie Yang , Ian Reid

We study the approximation of arbitrary distributions $P$ on $d$-dimensional space by distributions with log-concave density. Approximation means minimizing a Kullback--Leibler-type functional. We show that such an approximation exists if…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2011-10-17 Lutz Duembgen , Richard Samworth , Dominic Schuhmacher

We propose efficient Langevin Monte Carlo algorithms for sampling distributions with nonsmooth convex composite potentials, which is the sum of a continuously differentiable function and a possibly nonsmooth function. We devise such…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-07-12 Tim Tsz-Kit Lau , Han Liu

This paper concerns the approximation of probability measures on $\mathbf{R}^d$ with respect to the Kullback-Leibler divergence. Given an admissible target measure, we show the existence of the best approximation, with respect to this…

Probability · Mathematics 2017-06-26 Yulong Lu , Andrew M. Stuart , Hendrik Weber

We consider a class of nonlocal viscous Cahn-Hilliard equations with Neumann boundary conditions for the chemical potential. The double-well potential is allowed to be singular (e.g. of logarithmic type), while the singularity of the…

Analysis of PDEs · Mathematics 2021-01-19 Elisa Davoli , Luca Scarpa , Lara Trussardi

We describe an MCMC method for sampling distributions with soft constraints, which are constraints that are almost but not exactly satisfied. We sample a total distribution that is a convex combination of the target soft distribution with…

Computation · Statistics 2022-10-24 Ildebrando Magnani

In this paper, we analyse a proximal method based on the idea of forward-backward splitting for sampling from distributions with densities that are not necessarily smooth. In particular, we study the non-asymptotic properties of the…

Numerical Analysis · Mathematics 2022-01-25 Armin Eftekhari , Luis Vargas , Konstantinos Zygalakis