The effectiveness of projection methods for solving systems of linear inequalities is investigated. It is shown that they have a computational advantage over some alternatives and that this makes them successful in real-world applications. This is supported by experimental evidence provided in this paper on problems of various sizes (up to tens of thousands of unknowns satisfying up to hundreds of thousands of constraints) and by a discussion of the demonstrated efficacy of projection methods in numerous scientific publications and commercial patents (dealing with problems that can have over a billion unknowns and a similar number of constraints).
The randomized projection (RP) method is a simple iterative scheme for solving linear feasibility problems and has recently gained popularity due to its speed and low memory requirement. This paper develops an accelerated variant of the standard RP method by using two ingredients: the greedy probability criterion and the average block approach, and obtains a greedy randomized average block projection (GRABP) method for solving large-scale systems of linear inequalities. We prove that this method converges linearly in expectation under different choices of extrapolated stepsizes. Numerical expe…
In this work we consider an iterative method for solving the quasi-convex feasibility problem. We firstly introduce the so-called star subgradient projection operator and present some useful properties. We subsequently obtain a convergence result of the considered method by using properties of the introduced nonlinear operator.
We propose a generalization of the method of cyclic projections, which uses the lengths of projection steps carried out in the past to learn about the geometry of the problem and decides on this basis which projections to carry out in the future. We prove the convergence of this algorithm and illustrate its behavior in a first numerical study.
Finding a point in the intersection of a collection of closed convex sets, that is the convex feasibility problem, represents the main modeling strategy for many computational problems. In this paper we analyze new stochastic reformulations of the convex feasibility problem in order to facilitate the development of new algorithmic schemes. We also analyze the conditioning problem parameters using certain (linear) regularity assumptions on the individual convex sets. Then, we introduce a general random projection algorithmic framework, which extends to the random settings many existing projecti…
We revisit the feasibility approach to the construction of compactly supported smooth orthogonal wavelets on the line. We highlight its flexibility and illustrate how symmetry and cardinality properties are easily embedded in the design criteria. We solve the resulting wavelet feasibility problems using recently introduced centering methods, and we compare performance. Solutions admit real-valued compactly supported smooth orthogonal scaling functions and wavelets with near symmetry and near cardinality properties.
In this work we study the method of Bregman projections for deterministic and stochastic convex feasibility problems with three types of control sequences for the selection of sets during the algorithmic procedure: greedy, random, and adaptive random. We analyze in depth the case of affine feasibility problems showing that the iterates generated by the proposed methods converge Q-linearly and providing also explicit global and local rates of convergence. This work generalizes from one hand recent developments in randomized methods for the solution of linear systems based on orthogonal projecti…
We give a link to a page on the Web on which we deposited a set of eight huge Linear Programming (LP) problems for Intensity-Modulated Proton Therapy (IMPT) treatment planning. These huge LP problems were employed in our recent research and we were asked to make them public.
The convex feasibility problem (CFP) is at the core of the modeling of many problems in various areas of science. Subgradient projection methods are important tools for solving the CFP because they enable the use of subgradient calculations instead of orthogonal projections onto the individual sets of the problem. Working in a real Hilbert space, we show that the sequential subgradient projection method is perturbation resilient. By this we mean that under appropriate conditions the sequence generated by the method converges weakly, and sometimes also strongly, to a point in the intersection o…
We consider the superiorization methodology, which can be thought of as lying between feasibility-seeking and constrained minimization. It is not quite trying to solve the full fledged constrained minimization problem; rather, the task is to find a feasible point which is superior (with respect to the objective function value) to one returned by a feasibility-seeking only algorithm. Our main result reveals new information about the mathematical behavior of the superiorization methodology. We deal with a constrained minimization problem with a feasible region, which is the intersection of finit…
Let $A$ be a real $M \times N$ measurement matrix and $b\in \mathbb{R}^M$ be an observations vector. The affine feasibility problem with sparsity and nonnegativity ($AFP_{SN}$ for short) is to find a sparse and nonnegative vector $x\in \mathbb{R}^N$ with $Ax=b$ if such $x$ exists. In this paper, we focus on establishment of optimization approach to solving the $AFP_{SN}$. By discussing tangent cone and normal cone of sparse constraint, we give the first necessary optimality conditions, $α$-Stability, T-Stability and N-Stability, and the second necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for…
In this paper, we introduce a new method for solving variational inequality problems with monotone and Lipschitz-continuous mapping in Hilbert space. The iterative process is based on two well-known projection method and the hybrid (or outer approximation) method. However we do not use an extrapolation step in the projection method. The absence of one projection in our method is explained by slightly different choice of sets in hybrid method. We prove a strong convergence of the sequences generated by our method.
