Tight Convergence Rates in Gradient Mapping for the Difference-of-Convex Algorithm

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Rotaru, Teodor, Patrinos, Panagiotis, Glineur, François
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Rotaru, Teodor
Patrinos, Panagiotis
Glineur, François
author_facet Rotaru, Teodor
Patrinos, Panagiotis
Glineur, François
contents We establish new theoretical convergence guarantees for the difference-of-convex algorithm (DCA), where the second function is allowed to be weakly-convex, measuring progress via composite gradient mapping. Based on a tight analysis of two iterations of DCA, we identify six parameter regimes leading to sublinear convergence rates toward critical points and establish those rates by proving adapted descent lemmas. We recover existing rates for the standard difference-of-convex decompositions of nonconvex-nonconcave functions, while for all other curvature settings our results are new, complementing recently obtained rates on the gradient residual. Three of our sublinear rates are tight for any number of DCA iterations, while for the other three regimes we conjecture exact rates, using insights from the tight analysis of gradient descent and numerical validation using the performance estimation methodology. Finally, we show how the equivalence between proximal gradient descent (PGD) and DCA allows the derivation of exact PGD rates for any constant stepsize.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_01791
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tight Convergence Rates in Gradient Mapping for the Difference-of-Convex Algorithm
Rotaru, Teodor
Patrinos, Panagiotis
Glineur, François
Optimization and Control
Numerical Analysis
We establish new theoretical convergence guarantees for the difference-of-convex algorithm (DCA), where the second function is allowed to be weakly-convex, measuring progress via composite gradient mapping. Based on a tight analysis of two iterations of DCA, we identify six parameter regimes leading to sublinear convergence rates toward critical points and establish those rates by proving adapted descent lemmas. We recover existing rates for the standard difference-of-convex decompositions of nonconvex-nonconcave functions, while for all other curvature settings our results are new, complementing recently obtained rates on the gradient residual. Three of our sublinear rates are tight for any number of DCA iterations, while for the other three regimes we conjecture exact rates, using insights from the tight analysis of gradient descent and numerical validation using the performance estimation methodology. Finally, we show how the equivalence between proximal gradient descent (PGD) and DCA allows the derivation of exact PGD rates for any constant stepsize.
title Tight Convergence Rates in Gradient Mapping for the Difference-of-Convex Algorithm
topic Optimization and Control
Numerical Analysis
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.01791