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The problem of online convex optimization naturally occurs in cases when there is an update of statistical information. The mirror descent method is well known for non-smooth optimization problems. Mirror descent is an extension of the subgradient method for solving non-smooth convex optimization problems in the case of a non-Euclidean distance. This paper is devoted to a stochastic variant of recently proposed Mirror Descent methods for convex online optimization problems with convex Lipschitz (generally, non-smooth) functional constraints. This means that we can still use the value of the functional constraint, but instead of (sub)gradient of the objective functional and the functional constraint, we use their stochastic (sub)gradients. More precisely, assume that on a closed subset of $n$-dimensional vector space, $N$ convex Lipschitz non-smooth functionals are given. The problem is to minimize the arithmetic mean of these functionals with a convex Lipschitz constraint. Two methods are proposed, for solving this problem, using stochastic (sub)gradients: adaptive method (does not require knowledge of Lipschitz constant neither for the objective functional, nor for the functional of constraint) and non-adaptivemethod (requires knowledge of Lipschitz constant for the objective functional and the functional of constraint). Note that it is allowed to calculate the stochastic (sub)gradient of each functional only once. In the case of non-negative regret, we find that the number of non-productive steps is $O$($N$), which indicates the optimality of the proposed methods. We consider an arbitrary proximal structure, which is essential for decisionmaking problems. The results of numerical experiments are presented, allowing to compare the work of adaptive and non-adaptive methods for some examples. It is shown that the adaptive method can significantly improve the number of the found solutions.

In the article we have obtained some estimates of the rate of convergence for the recently proposed by Yu. E.Nesterov method of minimization of a convex Lipschitz-continuous function of two variables on a square with a fixed side. The idea of the method is to divide the square into smaller parts and gradually remove them so that in the remaining sufficiently small part. The method consists in solving auxiliary problems of one-dimensional minimization along the separating segments and does not imply the calculation of the exact value of the gradient of the objective functional. The main result of the paper is proved in the class of smooth convex functions having a Lipschitz-continuous gradient. Moreover, it is noted that the property of Lipschitzcontinuity for gradient is sufficient to require not on the whole square, but only on some segments. It is shown that the method can work in the presence of errors in solving auxiliary one-dimensional problems, as well as in calculating the direction of gradients. Also we describe the situation when it is possible to neglect or reduce the time spent on solving auxiliary one-dimensional problems. For some examples, experiments have demonstrated that the method can work effectively on some classes of non-smooth functions. In this case, an example of a simple non-smooth function is constructed, for which, if the subgradient is chosen incorrectly, even if the auxiliary one-dimensional problem is exactly solved, the convergence property of the method may not hold. Experiments have shown that the method under consideration can achieve the desired accuracy of solving the problem in less time than the other methods (gradient descent and ellipsoid method) considered. Partially, it is noted that with an increase in the accuracy of the desired solution, the operating time for the Yu. E. Nesterov’s method can grow slower than the time of the ellipsoid method.

The paper is devoted to the problem of minimization of the non-smooth functional $f$ with a non-positive non-smooth Lipschitz-continuous functional constraint. We consider the formulation of the problem in the case of quasi-convex functionals. We propose new strategies of step-sizes and adaptive stopping rules in Mirror Descent for the considered class of problems. It is shown that the methods are applicable to the objective functionals of various levels of smoothness. Applying a special restart technique to the considered version of Mirror Descent there was proposed an optimal method for optimization problems with strongly convex objective functionals. Estimates of the rate of convergence for the considered methods are obtained depending on the level of smoothness of the objective functional. These estimates indicate the optimality of the considered methods from the point of view of the theory of lower oracle bounds. In particular, the optimality of our approach for Höldercontinuous quasi-convex (sub)differentiable objective functionals is proved. In addition, the case of a quasiconvex objective functional and functional constraint was considered. In this paper, we consider the problem of minimizing a non-smooth functional $f$ in the presence of a Lipschitz-continuous non-positive non-smooth functional constraint $g$, and the problem statement in the cases of quasi-convex and strongly (quasi-)convex functionals is considered separately. The paper presents numerical experiments demonstrating the advantages of using the considered methods.