The circumcentered-reflection method (CRM) has been applied for solving convex feasibility problems. CRM iterates by computing a circumcenter upon a composition of reflections with respect to convex sets. Since reflections are based on exact projections, their computation might be costly. In this regard, we introduce the circumcentered approximate-reflection method (CARM), whose reflections rely on outer-approximate projections. The appeal of CARM is that, in rather general situations, the approximate projections we employ are available under low computational cost. We derive convergence of CA…
In this paper, we introduce and study a new extragradient iterative process for finding a common element of the set of fixed points of an infinite family of nonexpansive mappings and the set of solutions of a variational inequality for an inverse strongly monotone mapping in a real Hilbert space. Also, we prove that under quite mild conditions the iterative sequence defined by our new extragradient method converges strongly to a solution of the fixed point problem for an infinite family of nonexpansive mappings and the classical variational inequality problem. In addition, utilizing this resul…
In this paper we present a new algorithmic realization of a projection-based scheme for general convex constrained optimization problem. The general idea is to transform the original optimization problem to a sequence of feasibility problems by iteratively constraining the objective function from above until the feasibility problem is inconsistent. For each of the feasibility problems one may apply any of the existing projection methods for solving it. In particular, the scheme allows the use of subgradient projections and does not require exact projections onto the constraints sets as in exis…
Classical extragradient schemes and their stochastic counterpart represent a cornerstone for resolving monotone variational inequality problems. Yet, such schemes have a per-iteration complexity of two projections onto a convex set and require two evaluations of the map, the former of which could be relatively expensive if $X$ is a complicated set. We consider two related avenues where the per-iteration complexity is significantly reduced: (i) A stochastic projected reflected gradient method requiring a single evaluation of the map and a single projection; and (ii) A stochastic subgradient ext…
We point out that Chubanov's oracle-based algorithm for linear programming [5] can be applied almost as it is to linear semi-infinite programming (LSIP). In this note, we describe the details and prove the polynomial complexity of the algorithm based on the real computation model proposed by Blum, Shub and Smale (the BSS model) which is more suitable for floating point computation in modern computers. The adoption of the BBS model makes our description and analysis much simpler than the original one by Chubanov [5]. Then we reformulate semidefinite programming (SDP) and second-order cone progr…
The classical convex feasibility problem in a finite dimensional Euclidean space is studied in the present paper. We are interested in two cases. First, we assume to know how to compute an exact project onto one of the sets involved and the other set is compact such that the conditional gradient (CondG) method can be used for computing efficiently an inexact projection on it. Second, we assume that both sets involved are compact such that the CondG method can be used for computing efficiently inexact projections on them. We combine alternating projection method with CondG method to design a ne…
In this paper, we study the generalized Douglas-Rachford algorithm and its cyclic variants which include many projection-type methods such as the classical Douglas-Rachford algorithm and the alternating projection algorithm. Specifically, we establish several local linear convergence results for the algorithm in solving feasibility problems with finitely many closed possibly nonconvex sets under different assumptions. Our findings not only relax some regularity conditions but also improve linear convergence rates in the literature. In the presence of convexity, the linear convergence is global…
Projection methods are popular algorithms for iteratively solving feasibility problems in Euclidean or even Hilbert spaces. They employ (selections of) nearest point mappings to generate sequences that are designed to approximate a point in the intersection of a collection of constraint sets. Theoretical properties of projection methods are fairly well understood when the underlying constraint sets are convex; however, convergence results for the nonconvex case are more complicated and typically only local. In this paper, we explore the perhaps simplest instance of a feasibility algorithm, nam…
The convex feasibility problem (CFP) is to find a feasible point in the intersection of finitely many convex and closed sets. If the intersection is empty then the CFP is inconsistent and a feasible point does not exist. However, algorithmic research of inconsistent CFPs exists and is mainly focused on two directions. One is oriented toward defining other solution concepts that will apply, such as proximity function minimization wherein a proximity function measures in some way the total violation of all constraints. The second direction investigates the behavior of algorithms that are designe…
We study variational inequalities which are governed by a strongly monotone and Lipschitz continuous operator $F$ over a closed and convex set $S$. We assume that $S=C\cap A^{-1}(Q)$ is the nonempty solution set of a (multiple-set) split convex feasibility problem, where $C$ and $Q$ are both closed and convex subsets of two real Hilbert spaces $\mathcal H_1$ and $\mathcal H_2$, respectively, and the operator $A$ acting between them is linear. We consider a modification of the gradient projection method the main idea of which is to replace at each step the metric projection onto $S$ by another …
Constrained convex optimization problems arise naturally in many real-world applications. One strategy to solve them in an approximate way is to translate them into a sequence of convex feasibility problems via the recently developed level set scheme and then solve each feasibility problem using projection methods. However, if the problem is ill-conditioned, projection methods often show zigzagging behavior and therefore converge slowly. To address this issue, we exploit the bounded perturbation resilience of the projection methods and introduce two new perturbations which avoid zigzagging beh…
Convergence Rates for Variational Inequality Projection Neural Networks with a State-Dependent Metric
King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals（阿卜杜勒阿齐兹国王石油矿物大学）；Interdisciplinary Research Center for Smart Mobility and Logistics, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals（阿卜杜勒阿齐兹国王石油矿物大学智能交通与物流交叉研究中心）
TU Braunschweig（布伦瑞克工业大学）；Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg（卡尔·冯·奥西茨基奥尔登堡大学）
The linearized Bregman method is a method to calculate sparse solutions to systems of linear equations. We formulate this problem as a split feasibility problem, propose an algorithmic framework based on Bregman projections and prove a general convergence result for this framework. Convergence of the linearized Bregman method will be obtained as a special case. Our approach also allows for several generalizations such as other objective functions, incremental iterations, incorporation of non-gaussian noise models or box constraints.
