arXiv Machine Learning

Nesterov acceleration in optimizing over probability measures

arXiv:2607. 23008v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Optimization over probability measures has become an increasingly important paradigm in modern machine learning, scientific computing, and uncertainty quantification.

arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 15

Stochastic Gradient Descent over P2

The paper develops a diffusion approximation for stochastic gradient descent (SGD) when the optimization target is a functional on the Wasserstein space ℝ2. By lifting the problem to a Hilbert space via Lions differentiability, the authors construct a Gaussian random-field approximation whose velocity field matches the mean and covariance of the original stochastic gradient. They prove that this Gaussian approximation achieves second‑order weak accuracy, providing a rigorous basis for replacing sample‑driven randomness with analytically tractable Gaussian fluctuations in stochastic optimization over probability measures.

By Maria Oprea, Qin Li, Yunan Yang
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 14

Almost Sure Convergence Analysis of Stochastic Gradient Methods with Clipping and Additive Noise

The paper proves that stochastic gradient descent with gradient clipping and additive Gaussian noise (SGD‑CN) converges almost surely under smoothness and bounded noise assumptions, given standard decaying step sizes. The analysis extends to momentum variants such as the stochastic heavy ball and Nesterov's accelerated gradient, showing that careful energy constructions yield similar guarantees. These results provide stronger theoretical foundations for understanding the pathwise behaviour of clipped stochastic gradient methods in both convex and nonconvex regimes.

By Amartya Mukherjee, Jun Liu
arXiv Machine Learning
1d ago

Optimal Momentum Methods for Stochastic Multilevel Compositional Optimization

The paper studies stochastic multi‑level optimization where the objective is a nested composition of smooth non‑convex functions. It introduces momentum‑based estimators that track function values at each level, achieving an optimal sample complexity of ≠(ε⁻⁴) for finding an ε‑stationary point without relying on average smoothness assumptions. The authors also present a batch‑free variant using first‑order approximations and clipping, and demonstrate the methods on risk‑averse portfolio optimization and hierarchical tilted empirical risk minimization.

By Wei Jiang, Rui Yan, Sifan Yang, Yuanyu Wan, Lijun Zhang, Zechao Li
arXiv Machine Learning
4d ago

Learning Distributionally Robust First-Order Methods for Convex Optimization

The paper introduces a distributionally robust method for learning hyperparameters of first‑order convex optimization algorithms. By minimizing a Wasserstein‑robust performance estimation problem over a dataset of problem instances, the approach interpolates between classical learning‑to‑optimize (L2O) and worst‑case PEP design. The authors solve the resulting problem with stochastic gradient descent, provide high‑probability risk bounds, and demonstrate that the learned algorithms outperform both worst‑case optimal and vanilla L2O baselines on logistic regression, LASSO, and linear programming tasks.

By Vinit Ranjan, Jisun Park, Bartolomeo Stellato
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 14

Inference for Newton Methods with Accelerated Sketch-and-Project via Random Scaling

The paper introduces an online sketched Newton method that uses a generalized accelerated sketch-and-project solver (GAS) to approximate Newton directions efficiently. GAS incorporates Nesterov momentum and a flexible projection metric, achieving accelerated convergence and reduced computational cost. The authors prove asymptotic normality and a functional central limit theorem for the averaged iterates, enabling an online inference procedure via random scaling that yields a pivotal test statistic with a parameter‑free limiting distribution.

By Xinchen Du, Elizaveta Rebrova, Micha{\l} Derezi\'{n}ski, Sen Na