Quasar-Convex Optimization: Fundamental Properties and High-Order Proximal-Point Methods

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Ahookhosh, Masoud, de Brito, Jose M. M., Kabgani, Alireza, Lara, Felipe, Yuan, Jinyun
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Ahookhosh, Masoud
de Brito, Jose M. M.
Kabgani, Alireza
Lara, Felipe
Yuan, Jinyun
author_facet Ahookhosh, Masoud
de Brito, Jose M. M.
Kabgani, Alireza
Lara, Felipe
Yuan, Jinyun
contents We study the optimization of (strongly) quasar-convex functions, a class that arises naturally in many machine learning and data science applications due to its favorable properties. The fundamental properties of this class are first developed, including its stability under standard calculus operations, growth conditions, and the absence of spurious critical points, which together imply a benign global geometry with no saddle points. Motivated by these properties, a class of proximal-point algorithms (HiPPA) with high-order regularization of order $p>1$ is introduced. Conditions are identified under which the iterates converge globally to minimizers, and a unified convergence analysis is provided with explicit rates and iteration complexity bounds under appropriate regularity assumptions. The results reveal a sharp transition in behavior with respect to the order $p$: for $p\in(1,2)$, the method achieves local linear convergence with complexity $\mathcal{O}(\log(\varepsilon^{-1}))$ when initialized sufficiently close to a minimizer; for $p=2$, it attains global linear convergence with the same complexity; and for $p>2$, it exhibits superlinear convergence with complexity $\mathcal{O}(\log\log(\varepsilon^{-1}))$, where $\varepsilon>0$ denotes the target accuracy. The theory is complemented with preliminary numerical experiments on selected machine learning problems, which illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods and are consistent with the theoretical findings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_26735
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quasar-Convex Optimization: Fundamental Properties and High-Order Proximal-Point Methods
Ahookhosh, Masoud
de Brito, Jose M. M.
Kabgani, Alireza
Lara, Felipe
Yuan, Jinyun
Optimization and Control
49J52, 65K05, 90C26
We study the optimization of (strongly) quasar-convex functions, a class that arises naturally in many machine learning and data science applications due to its favorable properties. The fundamental properties of this class are first developed, including its stability under standard calculus operations, growth conditions, and the absence of spurious critical points, which together imply a benign global geometry with no saddle points. Motivated by these properties, a class of proximal-point algorithms (HiPPA) with high-order regularization of order $p>1$ is introduced. Conditions are identified under which the iterates converge globally to minimizers, and a unified convergence analysis is provided with explicit rates and iteration complexity bounds under appropriate regularity assumptions. The results reveal a sharp transition in behavior with respect to the order $p$: for $p\in(1,2)$, the method achieves local linear convergence with complexity $\mathcal{O}(\log(\varepsilon^{-1}))$ when initialized sufficiently close to a minimizer; for $p=2$, it attains global linear convergence with the same complexity; and for $p>2$, it exhibits superlinear convergence with complexity $\mathcal{O}(\log\log(\varepsilon^{-1}))$, where $\varepsilon>0$ denotes the target accuracy. The theory is complemented with preliminary numerical experiments on selected machine learning problems, which illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods and are consistent with the theoretical findings.
title Quasar-Convex Optimization: Fundamental Properties and High-Order Proximal-Point Methods
topic Optimization and Control
49J52, 65K05, 90C26
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26735