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In this paper, we study multi-block min-max bilevel optimization problems, where the upper level is non-convex strongly-concave minimax objective and the lower level is a strongly convex objective, and there are multiple blocks of dual…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-11-22 Quanqi Hu , Yongjian Zhong , Tianbao Yang

In this paper, we study the regularity assumptions commonly adopted in bilevel optimization with constrained lower-level problems, including the linear independence constraint qualification, the strict complementary slackness condition, and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-15 Xiaotian Jiang , Chang He , Mingyi Hong , Shuzhong Zhang

Bilevel optimization problems embed the optimality of a subproblem as a constraint of another optimization problem. We introduce the concept of near-optimality robustness for bilevel optimization, protecting the upper-level solution…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-07-15 Mathieu Besançon , Miguel F. Anjos , Luce Brotcorne

It is well known that bilevel optimization problems are hard to solve both in theory and practice. In this paper, we highlight a further computational difficulty when it comes to solving bilevel problems with continuous but nonconvex lower…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-05-04 Yasmine Beck , Daniel Bienstock , Martin Schmidt , Johannes Thürauf

Previous algorithms can solve convex-concave minimax problems $\min_{x \in \mathcal{X}} \max_{y \in \mathcal{Y}} f(x,y)$ with $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^{-2/3})$ second-order oracle calls using Newton-type methods. This result has been…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-06-11 Lesi Chen , Chengchang Liu , Luo Luo , Jingzhao Zhang

This paper studies the complexity for finding approximate stationary points of nonconvex-strongly-concave (NC-SC) smooth minimax problems, in both general and averaged smooth finite-sum settings. We establish nontrivial lower complexity…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-03-31 Siqi Zhang , Junchi Yang , Cristóbal Guzmán , Negar Kiyavash , Niao He

Lower-bound analyses for nonconvex strongly-concave minimax optimization problems have shown that stochastic first-order algorithms require at least $\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon^{-4})$ oracle complexity to find an $\varepsilon$-stationary…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-15 Haoyuan Cai , Sulaiman A. Alghunaim , Ali H. Sayed

This paper studies minimax optimization problems $\min_x \max_y f(x,y)$, where $f(x,y)$ is $m_x$-strongly convex with respect to $x$, $m_y$-strongly concave with respect to $y$ and $(L_x,L_{xy},L_y)$-smooth. Zhang et al. provided the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-10-20 Yuanhao Wang , Jian Li

We propose efficient methods for solving stochastic simple bilevel optimization problems with convex inner levels, where the goal is to minimize an outer stochastic objective function subject to the solution set of an inner stochastic…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-11-25 Khanh-Hung Giang-Tran , Soroosh Shafiee , Nam Ho-Nguyen

This paper considers stochastic first-order algorithms for convex-concave minimax problems of the form $\min_{\bf x}\max_{\bf y}f(\bf x, \bf y)$, where $f$ can be presented by the average of $n$ individual components which are $L$-average…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-02-01 Luo Luo , Guangzeng Xie , Tong Zhang , Zhihua Zhang

We design an algorithm which finds an $\epsilon$-approximate stationary point (with $\|\nabla F(x)\|\le \epsilon$) using $O(\epsilon^{-3})$ stochastic gradient and Hessian-vector products, matching guarantees that were previously available…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-06-25 Yossi Arjevani , Yair Carmon , John C. Duchi , Dylan J. Foster , Ayush Sekhari , Karthik Sridharan

In this paper, we provide tight lower bounds for the oracle complexity of minimizing high-order H\"older smooth and uniformly convex functions. Specifically, for a function whose $p^{th}$-order derivatives are H\"older continuous with…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-06-10 Cedar Site Bai , Brian Bullins

In this paper we begin by discussing the simple bilevel programming problem (SBP) and its extension the simple mathematical programming problem under equilibrium constraints (SMPEC). Here we first define both these problems and study their…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-12-16 Stephan Dempe , Nguyen Dinh , Joydeep Dutta , Tanushree Pandit

Bilevel linear programming (LP) is one of the simplest classes of bilevel optimization problems, yet it is known to be NP-hard in general. Specifically, determining whether the optimal objective value of a bilevel LP is at least as good as…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-23 Nagisa Sugishita , Margarida Carvalho

(Stochastic) bilevel optimization is a frequently encountered problem in machine learning with a wide range of applications such as meta-learning, hyper-parameter optimization, and reinforcement learning. Most of the existing studies on…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-03-16 Meng Ding , Mingxi Lei , Yunwen Lei , Di Wang , Jinhui Xu

We lower bound the complexity of finding $\epsilon$-stationary points (with gradient norm at most $\epsilon$) using stochastic first-order methods. In a well-studied model where algorithms access smooth, potentially non-convex functions…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-03-01 Yossi Arjevani , Yair Carmon , John C. Duchi , Dylan J. Foster , Nathan Srebro , Blake Woodworth

We consider a broad class of first-order optimization algorithms which are \emph{oblivious}, in the sense that their step sizes are scheduled regardless of the function under consideration, except for limited side-information such as…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2016-05-12 Yossi Arjevani , Ohad Shamir

In this paper we study convex bi-level optimization problems for which the inner level consists of minimization of the sum of smooth and nonsmooth functions. The outer level aims at minimizing a smooth and strongly convex function over the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2017-02-15 Shoham Sabach , Shimrit Shtern

This paper proposes a new algorithm -- the \underline{S}ingle-timescale Do\underline{u}ble-momentum \underline{St}ochastic \underline{A}pprox\underline{i}matio\underline{n} (SUSTAIN) -- for tackling stochastic unconstrained bilevel…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-06-16 Prashant Khanduri , Siliang Zeng , Mingyi Hong , Hoi-To Wai , Zhaoran Wang , Zhuoran Yang

Minimax optimization problems arises from both modern machine learning including generative adversarial networks, adversarial training and multi-agent reinforcement learning, as well as from tradition research areas such as saddle point…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-04-22 Yu-HOng Dai , Liwei Zhang