Application of projection algorithms to differential equations: boundary value problems

The Douglas-Rachford method has been employed successfully to solve many kinds of non-convex feasibility problems. In particular, recent research has shown surprising stability for the method when it is applied to finding the intersections of hypersurfaces. Motivated by these discoveries, we reformulate a second order boundary valued problem (BVP) as a feasibility problem where the sets are hypersurfaces. We show that such a problem may always be reformulated as a feasibility problem on no more than three sets and is well-suited to parallelization. We explore the stability of the method by applying it to several examples of BVPs, including cases where the traditional Newton's method fails

Computable Centering Methods for Spiraling Algorithms and their Duals, with Motivations from the theory of Lyapunov Functions

Splitting methods like Douglas--Rachford (DR), ADMM, and FISTA solve problems whose objectives are sums of functions that may be evaluated separately, and all frequently show signs of spiraling. Circumcentering reflection methods (CRMs) have been shown to obviate spiraling for DR for certain feasibility problems. Under conditions thought to typify local convergence for splitting methods, we first show that Lyapunov functions generically exist. We then show for prototypical feasibility problems that CRMs, subgradient projections, and Newton--Raphson are all describable as gradient-based methods for minimizing Lyapunov functions constructed for DR operators, with the former returning the minimizers of quadratic surrogates for the Lyapunov function. Motivated thereby, we introduce a centering method that shares these properties but with the added advantages that it: 1) does not rely on subproblems (e.g. reflections) and so may be applied for any operator whose iterates spiral; 2) provably has the aforementioned Lyapunov properties with few structural assumptions and so is generically suitable for primal/dual implementation; and 3) maps spaces of reduced dimension into themselves whenever the original operator does. We then introduce a general approach to primal/dual implementation of a centering method and provide a computed example (basis pursuit), the first such application of centering. The new centering operator we introduce works well, while a similar primal/dual adaptation of CRM fails to solve the problem, for reasons we explain

Vertical Motion in the SYNOP Central Array

As part of the SYNOP (Synoptic Ocean Prediction experiment) field program, twelve tall moorings measured the Gulf Stream\u27s temperature and velocity fields with current meters (CM) at nominal depths of 400 m, 700 m, 1000 m, and 3500 m for two years, from May 1988 through August 1990. Simultaneously, 24 inverted echo sounders (IES) monitored the thermocline topography. A third observational component of the experiment was the release of isopycnal RAFOS floats; 70 such floats traversed the area monitored by the CM and the IES. This report documents the methods used to compute vertical motion for each data source, and the differences and similarities between the three methods. Typical velocities during `strong\u27 events, as observed by or inferred from all three instruments, was 1-2 mm s-1 in regions near the center of the Gulf Stream. The comparison of RAFOS vertical motions and vertical motions diagnosed from CM data showed excellent agreement; furthermore, CM vertical motions and IES vertical motions are statistically coherent for periods longer than 12 days. We conclude that we may map mesoscale fields of w(x, y, t); the fields mapped are consistent with quasi-geostrophic dynamics

Generalized bregman envelopes and proximity operators

Every maximally monotone operator can be associated with a family of convex functions, called the Fitzpatrick family or family of representative functions. Surprisingly, in 2017, Burachik and Martínez-Legaz showed that the well-known Bregman distance is a particular case of a general family of distances, each one induced by a specific maximally monotone operator and a specific choice of one of its representative functions. For the family of generalized Bregman distances, sufficient conditions for convexity, coercivity, and supercoercivity have recently been furnished. Motivated by these advances, we introduce in the present paper the generalized left and right envelopes and proximity operators, and we provide asymptotic results for parameters. Certain results extend readily from the more specific Bregman context, while others only extend for certain generalized cases. To illustrate, we construct examples from the Bregman generalizing case, together with the natural “extreme” cases that highlight the importance of which generalized Bregman distance is chosen. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature