Convergence of Gradient Descent for Low-Rank Matrix Approximation

This paper provides a proof of global convergence of gradient search for low-rank matrix approximation. Such approximations have recently been of interest for large-scale problems, as well as for dictionary learning for sparse signal representations and matrix completion. The proof is based on the interpretation of the problem as an optimization on the Grassmann manifold and Fubiny-Study distance on this space

Fast global convergence of gradient descent for low-rank matrix approximation

This paper investigates gradient descent for solving low-rank matrix approximation problems. We begin by establishing the local linear convergence of gradient descent for symmetric matrix approximation. Building on this result, we prove the rapid global convergence of gradient descent, particularly when initialized with small random values. Remarkably, we show that even with moderate random initialization, which includes small random initialization as a special case, gradient descent achieves fast global convergence in scenarios where the top eigenvalues are identical. Furthermore, we extend our analysis to address asymmetric matrix approximation problems and investigate the effectiveness of a retraction-free eigenspace computation method. Numerical experiments strongly support our theory. In particular, the retraction-free algorithm outperforms the corresponding Riemannian gradient descent method, resulting in a significant 29\% reduction in runtime

Convergence of Gradient Descent for Low-Rank Matrix Approximation

This paper provides a proof of global convergence of gradient search for low-rank matrix approximation. Such approximations have recently been of interest for large scale problems, as well as for dictionary learning for sparse signal representations and matrix completion. The proof is based on the interpretation of the problem as an optimization on the Grassmann manifold and Fubiny-Study distance on this space

Critical Points and Convergence Analysis of Generative Deep Linear Networks Trained with Bures-Wasserstein Loss

We consider a deep matrix factorization model of covariance matrices trained with the Bures-Wasserstein distance. While recent works have made important advances in the study of the optimization problem for overparametrized low-rank matrix approximation, much emphasis has been placed on discriminative settings and the square loss. In contrast, our model considers another interesting type of loss and connects with the generative setting. We characterize the critical points and minimizers of the Bures-Wasserstein distance over the space of rank-bounded matrices. For low-rank matrices the Hessian of this loss can theoretically blow up, which creates challenges to analyze convergence of optimizaton methods. We establish convergence results for gradient flow using a smooth perturbative version of the loss and convergence results for finite step size gradient descent under certain assumptions on the initial weights.Comment: 35 pages, 1 figure, accepted at ICML 202

Provably Accelerating Ill-Conditioned Low-rank Estimation via Scaled Gradient Descent, Even with Overparameterization

Many problems encountered in science and engineering can be formulated as estimating a low-rank object (e.g., matrices and tensors) from incomplete, and possibly corrupted, linear measurements. Through the lens of matrix and tensor factorization, one of the most popular approaches is to employ simple iterative algorithms such as gradient descent (GD) to recover the low-rank factors directly, which allow for small memory and computation footprints. However, the convergence rate of GD depends linearly, and sometimes even quadratically, on the condition number of the low-rank object, and therefore, GD slows down painstakingly when the problem is ill-conditioned. This chapter introduces a new algorithmic approach, dubbed scaled gradient descent (ScaledGD), that provably converges linearly at a constant rate independent of the condition number of the low-rank object, while maintaining the low per-iteration cost of gradient descent for a variety of tasks including sensing, robust principal component analysis and completion. In addition, ScaledGD continues to admit fast global convergence to the minimax-optimal solution, again almost independent of the condition number, from a small random initialization when the rank is over-specified in the presence of Gaussian noise. In total, ScaledGD highlights the power of appropriate preconditioning in accelerating nonconvex statistical estimation, where the iteration-varying preconditioners promote desirable invariance properties of the trajectory with respect to the symmetry in low-rank factorization without hurting generalization.Comment: Book chapter for "Explorations in the Mathematics of Data Science - The Inaugural Volume of the Center for Approximation and Mathematical Data Analytics". arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2104.1452

Black Box Lie Group Preconditioners for SGD

A matrix free and a low rank approximation preconditioner are proposed to accelerate the convergence of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) by exploiting curvature information sampled from Hessian-vector products or finite differences of parameters and gradients similar to the BFGS algorithm. Both preconditioners are fitted with an online updating manner minimizing a criterion that is free of line search and robust to stochastic gradient noise, and further constrained to be on certain connected Lie groups to preserve their corresponding symmetry or invariance, e.g., orientation of coordinates by the connected general linear group with positive determinants. The Lie group's equivariance property facilitates preconditioner fitting, and its invariance property saves any need of damping, which is common in second-order optimizers, but difficult to tune. The learning rate for parameter updating and step size for preconditioner fitting are naturally normalized, and their default values work well in most situations.Comment: HOOML 202

Convergence results for projected line-search methods on varieties of low-rank matrices via \L{}ojasiewicz inequality

The aim of this paper is to derive convergence results for projected line-search methods on the real-algebraic variety $\mathcal{M}_{\le k}$ of real $m \times n$ matrices of rank at most $k$. Such methods extend Riemannian optimization methods, which are successfully used on the smooth manifold $\mathcal{M}_k$ of rank-$k$ matrices, to its closure by taking steps along gradient-related directions in the tangent cone, and afterwards projecting back to $\mathcal{M}_{\le k}$. Considering such a method circumvents the difficulties which arise from the nonclosedness and the unbounded curvature of $\mathcal{M}_k$. The pointwise convergence is obtained for real-analytic functions on the basis of a \L{}ojasiewicz inequality for the projection of the antigradient to the tangent cone. If the derived limit point lies on the smooth part of $\mathcal{M}_{\le k}$, i.e. in $\mathcal{M}_k$, this boils down to more or less known results, but with the benefit that asymptotic convergence rate estimates (for specific step-sizes) can be obtained without an a priori curvature bound, simply from the fact that the limit lies on a smooth manifold. At the same time, one can give a convincing justification for assuming critical points to lie in $\mathcal{M}_k$: if $X$ is a critical point of $f$ on $\mathcal{M}_{\le k}$, then either $X$ has rank $k$, or $\nabla f(X) = 0$