1,947 research outputs found
Domain Decomposition for Stochastic Optimal Control
This work proposes a method for solving linear stochastic optimal control
(SOC) problems using sum of squares and semidefinite programming. Previous work
had used polynomial optimization to approximate the value function, requiring a
high polynomial degree to capture local phenomena. To improve the scalability
of the method to problems of interest, a domain decomposition scheme is
presented. By using local approximations, lower degree polynomials become
sufficient, and both local and global properties of the value function are
captured. The domain of the problem is split into a non-overlapping partition,
with added constraints ensuring continuity. The Alternating Direction
Method of Multipliers (ADMM) is used to optimize over each domain in parallel
and ensure convergence on the boundaries of the partitions. This results in
improved conditioning of the problem and allows for much larger and more
complex problems to be addressed with improved performance.Comment: 8 pages. Accepted to CDC 201
Convex Optimal Uncertainty Quantification
Optimal uncertainty quantification (OUQ) is a framework for numerical
extreme-case analysis of stochastic systems with imperfect knowledge of the
underlying probability distribution. This paper presents sufficient conditions
under which an OUQ problem can be reformulated as a finite-dimensional convex
optimization problem, for which efficient numerical solutions can be obtained.
The sufficient conditions include that the objective function is piecewise
concave and the constraints are piecewise convex. In particular, we show that
piecewise concave objective functions may appear in applications where the
objective is defined by the optimal value of a parameterized linear program.Comment: Accepted for publication in SIAM Journal on Optimizatio
Approximations of Semicontinuous Functions with Applications to Stochastic Optimization and Statistical Estimation
Upper semicontinuous (usc) functions arise in the analysis of maximization
problems, distributionally robust optimization, and function identification,
which includes many problems of nonparametric statistics. We establish that
every usc function is the limit of a hypo-converging sequence of piecewise
affine functions of the difference-of-max type and illustrate resulting
algorithmic possibilities in the context of approximate solution of
infinite-dimensional optimization problems. In an effort to quantify the ease
with which classes of usc functions can be approximated by finite collections,
we provide upper and lower bounds on covering numbers for bounded sets of usc
functions under the Attouch-Wets distance. The result is applied in the context
of stochastic optimization problems defined over spaces of usc functions. We
establish confidence regions for optimal solutions based on sample average
approximations and examine the accompanying rates of convergence. Examples from
nonparametric statistics illustrate the results
Convergence of the Forward-Backward Algorithm: Beyond the Worst Case with the Help of Geometry
We provide a comprehensive study of the convergence of forward-backward
algorithm under suitable geometric conditions leading to fast rates. We present
several new results and collect in a unified view a variety of results
scattered in the literature, often providing simplified proofs. Novel
contributions include the analysis of infinite dimensional convex minimization
problems, allowing the case where minimizers might not exist. Further, we
analyze the relation between different geometric conditions, and discuss novel
connections with a priori conditions in linear inverse problems, including
source conditions, restricted isometry properties and partial smoothness
A generalized moment approach to sharp bounds for conditional expectations
In this paper, we address the problem of bounding conditional expectations
when moment information of the underlying distribution and the random event
conditioned upon are given. To this end, we propose an adapted version of the
generalized moment problem which deals with this conditional information
through a simple transformation. By exploiting conic duality, we obtain sharp
bounds that can be used for distribution-free decision-making under
uncertainty. Additionally, we derive computationally tractable mathematical
programs for distributionally robust optimization (DRO) with side information
by leveraging core ideas from ambiguity-averse uncertainty quantification and
robust optimization, establishing a moment-based DRO framework for prescriptive
stochastic programming.Comment: 43 pages, 5 figure
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