Run-and-inspect method for nonconvex optimization and global optimality bounds for R-local minimizers

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Publication:2425163

DOI10.1007/S10107-019-01397-WzbMATH Open1415.90085arXiv1711.08172OpenAlexW2963085159WikidataQ127963668 ScholiaQ127963668MaRDI QIDQ2425163FDOQ2425163

Wotao Yin, Yuejiao Sun, Yifan Chen

Publication date: 26 June 2019

Published in: Mathematical Programming. Series A. Series B (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Many optimization algorithms converge to stationary points. When the underlying problem is nonconvex, they may get trapped at local minimizers and occasionally stagnate near saddle points. We propose the Run-and-Inspect Method, which adds an "inspect" phase to existing algorithms that helps escape from non-global stationary points. The inspection samples a set of points in a radius R around the current point. When a sample point yields a sufficient decrease in the objective, we move there and resume an existing algorithm. If no sufficient decrease is found, the current point is called an approximate R-local minimizer. We show that an R-local minimizer is globally optimal, up to a specific error depending on R, if the objective function can be implicitly decomposed into a smooth convex function plus a restricted function that is possibly nonconvex, nonsmooth. For high-dimensional problems, we introduce blockwise inspections to overcome the curse of dimensionality while still maintaining optimality bounds up to a factor equal to the number of blocks. Our method performs well on a set of artificial and realistic nonconvex problems by coupling with gradient descent, coordinate descent, EM, and prox-linear algorithms.


Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.08172





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