arXiv Machine Learning

Mirror Descent Under Generalized Smoothness

arXiv:2502. 00753v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Smoothness is crucial for attaining fast rates in first-order optimization.

arXiv Machine Learning
4d ago

Averaged Mirror Descent and Dual Gradient Methods: Convergent Algorithms for Entropic Gromov-Wasserstein Problems

The paper studies algorithms for computing the Entropic Gromov-Wasserstein (EGW) distance, a measure of discrepancy between metric measure spaces. It introduces Averaged Mirror Descent (AMD), which averages successive Mirror Descent steps and is proven to converge for any cost function, and shows that a dual gradient method with a fixed step size also converges for arbitrary costs, even when iterations are inexact. Empirical comparisons demonstrate that both AMD and the dual gradient method succeed on cases where classical Mirror Descent fails.

By Joanna Marks, Gabriel Rioux, Riccardo Passeggeri
arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 11

Mirror Descent Beyond Euclidean Stability: An Exponential Separation in Initialization Sensitivity

arXiv:2606. 11431v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Mirror Descent (MD) extends Gradient Descent (GD) beyond Euclidean geometry and has recently reappeared as a lens for KL-regularized policy optimization in reinforcement learning and LLM post-training.

By Shira Vansover-Hager, Matan Schliserman, Ofir Schlisselberg, Tomer Koren
arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 30

Non-Euclidean Gradient Descent Operates at the Edge of Stability

arXiv:2603. 05002v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: The Edge of Stability (EoS) is a phenomenon where the sharpness (largest eigenvalue) of the Hessian approaches and then hovers near the stability threshold $2/\eta$ during gradient descent (GD) with step size $\eta$.

By Rustem Islamov, Michael Crawshaw, Jeremy Cohen, Robert Gower