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We apply a recently developed framework for analyzing the convergence of stochastic algorithms to the general problem of large-scale nonconvex composite optimization more generally, and nonconvex likelihood maximization in particular. Our…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-01-25 D. Russell Luke , Steffen Schultze , Helmut Grubmüller

This note studies numerical methods for solving compositional optimization problems, where the inner function is smooth, and the outer function is Lipschitz continuous, non-smooth, and non-convex but exhibits one of two special structures…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-11-22 Yao Yao , Qihang Lin , Tianbao Yang

Supported by the recent contributions in multiple branches, the first-order splitting algorithms became central for structured nonsmooth optimization. In the large-scale or noisy contexts, when only stochastic information on the smooth part…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-10-05 Andrei Patrascu , Paul Irofti

In this work, we develop first-order (Hessian-free) and zero-order (derivative-free) implementations of the Cubically regularized Newton method for solving general non-convex optimization problems. For that, we employ finite difference…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-09-06 Nikita Doikov , Geovani Nunes Grapiglia

This paper studies distributed stochastic nonconvex optimization problems with compressed communication and differential privacy, in which each agent aims to minimize the sum of all agents' cost functions by using local compressed…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-24 Antai Xie , Xiaoqiang Ren , Xinlei Yi , Tao Yang , Xiaofan Wang

Distributed zeroth-order optimization is increasingly applied in heterogeneous scenarios where agents possess distinct data distributions and objectives. This heterogeneity poses fundamental challenges for convergence analysis, as existing…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-02-10 Haonan Wang , Xinlei Yi , Yiguang Hong , Minghui Liwang

Discretizations of Langevin diffusions provide a powerful method for sampling and Bayesian inference. However, such discretizations require evaluation of the gradient of the potential function. In several real-world scenarios, obtaining…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2021-01-19 Abhishek Roy , Lingqing Shen , Krishnakumar Balasubramanian , Saeed Ghadimi

An adaptive regularization algorithm using inexact function and derivatives evaluations is proposed for the solution of composite nonsmooth nonconvex optimization. It is shown that this algorithm needs at most…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-02-28 S. Gratton , E. Simon , Ph. L. Toint

This paper considers the smooth bilevel optimization in which the lower-level problem is strongly convex and the upper-level problem is possibly nonconvex. We focus on the stochastic setting where the algorithm can access the unbiased…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-12-16 Zhuanghua Liu , Luo Luo

In this paper we deal with stochastic optimization problems where the data distributions change in response to the decision variables. Traditionally, the study of optimization problems with decision-dependent distributions has assumed…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-10-05 Zifan Wang , Changxin Liu , Thomas Parisini , Michael M. Zavlanos , Karl H. Johansson

We propose a stochastic nonconvex optimization algorithm that achieves almost sure $\tilde{\mathcal{O}}(\epsilon^{-1.5})$ iteration complexity for problems with smooth objective functions and gradients only observable with noise. The…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-30 Yunsoo Ha , Sara Shashaani , Quoc Tran-dinh

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 analyze a stochastic approximation algorithm for decision-dependent problems, wherein the data distribution used by the algorithm evolves along the iterate sequence. The primary examples of such problems appear in performative prediction…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-05-15 Joshua Cutler , Mateo Díaz , Dmitriy Drusvyatskiy

We consider the problem of unconstrained minimization of a smooth objective function in $\R^n$ in a setting where only function evaluations are possible. While importance sampling is one of the most popular techniques used by machine…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-04-03 Adel Bibi , El Houcine Bergou , Ozan Sener , Bernard Ghanem , Peter Richtárik

We develop a line-search second-order algorithmic framework for minimizing finite sums. We do not make any convexity assumptions, but require the terms of the sum to be continuously differentiable and have Lipschitz-continuous gradients.…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-06-28 Daniela di Serafino , Nataša Krejić , Nataša Krklec Jerinkić , Marco Viola

We consider the unconstrained optimization problem whose objective function is composed of a smooth and a non-smooth conponents where the smooth component is the expectation a random function. This type of problem arises in some interesting…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2011-07-01 Qihang Lin , Xi Chen , Javier Pena

We consider smooth stochastic convex optimization problems in the context of algorithms which are based on directional derivatives of the objective function. This context can be considered as an intermediate one between derivative-free…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-09-22 Pavel Dvurechensky , Eduard Gorbunov , Alexander Gasnikov

In this report, we study decentralized stochastic optimization to minimize a sum of smooth and strongly convex cost functions when the functions are distributed over a directed network of nodes. In contrast to the existing work, we use…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-07-24 Muhammad I. Qureshi , Ran Xin , Soummya Kar , Usman A. Khan

We present two easy-to-implement gradient-free/zeroth-order methods to optimize a stochastic non-smooth function accessible only via a black-box. The methods are built upon efficient first-order methods in the heavy-tailed case, i.e., when…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-08-25 Nikita Kornilov , Alexander Gasnikov , Pavel Dvurechensky , Darina Dvinskikh

In a real Hilbert space setting, we study the convergence properties of an inexact gradient algorithm featuring both viscous and Hessian driven damping for convex differentiable optimization. In this algorithm, the gradient evaluation can…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-09-25 Harsh Choudhary , Jalal Fadili , Vyachelav Kungurtsev