A variational perspective on accelerated methods in optimization

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Publication:4646231

DOI10.1073/PNAS.1614734113zbMATH Open1404.90098arXiv1603.04245OpenAlexW2963430672WikidataQ37451331 ScholiaQ37451331MaRDI QIDQ4646231FDOQ4646231

Ashia C. Wilson, Andre Wibisono, Michael Jordan

Publication date: 11 January 2019

Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Accelerated gradient methods play a central role in optimization, achieving optimal rates in many settings. While many generalizations and extensions of Nesterov's original acceleration method have been proposed, it is not yet clear what is the natural scope of the acceleration concept. In this paper, we study accelerated methods from a continuous-time perspective. We show that there is a Lagrangian functional that we call the emph{Bregman Lagrangian} which generates a large class of accelerated methods in continuous time, including (but not limited to) accelerated gradient descent, its non-Euclidean extension, and accelerated higher-order gradient methods. We show that the continuous-time limit of all of these methods correspond to traveling the same curve in spacetime at different speeds. From this perspective, Nesterov's technique and many of its generalizations can be viewed as a systematic way to go from the continuous-time curves generated by the Bregman Lagrangian to a family of discrete-time accelerated algorithms.


Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.04245




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