In this paper, we consider two variants of the concept of sharp minimum for mathematical programming problems with quasiconvex objective function and inequality constraints. It investigated the problem of describing a variant of a simple subgradient method with switching along productive and non-productive steps, for which, on a class of problems with Lipschitz functions, it would be possible to guarantee convergence with the rate of geometric progression to the set of exact solutions or its vicinity. It is important that to implement the proposed method there is no need to know the sharp minimum parameter, which is usually difficult to estimate in practice. To overcome this problem, the authors propose to use a step adjustment procedure similar to that previously proposed by B. T. Polyak. However, in this case, in comparison with the class of problems without constraints, it arises the problem of knowing the exact minimal value of the objective function. The paper describes the conditions for the inexactness of this information, which make it possible to preserve convergence with the rate of geometric progression in the vicinity of the set of minimum points of the problem. Two analogs of the concept of a sharp minimum for problems with inequality constraints are considered. In the first one, the problem of approximation to the exact solution arises only to a pre-selected level of accuracy, for this, it is considered the case when the minimal value of the objective function is unknown; instead, it is given some approximation of this value. We describe conditions on the inexact minimal value of the objective function, under which convergence to the vicinity of the desired set of points with a rate of geometric progression is still preserved. The second considered variant of the sharp minimum does not depend on the desired accuracy of the problem. For this, we propose a slightly different way of checking whether the step is productive, which allows us to guarantee the convergence of the method to the exact solution with the rate of geometric progression in the case of exact information. Convergence estimates are proved under conditions of weak convexity of the constraints and some restrictions on the choice of the initial point, and a corollary is formulated for the convex case when the need for an additional assumption on the choice of the initial point disappears. For both approaches, it has been proven that the distance from the current point to the set of solutions decreases with increasing number of iterations. This, in particular, makes it possible to limit the requirements for the properties of the used functions (Lipschitz-continuous, sharp minimum) only for a bounded set. Some computational experiments are performed, including for the truss topology design problem.

The work is devoted to the study of subgradient methods with different variations of the Polyak stepsize for minimization functions from the class of weakly convex and relatively weakly convex functions that have the corresponding analogue of a sharp minimum. It turns out that, under certain assumptions about the starting point, such an approach can make it possible to justify the convergence of the subgradient method with the speed of a geometric progression. For the subgradient method with the Polyak stepsize, a refined estimate for the rate of convergence is proved for minimization problems for weakly convex functions with a sharp minimum. The feature of this estimate is an additional consideration of the decrease of the distance from the current point of the method to the set of solutions with the increase in the number of iterations. The results of numerical experiments for the phase reconstruction problem (which is weakly convex and has a sharp minimum) are presented, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach to estimating the rate of convergence compared to the known one. Next, we propose a variation of the subgradient method with switching over productive and non-productive steps for weakly convex problems with inequality constraints and obtain the corresponding analog of the result on convergence with the rate of geometric progression. For the subgradient method with the corresponding variation of the Polyak stepsize on the class of relatively Lipschitz and relatively weakly convex functions with a relative analogue of a sharp minimum, it was obtained conditions that guarantee the convergence of such a subgradient method at the rate of a geometric progression. Finally, a theoretical result is obtained that describes the influence of the error of the information about the (sub)gradient available by the subgradient method and the objective function on the estimation of the quality of the obtained approximate solution. It is proved that for a sufficiently small error $\delta > 0$, one can guarantee that the accuracy of the solution is comparable to $\delta$.

Non-smooth optimization often arises in many applied problems. The issues of developing efficient computational procedures for such problems in high-dimensional spaces are very topical. First-order methods (subgradient methods) are well applicable here, but in fairly general situations they lead to low speed guarantees for large-scale problems. One of the approaches to this type of problem can be to identify a subclass of non-smooth problems that allow relatively optimistic results on the rate of convergence. For example, one of the options for additional assumptions can be the condition of a sharp minimum, proposed in the late 1960s by B. T. Polyak. In the case of the availability of information about the minimal value of the function for Lipschitz-continuous problems with a sharp minimum, it turned out to be possible to propose a subgradient method with a Polyak step-size, which guarantees a linear rate of convergence in the argument. This approach made it possible to cover a number of important applied problems (for example, the problem of projecting onto a convex compact set). However, both the condition of the availability of the minimal value of the function and the condition of a sharp minimum itself look rather restrictive. In this regard, in this paper, we propose a generalized condition for a sharp minimum, somewhat similar to the inexact oracle proposed recently by Devolder – Glineur – Nesterov. The proposed approach makes it possible to extend the class of applicability of subgradient methods with the Polyak step-size, to the situation of inexact information about the value of the minimum, as well as the unknown Lipschitz constant of the objective function. Moreover, the use of local analogs of the global characteristics of the objective function makes it possible to apply the results of this type to wider classes of problems. We show the possibility of applying the proposed approach to strongly convex nonsmooth problems, also, we make an experimental comparison with the known optimal subgradient method for such a class of problems. Moreover, there were obtained some results connected to the applicability of the proposed technique to some types of problems with convexity relaxations: the recently proposed notion of weak $\beta$-quasi-convexity and ordinary quasiconvexity. Also in the paper, we study a generalization of the described technique to the situation with the assumption that the $\delta$-subgradient of the objective function is available instead of the usual subgradient. For one of the considered methods, conditions are found under which, in practice, it is possible to escape the projection of the considered iterative sequence onto the feasible set of the problem.