Spectral Preconditioning for Gradient Methods on Graded Non-convex Functions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Doikov, Nikita, Stich, Sebastian U., Jaggi, Martin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Doikov, Nikita
Stich, Sebastian U.
Jaggi, Martin
author_facet Doikov, Nikita
Stich, Sebastian U.
Jaggi, Martin
contents The performance of optimization methods is often tied to the spectrum of the objective Hessian. Yet, conventional assumptions, such as smoothness, do often not enable us to make finely-grained convergence statements -- particularly not for non-convex problems. Striving for a more intricate characterization of complexity, we introduce a unique concept termed graded non-convexity. This allows to partition the class of non-convex problems into a nested chain of subclasses. Interestingly, many traditional non-convex objectives, including partially convex problems, matrix factorizations, and neural networks, fall within these subclasses. As a second contribution, we propose gradient methods with spectral preconditioning, which employ inexact top eigenvectors of the Hessian to address the ill-conditioning of the problem, contingent on the grade. Our analysis reveals that these new methods provide provably superior convergence rates compared to basic gradient descent on applicable problem classes, particularly when large gaps exist between the top eigenvalues of the Hessian. Our theory is validated by numerical experiments executed on multiple practical machine learning problems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_04843
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Spectral Preconditioning for Gradient Methods on Graded Non-convex Functions
Doikov, Nikita
Stich, Sebastian U.
Jaggi, Martin
Optimization and Control
The performance of optimization methods is often tied to the spectrum of the objective Hessian. Yet, conventional assumptions, such as smoothness, do often not enable us to make finely-grained convergence statements -- particularly not for non-convex problems. Striving for a more intricate characterization of complexity, we introduce a unique concept termed graded non-convexity. This allows to partition the class of non-convex problems into a nested chain of subclasses. Interestingly, many traditional non-convex objectives, including partially convex problems, matrix factorizations, and neural networks, fall within these subclasses. As a second contribution, we propose gradient methods with spectral preconditioning, which employ inexact top eigenvectors of the Hessian to address the ill-conditioning of the problem, contingent on the grade. Our analysis reveals that these new methods provide provably superior convergence rates compared to basic gradient descent on applicable problem classes, particularly when large gaps exist between the top eigenvalues of the Hessian. Our theory is validated by numerical experiments executed on multiple practical machine learning problems.
title Spectral Preconditioning for Gradient Methods on Graded Non-convex Functions
topic Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.04843