Stochastic block coordinate and function alternation for multi-objective optimization and learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Tran, Trang H., Vicente, Luis Nunes
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Tran, Trang H.
Vicente, Luis Nunes
author_facet Tran, Trang H.
Vicente, Luis Nunes
contents Multi-objective optimization is central to many engineering and machine learning applications, where multiple objectives must be optimized in balance. While multi-gradient based optimization methods combine these objectives in each step, such methods require computing gradients with respect to all variables at every iteration, resulting in high computational costs in large-scale settings. In this work, we propose a framework that simultaneously alternates the optimization of each objective and the (stochastic) gradient update with respect to each variable block. Our framework reduces per-iteration computational cost while enabling exploration of the Pareto front by allocating a prescribed number of gradient steps to each objective. We establish rigorous convergence guarantees across several stochastic smooth settings, including convex, non-convex, and Polyak-Lojasiewicz conditions, recovering classical convergence rates of single-objective methods. Numerical experiments demonstrate that our framework outperforms non-alternating methods on multi-target regression and produces a competitive Pareto front approximation, highlighting its computational efficiency and practical effectiveness.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_12432
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Stochastic block coordinate and function alternation for multi-objective optimization and learning
Tran, Trang H.
Vicente, Luis Nunes
Optimization and Control
90C29, 90C06, 90C15
Multi-objective optimization is central to many engineering and machine learning applications, where multiple objectives must be optimized in balance. While multi-gradient based optimization methods combine these objectives in each step, such methods require computing gradients with respect to all variables at every iteration, resulting in high computational costs in large-scale settings. In this work, we propose a framework that simultaneously alternates the optimization of each objective and the (stochastic) gradient update with respect to each variable block. Our framework reduces per-iteration computational cost while enabling exploration of the Pareto front by allocating a prescribed number of gradient steps to each objective. We establish rigorous convergence guarantees across several stochastic smooth settings, including convex, non-convex, and Polyak-Lojasiewicz conditions, recovering classical convergence rates of single-objective methods. Numerical experiments demonstrate that our framework outperforms non-alternating methods on multi-target regression and produces a competitive Pareto front approximation, highlighting its computational efficiency and practical effectiveness.
title Stochastic block coordinate and function alternation for multi-objective optimization and learning
topic Optimization and Control
90C29, 90C06, 90C15
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.12432