arXiv Machine Learning

Accelerating Min-Max Optimization via Power-Law Stepsizes

arXiv:2606. 01764v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We revisit the convergence guarantees of the Extragradient (EG) method for unconstrained biaffine min-max optimization.

arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 12

A lower bound for stepsize-based acceleration of gradient descent

arXiv:2608. 10418v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Recent work has shown that, for smooth convex optimization, plain gradient descent can be accelerated from its textbook convergence rate of $O(T^{-1})$ (where $T$ denotes the number of iterations) to $O\big(T^{-\log_2(1+\sqrt{2})}\big)$ using carefully designed stepsize schedules alone, without resorting to momentum or other algorithmic modifications.

By Jianhao Ma, Yuxin Chen
arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 16

Power Homotopy for Zeroth-Order Non-Convex Optimizations

arXiv:2511. 13592v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: The existing method of GS-PowerOpt solves the non-convex optimization problem of the form $\max_{\boldsymbol{x} \in \mathbb{R}^d} f(\boldsymbol{x})$ through maximizing a Gaussian-smoothed surrogate $F_{N,\sigma}(\boldsymbol{\mu}) = \mathbb{E}_{\boldsymbol{x}\sim\mathcal{N}(\boldsymbol{\mu},\sigma^2 I_d)}[e^{N f(\boldsymbol{x})}]$.

By Chen Xu
arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 1

Random Reshuffling Dominates Stochastic Gradient Descent

arXiv:2606. 32005v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Stochastic Gradient Descent ($\textsf{SGD}$) is one of the most classical optimization algorithms with favorable theoretical guarantees, yet the practical implementation of $\textsf{SGD}$ differs subtly from its well-known form and is often referred to as Shuffling Stochastic Gradient Descent ($\textsf{Shuffling SGD}$).

By Zijian Liu
arXiv Machine Learning
1d ago

Trust the Direction, Search the Step: Zero-and-First-Order Methods for LLM Fine-Tuning

The paper introduces ZFO, a lightweight framework that separates direction selection from step-size determination in large‑scale neural network optimization. ZFO uses a trusted first‑order optimizer to pick a search direction and then performs only two additional objective evaluations to build a local curvature‑aware model, selecting an adaptive step within a bounded interval. The authors provide theoretical guarantees for reliable curvature estimation, near‑optimal step selection, and convergence to a stationary point, and demonstrate that ZFO improves optimization and final performance over fixed‑step first‑order baselines on language‑model fine‑tuning tasks.

By Cristian McGee, El Houcine Bergou, Aritra Dutta
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 27

Adaptivity via a Parallel Architecture for Stochastic Gradient Methods

The paper introduces a parallel architecture for stochastic gradient methods that adaptively selects the number of iterations. An algorithm A(x₀, y) takes an initial point and a step limit y, and p processors search for an appropriate iteration count T using a prescribed function h. The framework guarantees a (p, αₚ)-approximation, meaning for any T ≥ T₀ there exists a processor and stage where the cumulative iterations lie within a factor αₚ of T, and the authors prove tight lower bounds for αₚ while presenting simple arithmetic stochastic gradient methods that use only divisions by powers of two.

By Bin Fu