English
Related papers

Related papers: Second-order methods for provably escaping strict …

200 papers

We consider a class of nonconvex nonsmooth optimization problems whose objective is the sum of a smooth function and a finite number of nonnegative proper closed possibly nonsmooth functions (whose proximal mappings are easy to compute),…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-05-29 Tianxiang Liu , Ting Kei Pong , Akiko Takeda

This is a continuation of our previous work entitled \enquote{Alternating Proximity Mapping Method for Convex-Concave Saddle-Point Problems}, in which we proposed the alternating proximal mapping method and showed convergence results on the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-11-01 Hui Ouyang

In this paper, we investigate a class of constrained saddle point (SP) problems where the objective function is nonconvex-concave and smooth. This class of problems has wide applicability in machine learning, including robust multi-class…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-11-02 Morteza Boroun , Erfan Yazdandoost Hamedani , Afrooz Jalilzadeh

We study the convex-concave bilinear saddle-point problem $\min_x \max_y f(x) + y^\top Ax - g(y)$, where both, only one, or none of the functions $f$ and $g$ are strongly convex, and suitable rank conditions on the matrix $A$ hold. The…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-04-22 Colin Dirren , Mattia Bianchi , Panagiotis D. Grontas , John Lygeros , Florian Dörfler

In this paper we develop a higher-order method for solving composite (non)convex minimization problems with smooth (non)convex functional constraints. At each iteration our method approximates the smooth part of the objective function and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-03-04 Yassine Nabou , Ion Necoara

In this paper we theoretically show that interior-point methods based on self-concordant barriers possess favorable global complexity beyond their standard application area of convex optimization. To do that we propose first- and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-04-30 Pavel Dvurechensky , Mathias Staudigl

We develop stochastic first-order primal-dual algorithms to solve a class of convex-concave saddle-point problems. When the saddle function is strongly convex in the primal variable, we develop the first stochastic restart scheme for this…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-04-13 Renbo Zhao

Nonconvex optimization problems are widespread in modern machine learning and data science. We introduce an extrapolation strategy into a class of preconditioned second-order convex splitting algorithms for nonconvex optimization problems.…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-12-19 Xinhua Shen , Hongpeng Sun

Saddle point optimization is a critical problem employed in numerous real-world applications, including portfolio optimization, generative adversarial networks, and robotics. It has been extensively studied in cases where the objective…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-03-25 Shubhankar Agarwal , Hamzah I. Khan , Sandeep P. Chinchali , David Fridovich-Keil

We study the theoretical convergence properties of random-search methods when optimizing non-convex objective functions without having access to derivatives. We prove that standard random-search methods that do not rely on second-order…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-10-27 Aurelien Lucchi , Antonio Orvieto , Adamos Solomou

Higher-order tensor methods were recently proposed for minimizing smooth convex and nonconvex functions. Higher-order algorithms accelerate the convergence of the classical first-order methods thanks to the higher-order derivatives used in…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-01-11 Ion Necoara

Randomly initialized first-order optimization algorithms are the method of choice for solving many high-dimensional nonconvex problems in machine learning, yet general theoretical guarantees cannot rule out convergence to critical points of…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-09-28 Dar Gilboa , Sam Buchanan , John Wright

A cutting-plane model for a nonsmooth function is the maximum of several first-order expansions centered at different points. Using such a model in a bundle method leads to linear convergence (of serious steps) to a minimum. In smooth…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-26 Bennet Gebken , Michael Ulbrich

Recent focus on robustness to adversarial attacks for deep neural networks produced a large variety of algorithms for training robust models. Most of the effective algorithms involve solving the min-max optimization problem for training…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-03-03 Yasaman Esfandiari , Aditya Balu , Keivan Ebrahimi , Umesh Vaidya , Nicola Elia , Soumik Sarkar

Satisfaction of the strict saddle property has become a standard assumption in non-convex optimization, and it ensures that many first-order optimization algorithms will almost always escape saddle points. However, functions exist in…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-08-23 Matthew Ubl , Kasra Yazdani , Matthew T. Hale

An optimization algorithm for nonsmooth nonconvex constrained optimization problems with upper-C2 objective functions is proposed and analyzed. Upper-C2 is a weakly concave property that exists in difference of convex (DC) functions and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-04-21 Jingyi Wang , Cosmin G. Petra

Optimization algorithms are unlikely to converge to strict saddle points. Proofs to that effect rely on the Center-Stable Manifold Theorem (CSMT), casting algorithms as dynamical systems: $x_{k+1} = g_k(x_k)$. In its standard form, the CSMT…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-05 Andreea-Alexandra Muşat , Nicolas Boumal

In recent years, random subspace methods have been actively studied for large-dimensional nonconvex problems. Recent subspace methods have improved theoretical guarantees such as iteration complexity and local convergence rate while…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-03-25 Rei Higuchi , Pierre-Louis Poirion , Akiko Takeda

This paper considers a class of distributed resource allocation problems where each agent privately holds a smooth, potentially non-convex local objective, subject to a globally coupled equality constraint. Built upon the existing method,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-08-12 Lei Qin , Ye Pu

Gradient descent is a popular algorithm in optimization, and its performance in convex settings is mostly well understood. In non-convex settings, it has been shown that gradient descent is able to escape saddle points asymptotically and…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-08-17 Shiliang Zuo