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Error bounds are a requisite for trusting or distrusting solutions in an informed way. Until recently, provable error bounds in the absence of constraint qualifications were unattainable for many classes of cones that do not admit projections with known succinct expressions. We build such error bounds for the generalized power cones, using the recently developed framework of onestep facial residual functions. We also show that our error bounds are tight in the sense of that framework. Besides their utility for understanding solution reliability, the error bounds we discover have additional applications to the algebraic structure of the underlying cone, which we describe. In particular we use the error bounds to compute the automorphisms of the generalized power cones, and to identify a set of generalized power cones that are self-dual, irreducible, nonhomogeneous, and perfect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given closed convex sets Ci, i=1, ... l, and some nonzero linear maps Ai, i=1, ... l, of suitable dimensions, the multiset split feasibility problem aims at finding a point in ... based on computing projections onto Ci and multiplications by Ai and AiT. In this paper, we consider the associated best approximation problem, i.e., the problem of computing projections onto ...; we refer to this problem as the best approximation problem in multiset split feasibility settings (BA-MSF). We adapt the Dykstra's projection algorithm, which is classical for solving the BA-MSF in the special case when all Ai - I, to solve the general BA-MSF. Our Dykstra-type projection algorithm is derived by applying (proximal) coordinate gradient descent to the Lagrange dual problem, and it only requires computing projections onto Ci and multiplications by Ai and AiT in each iteration. Under a standard relative interior condition and a genericity assumption on the point we need to project, we show that the dual objective satisfies the Kurdyka-Łojasiewicz property with an explicitly computable exponent on a neighborhood of the (typically unbounded) dual solution set when each Ci is C1,α.-cone reducible for some α∈ (0,1]: this class of sets covers the class of C²-cone reducible sets, which include all polyhedrons, second-order cone, and the cone of positive semidefinite matrices as special cases. Using this, explicit convergence rate (linear or sublinear) of the sequence generated by the Dykstra-type projection algorithm is derived. Concrete examples are constructed to illustrate the necessity of some of our assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider finding a second-order stationary point (SOSP) of nonconvex equality constrained optimization when a nearly feasible point is known. In particular, we first propose a new Newton-conjugate gradient (Newton-CG) method for finding an approximate SOSP of unconstrained optimization and show that it enjoys a substantially better complexity than the Newton-CG method in [C. W. Royer, M. O'Neill, and S. J. Wright, Math. Program., 180 (2020), pp. 451-488]. We then propose a Newton-CG based augmented Lagrangian (AL) method for finding an approximate SOSP of nonconvex equality constrained optimization, in which the proposed Newton-CG method is used as a subproblem solver. We show that under a generalized linear independence constraint qualification (GLICQ), our AL method enjoys a total inner iteration complexity of O(ε7/peration complexity of O(ε7/2 min\{ n, ε3/4\}) for finding an (ε, ε)-SOSP of nonconvex equality constrained optimization with high probability, which are significantly better than the ones achieved by the proximal AL method in [Y. Xie and S. J. Wright, J. Sci. Comput., 86 (2021), pp. 1-30]. In addition, we show that it has a total inner iteration complexity of O(ε11/2) and an operation complexity of O(ε11/2 min\{ n, ε5/4\}) when the GLICQ does not hold. To the best of our knowledge, all the complexity results obtained in this paper are new for finding an approximate SOSP of nonconvex equality constrained optimization with high probability. Preliminary numerical results also demonstrate the superiority of our proposed methods over the other competing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the sequential convex programming method with monotone line search (SCPls) in [Z. Lu, Sequential Convex Programming Methods for a Class of Structured Nonlinear Programming, https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.3039, 2012] for a class of difference-of-convex optimization problems with multiple smooth inequality constraints. The SCPls is a representative variant of moving-ball-approximation-type algorithms [A. Auslender, R. Shefi, and M. Teboulle, SIAM J. Optim., 20 (2010), pp. 3232-3259; J. Bolte, Z. Chen, and E. Pauwels, Math. Program., 182 (2020) pp. 1-36; J. Bolte and E. Pauwels, Math. Oper. Res., 41 (2016), pp. 442-465; R. Shefi and M. Teboulle, Math. Program., 159 (2016), pp. 137-164] for constrained optimization problems. We analyze the convergence rate of the sequence generated by SCPls in both nonconvex and convex settings by imposing suitable Kurdyka--Löjasiewicz (KL) assumptions. Specifically, in the nonconvex settings, we assume that a special potential function related to the ob jective and the constraints is a KL function, while in the convex settings we impose KL assumptions directly on the extended ob jective function (i.e., sum of the ob jective and the indicator function of the constraint set). A relationship between these two different KL assumptions is established in the convex settings under additional differentiability assumptions. We also discuss how to deduce the KL exponent of the extended ob jective function from its Lagrangian in the convex settings, under additional assumptions on the constraint functions. Thanks to this result, the extended ob jectives of some constrained optimization models such as minimizing\ell1 sub ject to logistic/Poisson loss are found to be KL functions with exponent 1 under mild assumptions. To illustrate how our results can be applied, we consider SCPs for minimizing 1-2 [P-Yin, Y. Lou, Q. He, and J. Xin, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 37 (2015), pp. A536--A563] subject to residual error