The averaged alternating modified reflections algorithm is a projection method for finding the closest point in the intersection of closed convex sets to a given point in a Hilbert space. In this work, we generalize the scheme so that it can be used to compute the resolvent of the sum of two maximally monotone operators. This gives rise to a new splitting method, which is proved to be strongly convergent. A standard product space reformulation permits to apply the method for computing the resolvent of a finite sum of maximally monotone operators. Based on this, we propose two variants of such parallel splitting method.
Maximally monotone operators play important roles in optimization, variational analysis and differential equations. Finding zeros of maximally monotone operators has been a central topic. In a Hilbert space, we show that most resolvents are super-regular, that most maximally monotone operators have a unique zero and that the set of strongly monotone mapping is of first category although each strongly monotone operator has a unique zero. The results are established by applying the Baire Category Theorem to the space of nonexpansive mappings.
In this paper we propose a resolvent splitting with minimal lifting for finding a zero of the sum of $n\ge 2$ maximally monotone operators involving the composition with a linear bounded operator. The resolvent of each monotone operator, the linear operator, and its adjoint are computed exactly once in the proposed algorithm. In the case when the linear operator is the identity, we recover the resolvent splitting with minimal lifting developed in Malitsky-Tam (2021). We also derive a new resolvent splitting for solving the composite monotone inclusion in the case $n=2$ with minimal $1-$fold li…
In this work, we study fixed point algorithms for finding a zero in the sum of $n\geq 2$ maximally monotone operators by using their resolvents. More precisely, we consider the class of such algorithms where each resolvent is evaluated only once per iteration. For any algorithm from this class, we show that the underlying fixed point operator is necessarily defined on a $d$-fold Cartesian product space with $d\geq n-1$. Further, we show that this bound is unimprovable by providing a family of examples for which $d=n-1$ is attained. This family includes the Douglas-Rachford algorithm as the spe…
The correspondence between the monotonicity of a (possibly) set-valued operator and the firm nonexpansiveness of its resolvent is a key ingredient in the convergence analysis of many optimization algorithms. Firmly nonexpansive operators form a proper subclass of the more general - but still pleasant from an algorithmic perspective - class of averaged operators. In this paper, we introduce the new notion of conically nonexpansive operators which generalize nonexpansive mappings. We characterize averaged operators as being resolvents of comonotone operators under appropriate scaling. As a conse…
This paper provides a new way of developing the splitting method which is used to solve the problem of finding the resolvent of the sum of maximal monotone operators in Hilbert spaces. By employing accelerated techniques developed by Davis and Yin (in Set-Valued Var. Anal. 25(4):829-858, 2017), this paper presents an implementable, strongly convergent splitting method which is designed to solve the problem. In particular, we show that the distance between the sequence of iterates and the solution converges to zero at a rate O(1/k) to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method, where k is…
Resolvents of set-valued operators play a central role in various branches of mathematics and in particular in the design and the analysis of splitting algorithms for solving monotone inclusions. We propose a generalization of this notion, called warped resolvent, which is constructed with the help of an auxiliary operator. The properties of warped resolvents are investigated and connections are made with existing notions. Abstract weak and strong convergence principles based on warped resolvents are proposed and shown to not only provide a synthetic view of splitting algorithms but to also co…
In this work, we study resolvent splitting algorithms for solving composite monotone inclusion problems. The objective of these general problems is finding a zero in the sum of maximally monotone operators composed with linear operators. Our main contribution is establishing the first primal-dual splitting algorithm for composite monotone inclusions with minimal lifting. Specifically, the proposed scheme reduces the dimension of the product space where the underlying fixed point operator is defined, in comparison to other algorithms, without requiring additional evaluations of the resolvent op…
Coupled Adaptable Backward-Forward-Backward Resolvent Splitting Algorithm (CABRA): A Matrix-Parametrized Resolvent Splitting Method for the Sum of Maximal Monotone and Cocoercive Operators Composed with Linear Coupling Operators
United States Naval Academy（美国海军学院）；Naval Postgraduate School（海军研究生院）
This paper proposes an accelerated proximal point method for maximally monotone operators. The proof is computer-assisted via the performance estimation problem approach. The proximal point method includes various well-known convex optimization methods, such as the proximal method of multipliers and the alternating direction method of multipliers, and thus the proposed acceleration has wide applications. Numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the accelerating behaviors.