We introduce a reformulation technique that converts a many-set feasibility problem into an equivalent two-set problem. This technique involves reformulating the original feasibility problem by replacing a pair of its constraint sets with their intersection, before applying Pierra's classical product space reformulation. The step of combining the two constraint sets reduces the dimension of the product spaces. We refer to this as the constraint reduction reformulation and use it to obtain constraint-reduced variants of well-known projection algorithms such as the Douglas--Rachford algorithm an…
Simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) is widely used in stochastic optimization due to its high efficiency, asymptotic stability, and reduced number of required loss function measurements. However, the standard SPSA algorithm needs to be modified to deal with constrained problems. In recent years, sequential quadratic programming (SQP)-based projection ideas and penalty ideas have been analyzed. Both ideas have convergence results and a potentially wide range of applications, but with some limitations in practical consideration, such as computation time, complexity, and fea…
The subgradient extragradient method for solving the variational inequality (VI) problem, which is introduced by Censor et al. \cite{CGR}, replaces the second projection onto the feasible set of the VI, in the extragradient method, with a subgradient projection onto some constructible half-space. Since the method has been introduced, many authors proposed extensions and modifications with applications to various problems. In this paper, we introduce a modified subgradient extragradient method by improving the stepsize of its second step. Convergence of the proposed method is proved under stand…
We introduce and study the convergence properties of a projection-type algorithm for solving the variational inequality problem for point-to-set operators. No monotoni\-city assumption is used in our analysis. The operator defining the problem is only assumed to be continuous in the point-to-set sense, i.e., inner- and outer-semicontinuous. Additionally, we assume non-emptiness of the so-called dual solution set. We prove that the whole sequence of iterates converges to a solution of the variational inequality. Moreover, we provide numerical experiments illustrating the behavior of our iterate…
This paper is focused on a stochastic quasi-variational inequality (SQVI) problem with a continuous and strongly-monotone mapping over a closed and convex set where the projection onto the constraint set may not be easy to compute. We present an inexact variance reduced stochastic scheme to solve SQVI problems and analyzed its convergence rate and oracle complexity. A linear rate of convergence is obtained by progressively increasing sample-size and approximating the projection operator. Moreover, we show how a competition among blood donation organizations can be modeled as an SQVI and we pro…
The Douglas-Rachford method, a projection algorithm designed to solve continuous optimization problems, forms the basis of a useful heuristic for solving combinatorial optimization problems. In order to successfully use the method, it is necessary to formulate the problem at hand as a feasibility problem with constraint sets having efficiently computable nearest points. In this self-contained tutorial, we develop the convergence theory of projection algorithms within the framework of fixed point iterations, explain how to devise useful feasibility problem formulations, and demonstrate the appl…
Consider convex optimization problems subject to a large number of constraints. We focus on stochastic problems in which the objective takes the form of expected values and the feasible set is the intersection of a large number of convex sets. We propose a class of algorithms that perform both stochastic gradient descent and random feasibility updates simultaneously. At every iteration, the algorithms sample a number of projection points onto a randomly selected small subsets of all constraints. Three feasibility update schemes are considered: averaging over random projected points, projecting…
The method of alternating projections is a classical tool to solve feasibility problems. Here we prove local convergence of alternating projections between subanalytic sets $A,B$ under a mild regularity hypothesis on one of the sets. We show that the speed of convergence is O$(k^{-ρ})$ for some $ρ\in (0,\infty)$.
This paper deals with a modified iterative projection method for approximating a solution of the hierarchical fixed point problem for a sequene of nearly nonexpansive mappings with respect to a nonexpansive mapping. It is shown that under certain approximate assumptions on the operators and parameters, the modified iterative sequence converges strongly to a common element of the set of the common fixed points of nearly nonexpansive mappings.Also, this point solves some variational inequality. As a special case, this projection method can be used to find the minimum norm solution of the given v…
We propose first order algorithms for convex optimization problems where the feasible set is described by a large number of convex inequalities that is to be explored by subgradient projections. The first algorithm is an adaptation of a subgradient algorithm, and has convergence rate $1/\sqrt{k}$. The second algorithm has convergence rate 1/k when (1) one has linear metric inequality in the feasible set, (2) the objective function is strongly convex, differentiable and has Lipschitz gradient, and (3) it is easy to optimize the objective function on the intersection of two halfspaces. This seco…
The main goal of this paper is to present the application of a superiorization methodology to solution of variational inequalities. Within this framework a variational inequality operator is considered as a small perturbation of a convex feasibility solver what allows to construct a simple iteration algorithm. The specific features of variational inequality problems allow to use a finite-value perturbation which may be advantageous from computational point of view. The price for simplicity and finite-value is that the algorithm provides an approximate solution of variational inequality problem…