measured by norm/Lorentzian norm [R. E. Carrillo, A. B. Ramirez, G. R. Arce, K. E. Barner, and B. M. Sadler, EURASIP J. Adv. Signal Process. (2016), 108]. We first discuss how the various conditions required in our analysis can be verified, and then perform numerical experiments to illustrate the convergence behaviors of SCPls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider a general matrix factorization model which covers a large class of existing models with many applications in areas such as machine learning and imaging sciences. To solve this possibly nonconvex, nonsmooth, and non-Lipschitz problem, we develop a nonmonotone alternating updating method based on a potential function. Our method essentially updates two blocks of variables in turn by inexactly minimizing this potential function, and updates another auxiliary block of variables using an explicit formula. The special structure of our potential function allows us to take advantage of efficient computational strategies for nonnegative matrix factorization to perform the alternating minimization over the two blocks of variables. A suitable line search criterion is also incorporated to improve the numerical performance. Under some mild conditions, we show that the line search criterion is well defined, and establish that the sequence generated is bounded and any cluster point of the sequence is a stationary point. Finally, we conduct some numerical experiments using real datasets to compare our method with some existing efficient methods for nonnegative matrix factorization and matrix completion. The numerical results show that our method can outperform these methods for these specific applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the proximal gradient algorithm with extrapolation for minimizing the sum of a Lipschitz differentiable function and a proper closed convex function. Under the error bound condition used in [Ann. Oper. Res., 46 (1993), pp. 157--178] for analyzing the convergence of the proximal gradient algorithm, we show that there exists a threshold such that if the extrapolation coefficients are chosen below this threshold, then the sequence generated converges B-linearly to a stationary point of the problem. Moreover, the corresponding sequence of objective values is also B-linearly convergent. In addition, the threshold reduces t o 1 for convex problems, and as a consequence we obtain the B-linear convergence of the sequence generated by FISTA with fixed restart. Finally, we present some numerical experiments to illustrate our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a class of constrained optimization problems with a possibly nonconvex non-Lipschitz objective and a convex feasible set being the intersection of a polyhedron and a possibly degenerate ellipsoid. Such problems have a wide range of applications in data science, where the objective is used for inducing sparsity in the solutions while the constraint set models the noise tolerance and incorporates other prior information for data fitting. To solve this class of constrained optimization problems, a common approach is the penalty method. However, there is little theory on exact penalization for problems with nonconvex and non-Lipschitz objective functions. In this paper, we study the existence of exact penalty parameters regarding local minimizers, stationary points, and epsilonε-minimizers under suitable assumptions. Moreover, we discuss a penalty method whose subproblems are solved via a nonmonotone proximal gradient method with a suitable update scheme for the penalty parameters and prove the convergence of the algorithm to a KKT point of the constrained problem. Preliminary numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the penalty method for finding sparse solutions of underdetermined linear systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the problem of minimizing the sum of a smooth function h with a bounded Hessian and a nonsmooth function. We assume that the latter function is a composition of a proper closed function P and a surjective linear map M, with the proximal mappings of τP, τ > 0, simple to compute. This problem is nonconvex in general and encompasses many important applications in engineering and machine learning. In this paper, we examined two types of splitting methods for solving this nonconvex optimization problem: the alternating direction method of multipliers and the proximal gradient algorithm. For the direct adaptation of the alternating direction method of multipliers, we show that if the penalty parameter is chosen sufficiently large and the sequence generated has a cluster point, then it gives a stationary point of the nonconvex problem. We also establish convergence of the whole sequence under an additional assumption that the functions h and P are semialgebraic. Furthermore, we give simple sufficient conditions to guarantee boundedness of the sequence generated. These conditions can be satisfied for a wide range of applications including the least squares problem with the l1/2 regularization. Finally, when M is the identity so that the proximal gradient algorithm can be efficiently applied, we show that any cluster point is stationary under a slightly more flexible constant step-size rule than what is known in the literature for a nonconvex h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gauge functions significantly generalize the notion of a norm, and gauge optimization, as defined by [R. M. Freund, Math. Programming, 38 (1987), pp. 47-67], seeks the element of a convex set that is minimal with respect to a gauge function. This conceptually simple problem can be used to model a remarkable array of useful problems, including a special case of conic optimization, and related problems that arise in machine learning and signal processing. The gauge structure of these problems allows for a special kind of duality framework. This paper explores the duality framework proposed by Freund, and proposes a particular form of the problem that exposes some useful properties of the gauge optimization framework (such as the variational properties of its value function), and yet maintains most of the generality of the abstract form of gauge optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]