本文利用 Moreau 包络研究凸差（DC）函数的极小化问题，并采用带 Moreau 梯度的下降法来逼近数值解。本文的主要正则化思想受 Hiriart-Urruty [14] 和 Moudafi [17] 的启发，通过灵活调整不同参数和策略矩阵来正则化 DC 问题的各分量，从而评估整个 DC 问题。研究表明，惯性梯度法以及经典梯度下降格式都趋向于原问题的一个近似稳定点。
英文摘要：
In this work the minimization problem for the difference of convex (DC) functions is studied by using Moreau envelopes and the descent method with Moreau gradient is employed to approximate the numerical solution. The main regularization idea in this work is inspired by Hiriart-Urruty [14], Moudafi[17], regularize the components of the DC problem by adapting the different parameters and strategic matrices flexibly to evaluate the whole DC problem. It is shown that the inertial gradient method as well as the classic gradient descent scheme tend towards an approximation stationary point of the original problem.
The augmented Lagrangian method (ALM) is one of the most useful methods for constrained optimization. Its convergence has been well established under convexity assumptions or smoothness assumptions, or under both assumptions. ALM may experience oscillations and divergence when the underlying problem is simultaneously nonconvex and nonsmooth. In this paper, we consider the linearly constrained problem with a nonconvex (in particular, weakly convex) and nonsmooth objective. We modify ALM to use a Moreau envelope of the augmented Lagrangian and establish its convergence under conditions that are …
Optimization problems with uncertainty in the constraints occur in many applications. Particularly, probability functions present a natural form to deal with this situation. Nevertheless, in some cases, the resulting probability functions are nonsmooth. This motivates us to propose a regularization employing the Moreau envelope of a scalar representation of the vector inequality. More precisely, we consider a probability function which covers most of the general classes of probabilistic constraints: $$φ(x)=\mathbb{P}(Φ(x,ξ)\in -\mathcal{K}),$$ where $\mathcal{K}$ is a convex cone of a Banach s…
Alternating Gradient-Type Algorithm for Bilevel Optimization with Inexact Lower-Level Solutions via Moreau Envelope-based Reformulation
Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学）；National Center for Applied Mathematics Shenzhen（深圳应用数学国家研究中心）；City University of Hong Kong（香港城市大学）
Recent work has shown that stochastically perturbed gradient methods can efficiently escape strict saddle points of smooth functions. We extend this body of work to nonsmooth optimization, by analyzing an inexact analogue of a stochastically perturbed gradient method applied to the Moreau envelope. The main conclusion is that a variety of algorithms for nonsmooth optimization can escape strict saddle points of the Moreau envelope at a controlled rate. The main technical insight is that typical algorithms applied to the proximal subproblem yield directions that approximate the gradient of the M…
In this paper we consider minimization of a difference-of-convex (DC) function with and without linear constraints. We first study a smooth approximation of a generic DC function, termed difference-of-Moreau-envelopes (DME) smoothing, where both components of the DC function are replaced by their respective Moreau envelopes. The resulting smooth approximation is shown to be Lipschitz differentiable, capture stationary points, local, and global minima of the original DC function, and enjoy some growth conditions, such as level-boundedness and coercivity, for broad classes of DC functions. We th…
Samsung AI Center（三星人工智能中心）；King Abdullah University of Science and Technology（阿卜杜拉国王科技大学）
In this work, we consider the problem of minimizing the sum of Moreau envelopes of given functions, which has previously appeared in the context of meta-learning and personalized federated learning. In contrast to the existing theory that requires running subsolvers until a certain precision is reached, we only assume that a finite number of gradient steps is taken at each iteration. As a special case, our theory allows us to show the convergence of First-Order Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning (FO-MAML) to the vicinity of a solution of Moreau objective. We also study a more general family of first…
Computing tasks may often be posed as optimization problems. The objective functions for real-world scenarios are often nonconvex and/or nondifferentiable. State-of-the-art methods for solving these problems typically only guarantee convergence to local minima. This work presents Hamilton-Jacobi-based Moreau Adaptive Descent (HJ-MAD), a zero-order algorithm with guaranteed convergence to global minima, assuming continuity of the objective function. The core idea is to compute gradients of the Moreau envelope of the objective (which is "piece-wise convex") with adaptive smoothing parameters. Gr…
The notion of a Moreau envelope is central to the analysis of first-order optimization algorithms for machine learning. Yet, it has not been developed and extended to be applied to a deep network and, more broadly, to a machine learning system with a differentiable programming implementation. We define a compositional calculus adapted to Moreau envelopes and show how to integrate it within differentiable programming. The proposed framework casts in a mathematical optimization framework several variants of gradient back-propagation related to the idea of the propagation of virtual targets.
