10,168 research outputs found
Optimization with Sparsity-Inducing Penalties
Sparse estimation methods are aimed at using or obtaining parsimonious
representations of data or models. They were first dedicated to linear variable
selection but numerous extensions have now emerged such as structured sparsity
or kernel selection. It turns out that many of the related estimation problems
can be cast as convex optimization problems by regularizing the empirical risk
with appropriate non-smooth norms. The goal of this paper is to present from a
general perspective optimization tools and techniques dedicated to such
sparsity-inducing penalties. We cover proximal methods, block-coordinate
descent, reweighted -penalized techniques, working-set and homotopy
methods, as well as non-convex formulations and extensions, and provide an
extensive set of experiments to compare various algorithms from a computational
point of view
On the Singular Neumann Problem in Linear Elasticity
The Neumann problem of linear elasticity is singular with a kernel formed by
the rigid motions of the body. There are several tricks that are commonly used
to obtain a non-singular linear system. However, they often cause reduced
accuracy or lead to poor convergence of the iterative solvers. In this paper,
different well-posed formulations of the problem are studied through
discretization by the finite element method, and preconditioning strategies
based on operator preconditioning are discussed. For each formulation we derive
preconditioners that are independent of the discretization parameter.
Preconditioners that are robust with respect to the first Lam\'e constant are
constructed for the pure displacement formulations, while a preconditioner that
is robust in both Lam\'e constants is constructed for the mixed formulation. It
is shown that, for convergence in the first Sobolev norm, it is crucial to
respect the orthogonality constraint derived from the continuous problem. Based
on this observation a modification to the conjugate gradient method is proposed
that achieves optimal error convergence of the computed solution
Some Preconditioning Techniques for Saddle Point Problems
Saddle point problems arise frequently in many applications in science and engineering, including constrained optimization, mixed finite element formulations of partial differential equations, circuit analysis, and so forth. Indeed the formulation of most problems with constraints gives rise to saddle point systems. This paper provides a concise overview of iterative approaches for the solution of such systems which are of particular importance in the context of large scale computation. In particular we describe some of the most useful preconditioning techniques for Krylov subspace solvers applied to saddle point problems, including block and constrained preconditioners.\ud
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The work of Michele Benzi was supported in part by the National Science Foundation grant DMS-0511336
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