Within convex analysis, a rich theory with various applications has been evolving since the proximal average of convex functions was first introduced over a decade ago. When one considers the subdifferential of the proximal average, a natural averaging operation of the subdifferentials of the averaged functions emerges. In the present paper we extend the reach of this averaging operation to the framework of monotone operator theory in Hilbert spaces, transforming it into the resolvent average. The theory of resolvent averages contains many desirable properties. In particular, we study a detail…
The most famous open problem in Monotone Operator Theory concerns the maximal monotonicity of the sum of two maximally monotone operators provided that Rockafellar's constraint qualification holds. In this paper, we prove the maximal monotonicity of $A+B$ provided that $A, B$ are maximally monotone and $A$ is a linear relation, as soon as Rockafellar's constraint qualification holds: $\dom A\cap\inte\dom B\neq\varnothing$. Moreover, $A+B$ is of type (FPV).
We propose an asynchronous block-iterative decomposition algorithm to solve Nash equilibrium problems involving a mix of nonsmooth and smooth functions acting on linear mixtures of strategies. The methodology relies heavily on monotone operator theory and in particular on warped resolvents.
We introduce a subfamily of additive enlargements of a maximally monotone operator. Our definition is inspired by the early work of Simon Fitzpatrick. These enlargements constitute a subfamily of the family of enlargements introduced by Svaiter. When the operator under consideration is the subdifferential of a convex lower semicontinuous proper function, we prove that some members of the subfamily are smaller than the classical $ε$-subdifferential enlargement widely used in convex analysis. We also recover the epsilon-subdifferential within the subfamily. Since they are all additive, the enlar…
Maximally monotone operators are fundamental objects in modern optimization. The main classes of monotone operators are subdifferential operators and matrices with a positive semidefinite symmetric part. In this paper, we study a nice class of monotone operators: displacement mappings of isometries of finite order. We derive explicit formulas for resolvents, Yosida approximations, and (set-valued and MoorePenrose) inverses. We illustrate our results by considering certain rational rotators and circular shift operators.
The most important open problem in Monotone Operator Theory concerns the maximal monotonicity of the sum of two maximally monotone operators provided that Rockafellar's constraint qualification holds. In this paper, we prove the maximal monotonicity of $A+\partial f$ provided that $A$ is a maximally monotone linear relation, and $f$ is a proper lower semicontinuous convex function satisfying $\dom A\cap\inte\dom \partial f\neq\varnothing$. Moreover, $A+\partial f$ is of type (FPV). The maximal monotonicity of $A+\partial f$ when $\intdom A\cap\dom \partial f\neq\varnothing$ follows from a resu…
We provide two weakly convergent algorithms for finding a zero of the sum of a maximally monotone operator, a cocoercive operator, and the normal cone to a closed vector subspace of a real Hilbert space. The methods exploit the intrinsic structure of the problem by activating explicitly the cocoercive operator in the first step, and taking advantage of a vector space decomposition in the second step. The second step of the first method is a Douglas-Rachford iteration involving the maximally monotone operator and the normal cone. In the second method it is a proximal step involving the partial …
Monotone inclusions involving the sum of three maximally monotone operators or more have received much attention in recent years. In this paper, we propose three splitting algorithms for finding a zero of the sum of four monotone operators, which are two maximally monotone operators, one monotone Lipschitz operator, and one cocoercive operator. These three splitting algorithms are based on the forward-reflected-Douglas-Rachford splitting algorithm, backward-forward-reflected-backward splitting algorithm, and backward-reflected-forward-backward splitting algorithm, respectively. As applications…
We study the behavior of the trajectories of a second-order differential equation with vanishing damping, governed by the Yosida regularization of a maximally monotone operator with time-varying index, along with a new {\em Regularized Inertial Proximal Algorithm} obtained by means of a convenient finite-difference discretization. These systems are the counterpart to accelerated forward-backward algorithms in the context of maximally monotone operators. A proper tuning of the parameters allows us to prove the weak convergence of the trajectories to zeroes of the operator. Moreover, it is possi…
In this paper we provide a splitting method for finding a zero of the sum of a maximally monotone operator, a lipschitzian monotone operator, and a normal cone to a closed vectorial subspace of a real Hilbert space. The problem is characterized by a simpler monotone inclusion involving only two operators: the partial inverse of the maximally monotone operator with respect to the vectorial subspace and a suitable lipschitzian monotone operator. By applying the Tseng's method in this context we obtain a splitting algorithm that exploits the whole structure of the original problem and generalizes…
The aim of this article is to present two different primal-dual methods for solving structured monotone inclusions involving parallel sums of compositions of maximally monotone operators with linear bounded operators. By employing some elaborated splitting techniques, all of the operators occurring in the problem formulation are processed individually via forward or backward steps. The treatment of parallel sums of linearly composed maximally monotone operators is motivated by applications in imaging which involve first- and second-order total variation functionals, to which a special attentio…
We propose a flexible approach for computing the resolvent of the sum of weakly monotone operators in real Hilbert spaces. This relies on splitting methods where strong convergence is guaranteed. We also prove linear convergence under Lipschitz continuity assumption. The approach is then applied to computing the proximity operator of the sum of weakly convex functions, and particularly to finding the best approximation to the intersection of convex sets.