Inexact Moreau Envelope Lagrangian Method for Non-Convex Constrained Optimization under Local Error Bound Conditions on Constraint Functions
Department of Information System, Arizona State University（亚利桑那州立大学信息系统系）；Department of Business Analytics, University of Iowa（爱荷华大学商业分析系）；Department of Mathematical Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute（伦塞拉尔_polytechnic学院数学科学系）
Moreau Envelope Based Difference-of-weakly-Convex Reformulation and Algorithm for Bilevel Programs
University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学）；University of Victoria（维多利亚大学）；Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学）；National Center for Applied Mathematics Shenzhen（深圳国家应用数学中心）；Peng Cheng Laboratory（鹏城实验室）
Moreau Envelope for Nonconvex Bi-Level Optimization: A Single-loop and Hessian-free Solution Strategy
School of Software Technology, Dalian University of Technology（大连理工大学软件学院）；Pazhou Lab（琶洲实验室）；National Center for Applied Mathematics Shenzhen, Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学深圳应用数学中心）；Department of Mathematics, Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学数学系）；Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Victoria（维多利亚大学数学与统计系）
We consider a class of nonsmooth and nonconvex optimization problems over the Stiefel manifold where the objective function is the summation of a nonconvex smooth function and a nonsmooth Lipschitz continuous convex function composed with an linear mapping. We propose three numerical algorithms for solving this problem, by combining smoothing methods and some existing algorithms for smooth optimization over the Stiefel manifold. In particular, we approximate the aforementioned nonsmooth convex function by its Moreau envelope in our smoothing methods, and prove that the Moreau envelope has many…
In this manuscript we would like to address the classical optimization problem of minimizing a proper, convex and lower semicontinuous function via the second order in time dynamics, combining viscous and Hessian-driven damping with a Tikhonov regularization technique. In our analysis we heavily exploit the Moreau envelope of the objective function and its properties as well as Tikhonov properties, which we extend to a nonsmooth case. We introduce the setting, which at the same time guarantees the fast convergence of the function (and Moreau envelope) values and strong convergence of the traje…
In a Hilbert setting we study the convergence properties of a second order in time dynamical system combining viscous and Hessian-driven damping with time scaling in relation with the minimization of a nonsmooth and convex function. The system is formulated in terms of the gradient of the Moreau envelope of the objective function with time-dependent parameter. We show fast convergence rates for the Moreau envelope and its gradient along the trajectory, and also for the velocity of the system. From here we derive fast convergence rates for the objective function along a path which is the image …
This paper aims at developing two versions of the generalized Newton method to compute not merely arbitrary local minimizers of nonsmooth optimization problems but just those, which possess an important stability property known as tilt stability. We start with unconstrained minimization of continuously differentiable cost functions having Lipschitzian gradients and suggest two second-order algorithms of the Newton type: one involving coderivatives of Lipschitzian gradient mappings, and the other based on graphical derivatives of the latter. Then we proceed with the propagation of these algorit…
This paper presents a multilevel FISTA algorithm, based on the use of the Moreau envelope to build the correction brought by the coarse models, which is easy to compute when the explicit form of the proximal operator of the considered functions is known. This approach is supported by strong theoretical guarantees: we prove both the rate of convergence and the convergence of the iterates to a minimum in the convex case, an important result for ill-posed problems. We evaluate our approach on image restoration problems and we show that it outperforms classical FISTA for large-scale images.
