arXiv Machine Learning

How Accurately Can a Gaussian Approximate Stochastic Approximation Iterates?

arXiv:2602. 13906v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Stochastic approximation (SA) is a method for finding the root of an operator perturbed by noise.

arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 21

Concentration and Mean-Square Bounds for Contractive Stochastic Approximation: A Unified Elementary Approach

arXiv:2607. 17595v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We establish mean-square and concentration bounds for stochastic approximation (SA) with arbitrary norm contractive mappings, under a multiplicative noise model where the noise may scale affinely with the norm of the iterates, and the iterates are potentially unbounded.

By Siddharth Chandak
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 10

A proximal subgradient method for nonconvex stochastic optimization under the Kurdyka-{\L}ojasiewicz condition

arXiv:2608. 05460v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: This work introduces a proximal stochastic subgradient method for minimizing the sum of an expected cost, whose integrand is potentially nonsmooth and nonconvex, and a lower semicontinuous, prox-bounded function.

By Felipe Atenas, Alejandro Jofr\'e, Pedro P\'erez-Aros, David Torregrosa-Bel\'en
arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 13

Solving Stochastic Fixed-Point Equations with High Probability

arXiv:2607. 09097v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We study stochastic fixed-point equations $\mathbf{T}(\mathbf{x}) = \mathbf{x}$ over normed spaces $(\mathcal{E}, \|\cdot\|)$, where the operator $\mathbf{T}$ is nonexpansive or contractive and is accessed only through unbiased stochastic evaluations with bounded second central moment.

By Jelena Diakonikolas
arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 21

Scaling Limits of Constant-Stepsize SGD at Flat Minima

arXiv:2607. 16384v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: For stochastic gradient descent (SGD) with a constant stepsize $\alpha$, the invariant law of the iterates, centered at a minimizer, describes the behavior of the algorithm over long time horizons.

By Jingyi Zhang, Cheng Mao, Debankur Mukherjee