In this paper, we consider the structure of maximally monotone operators in Banach space whose domains have nonempty interior and we present new and explicit structure formulas for such operators. Along the way, we provide new proofs of the norm-to-weak$^{*}$ closedness and of property (Q) for these operators (as recently proven by Voisei). Various applications and limiting examples are given.
We propose a new primal-dual splitting method for solving composite inclusions involving Lipschitzian, and parallel-sum-type monotone operators. Our approach extends the framework in \cite{Siopt4} to a more general class of monotone inclusions in a nontrivial fashion. The main idea is to represent the solution set of both the primal and dual problems using their associated Kuhn-Tucker set, and then develop a projected method to successively approximate a feasible point of the Kuhn-Tucker set. We propose a splitting algorithm based on the resolvent of each maximally monotone operator to constru…
The notion of a firmly nonexpansive mapping is central in fixed point theory because of attractive convergence properties for iterates and the correspondence with maximal monotone operators due to Minty. In this paper, we systematically analyze the relationship between properties of firmly nonexpansive mappings and associated maximal monotone operators. Dual and self-dual properties are also identified. The results are illustrated through several examples.
Monotone operator theory and fixed point theory for nonexpansive mappings are central areas in modern nonlinear analysis and optimization. Although these areas are fairly well developed, almost all examples published are based on subdifferential operators, linear relations, or combinations thereof. In this paper, we construct an intriguing maximally monotone operator induced by a certain nonexpansive retraction. We analyze this operator, which does not appear to be assembled from subdifferential operators or linear relations, in some detail. Particular emphasis is placed on duality and strong …
In this paper we provide the resolvent computation of the parallel composition of a maximally monotone operator by a linear operator under mild assumptions. Connections with a modification of the warped resolvent are provided. In the context of convex optimization, we obtain the proximity operator of the infimal postcomposition of a convex function by a linear operator and we extend full range conditions on the linear operator to mild qualification conditions. We also introduce a generalization of the proximity operator involving a general linear bounded operator leading to a generalization of…
In this work, we develop a systematic framework for computing the resolvent of the sum of two or more monotone operators which only activates each operator in the sum individually. The key tool in the development of this framework is the notion of the "strengthening" of a set-valued operator, which can be viewed as a type of regularisation that preserves computational tractability. After deriving a number of iterative schemes through this framework, we demonstrate their application to best approximation problems, image denoising and elliptic PDEs.
