Related papers: Open Problem: Anytime Convergence Rate of Gradient…
Motivated by machine learning problems over large data sets and distributed optimization over networks, we develop and analyze a new method called incremental Newton method for minimizing the sum of a large number of strongly convex…
We extend the classic convergence rate theory for subgradient methods to apply to non-Lipschitz functions. For the deterministic projected subgradient method, we present a global $O(1/\sqrt{T})$ convergence rate for any convex function…
We consider the fundamental problem in non-convex optimization of efficiently reaching a stationary point. In contrast to the convex case, in the long history of this basic problem, the only known theoretical results on first-order…
We analyze the convergence rate of the monotone accelerated proximal gradient method, which can be used to solve structured convex composite optimization problems. A linear convergence rate is established when the smooth part of the…
Establishing a fast rate of convergence for optimization methods is crucial to their applicability in practice. With the increasing popularity of deep learning over the past decade, stochastic gradient descent and its adaptive variants…
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…
We investigate the Randomized Stochastic Accelerated Gradient (RSAG) method, utilizing either constant or adaptive step sizes, for stochastic optimization problems with generalized smooth objective functions. Under relaxed affine variance…
We provide a concise, self-contained proof that the Silver Stepsize Schedule proposed in Part I directly applies to smooth (non-strongly) convex optimization. Specifically, we show that with these stepsizes, gradient descent computes an…
We introduce a novel dynamic learning-rate scheduling scheme grounded in theory with the goal of simplifying the manual and time-consuming tuning of schedules in practice. Our approach is based on estimating the locally-optimal stepsize,…
Gradient restarting has been shown to improve the numerical performance of accelerated gradient methods. This paper provides a mathematical analysis to understand these advantages. First, we establish global linear convergence guarantees…
We prove the exact worst-case convergence rate of gradient descent for smooth strongly convex optimization, with respect to the performance criterion $\Vert \nabla f(x_N)\Vert^2/(f(x_0)-f_*)$. The proof differs from the previous one by…
Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) for strongly convex functions converges at the rate $\bO(1/k)$. However, achieving good results in practice requires tuning the parameters (for example the learning rate) of the algorithm. In this paper we…
We show that the \emph{stochastic gradient} bandit algorithm converges to a \emph{globally optimal} policy at an $O(1/t)$ rate, even with a \emph{constant} step size. Remarkably, global convergence of the stochastic gradient bandit…
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…
In this paper, acceleration of gradient methods for convex optimization problems with weak levels of convexity and smoothness is considered. Starting from the universal fast gradient method which was designed to be an optimal method for…
We develop new sub-optimality bounds for gradient descent (GD) that depend on the conditioning of the objective along the path of optimization rather than on global, worst-case constants. Key to our proofs is directional smoothness, a…
We present adaptive gradient methods (both basic and accelerated) for solving convex composite optimization problems in which the main part is approximately smooth (a.k.a. $(\delta, L)$-smooth) and can be accessed only via a (potentially…
We consider the problem of maximizing a convex function over a closed convex set in a real Hilbert space. For linear functions, we show that a single orthogonal projection suffices to obtain an approximate solution. For continuous convex…
We consider the minimization of non-convex quadratic forms regularized by a cubic term, which exhibit multiple saddle points and poor local minima. Nonetheless, we prove that, under mild assumptions, gradient descent approximates the…
We study when the \emph{optimization curve} of first-order methods -- the sequence \${f(x\_n)}*{n\ge0}\$ produced by constant-stepsize iterations -- is convex, equivalently when the forward differences \$f(x\_n)-f(x*{n+1})\$ are…