A variance reduced framework for (non)smooth nonconvex-nonconcave stochastic minimax problems with extended Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz property

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Khan, Muhammad, Xu, Yangyang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Khan, Muhammad
Xu, Yangyang
author_facet Khan, Muhammad
Xu, Yangyang
contents In this paper, we study stochastic constrained minimax optimization problems with nonconvex-nonconcave structure, a central problem in modern machine learning, for which reliable and efficient algorithms remain largely unexplored due to its inherent challenges. Prior approaches for nonconvex minimax optimization often require (strong) concavity on the maximization part, or certain restrictive geometric assumptions on the joint objective to have guaranteed convergence. In contrast, our method only assumes weak convexity in the primal variable and the extended Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz (KL) property, with exponent $θ\in [0,1]$, in the dual variable, significantly broadening the class of tractable problems. To this end, we propose a variance reduced algorithm that provably handles this general setting and achieves an $\varepsilon$-stationary solution with state-of-the-art sample complexity: in the smooth finite-sum setting, the sample complexity is $\mathcal{O}\left(\sqrt{N}\,\varepsilon^{-\max\{4θ,2\}}\right)$, where $N$ is the number of total samples, and in the online smooth setting, it is $\mathcal{O}\Big(\varepsilon^{-\max\{6θ,3\}}\Big)$. For the structured nonsmooth problem, the sample complexity is $\mathcal{O}\left(\sqrt{N}\,\max\Big\{\varepsilon^{-3}, \varepsilon^{-5θ}, \varepsilon^{-\frac{11θ-3}{2θ}}\Big\}\right)$ and $\mathcal{O}\left(\max\left\{\varepsilon^{-4}, \varepsilon^{-\frac{15θ-1}{2}}, \varepsilon^{-\frac{31θ-9}{4θ}}\right\}\right)$ respectively for the two settings. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first unified framework that jointly accommodates weak convexity, the extended KL property, and variance-reduced stochastic updates, making it highly suitable for large-scale applications.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_20357
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A variance reduced framework for (non)smooth nonconvex-nonconcave stochastic minimax problems with extended Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz property
Khan, Muhammad
Xu, Yangyang
Optimization and Control
In this paper, we study stochastic constrained minimax optimization problems with nonconvex-nonconcave structure, a central problem in modern machine learning, for which reliable and efficient algorithms remain largely unexplored due to its inherent challenges. Prior approaches for nonconvex minimax optimization often require (strong) concavity on the maximization part, or certain restrictive geometric assumptions on the joint objective to have guaranteed convergence. In contrast, our method only assumes weak convexity in the primal variable and the extended Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz (KL) property, with exponent $θ\in [0,1]$, in the dual variable, significantly broadening the class of tractable problems. To this end, we propose a variance reduced algorithm that provably handles this general setting and achieves an $\varepsilon$-stationary solution with state-of-the-art sample complexity: in the smooth finite-sum setting, the sample complexity is $\mathcal{O}\left(\sqrt{N}\,\varepsilon^{-\max\{4θ,2\}}\right)$, where $N$ is the number of total samples, and in the online smooth setting, it is $\mathcal{O}\Big(\varepsilon^{-\max\{6θ,3\}}\Big)$. For the structured nonsmooth problem, the sample complexity is $\mathcal{O}\left(\sqrt{N}\,\max\Big\{\varepsilon^{-3}, \varepsilon^{-5θ}, \varepsilon^{-\frac{11θ-3}{2θ}}\Big\}\right)$ and $\mathcal{O}\left(\max\left\{\varepsilon^{-4}, \varepsilon^{-\frac{15θ-1}{2}}, \varepsilon^{-\frac{31θ-9}{4θ}}\right\}\right)$ respectively for the two settings. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first unified framework that jointly accommodates weak convexity, the extended KL property, and variance-reduced stochastic updates, making it highly suitable for large-scale applications.
title A variance reduced framework for (non)smooth nonconvex-nonconcave stochastic minimax problems with extended Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz property
topic Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.20357