Several aspects of the interplay between monotone operator theory and convex optimization are presented. The crucial role played by monotone operators in the analysis and the numerical solution of convex minimization problems is emphasized. We review the properties of subdifferentials as maximally monotone operators and, in tandem, investigate those of proximity operators as resolvents. In particular, we study new transformations which map proximity operators to proximity operators, and establish connections with self-dual classes of firmly nonexpansive operators. In addition, new insights and…
We shed light on the structure of the "three-operator" version of the forward-Douglas--Rachford splitting algorithm for finding a zero of a sum of maximally monotone operators $A + B + C$, where $B$ is cocoercive, involving only the computation of $B$ and of the resolvent of $A$ and of $C$, separately. We show that it is a straightforward extension of a fixed-point algorithm proposed by us as a generalization of the forward-backward splitting algorithm, initially designed for finding a zero of a sum of an arbitrary number of maximally monotone operators $\sum_{i=1}^n A_i + B$, where $B$ is coc…
Monotone inclusions have wide applications in solving various convex optimization problems arising in signal and image processing, machine learning, and medical image reconstruction. In this paper, we propose a new splitting algorithm for finding a zero of the sum of a maximally monotone operator, a monotone Lipschitzian operator, and a cocoercive operator, which is called outer reflected forward-backward splitting algorithm. Under mild conditions on the iterative parameters, we prove the convergence of the proposed algorithm. As applications, we employ the proposed algorithm to solve composit…
A common theme in mathematics is to define generalized solutions to deal with problems that potentially do not have solutions. A classical example is the introduction of least squares solutions via the normal equations associated with a possibly infeasible system of linear equations. In this paper, we introduce a "normal problem" associated with finding a zero of the sum of two maximally monotone operators. If the original problem admits solutions, then the normal problem returns this same set of solutions. The normal problem may yield solutions when the original problem does not admit any; fu…
We present a counterexample showing that the graphical limit of maximally monotone operators might not be maximally monotone. We also characterize the directional differentiability of the resolvent of an operator $B$ in terms of existence and maximal monotonicity of the proto-derivative of $B$.
In his recent Proceedings of the AMS paper "Gossez's skew linear map and its pathological maximally monotone multifunctions", Stephen Simons proved that the closure of the range of the sum of the Gossez operator and a multiple of the duality map is nonconvex whenever the scalar is between 0 and 4. The problem of the convexity of that range when the scalar is equal to 4 was explicitly stated. In this paper, we answer this question in the negative for any scalar greater than or equal to 4. We derive this result from an abstract framework that allows us to also obtain a corresponding result for t…
We introduce the first operator splitting method for composite monotone inclusions outside of Hilbert spaces. The proposed primal-dual method constructs iteratively the best Bregman approximation to an arbitrary point from the Kuhn-Tucker set of a composite monotone inclusion. Strong convergence is established in reflexive Banach spaces without requiring additional restrictions on the monotone operators or knowledge of the norms of the linear operators involved in the model. The monotone operators are activated via Bregman distance-based resolvent operators. The method is novel even in Euclide…
We propose a variable metric extension of the forward--backward-forward algorithm for finding a zero of the sum of a maximally monotone operator and a Lipschitzian monotone operator in Hilbert spaces. In turn, this framework provides a variable metric splitting algorithm for solving monotone inclusions involving sums of composite operators. Several splitting algorithms recently proposed in the literature are recovered as special cases.
In this work, we propose and analyse two splitting algorithms for finding a zero of the sum of three monotone operators, one of which is assumed to be Lipschitz continuous. Each iteration of these algorithms require one forward evaluation of the Lipschitz continuous operator and one resolvent evaluation of each of the other two operators. By specialising to two operator inclusions, we recover the forward-reflected-backward and the reflected-forward-backward splitting methods as particular cases. The inspiration for the proposed algorithms arises from interpretations of the aforementioned refle…
We propose a primal-dual splitting algorithm for solving monotone inclusions involving a mixture of sums, linear compositions, and parallel sums of set-valued and Lipschitzian operators. An important feature of the algorithm is that the Lipschitzian operators present in the formulation can be processed individually via explicit steps, while the set-valued operators are processed individually via their resolvents. In addition, the algorithm is highly parallel in that most of its steps can be executed simultaneously. This work brings together and notably extends various types of structured monot…
Enlargements have proven to be useful tools for studying maximally monotone mappings. It is therefore natural to ask in which cases the enlargement does not change the original mapping. Svaiter has recently characterized non-enlargeable operators in reflexive Banach spaces and has also given some partial results in the nonreflexive case. In the present paper, we provide another characterization of non-enlargeable operators in nonreflexive Banach spaces under a closedness assumption on the graph. Furthermore, and still for general Banach spaces, we present a new proof of the maximality of the s…
We deal with monotone inclusion problems of the form $0\in Ax+Dx+N_C(x)$ in real Hilbert spaces, where $A$ is a maximally monotone operator, $D$ a cocoercive operator and $C$ the nonempty set of zeros of another cocoercive operator. We propose a forward-backward penalty algorithm for solving this problem which extends the one proposed by H. Attouch, M.-O. Czarnecki and J. Peypouquet in [3]. The condition which guarantees the weak ergodic convergence of the sequence of iterates generated by the proposed scheme is formulated by means of the Fitzpatrick function associated to the maximally monoto…
