Simulation of Gegenbauer Processes using Wavelet Packets

In this paper, we study the synthesis of Gegenbauer processes using the wavelet packets transform. In order to simulate a 1-factor Gegenbauer process, we introduce an original algorithm, inspired by the one proposed by Coifman and Wickerhauser [1], to adaptively search for the best-ortho-basis in the wavelet packet library where the covariance matrix of the transformed process is nearly diagonal. Our method clearly outperforms the one recently proposed by [2], is very fast, does not depend on the wavelet choice, and is not very sensitive to the length of the time series. From these first results we propose an algorithm to build bases to simulate k-factor Gegenbauer processes. Given its practical simplicity, we feel the general practitioner will be attracted to our simulator. Finally we evaluate the approximation due to the fact that we consider the wavelet packet coefficients as uncorrelated. An empirical study is carried out which supports our results

A quasi-Newton proximal splitting method

A new result in convex analysis on the calculation of proximity operators in certain scaled norms is derived. We describe efficient implementations of the proximity calculation for a useful class of functions; the implementations exploit the piece-wise linear nature of the dual problem. The second part of the paper applies the previous result to acceleration of convex minimization problems, and leads to an elegant quasi-Newton method. The optimization method compares favorably against state-of-the-art alternatives. The algorithm has extensive applications including signal processing, sparse recovery and machine learning and classification

Local Linear Convergence Analysis of Primal-Dual Splitting Methods

In this paper, we study the local linear convergence properties of a versatile class of Primal-Dual splitting methods for minimizing composite non-smooth convex optimization problems. Under the assumption that the non-smooth components of the problem are partly smooth relative to smooth manifolds, we present a unified local convergence analysis framework for these methods. More precisely, in our framework we first show that (i) the sequences generated by Primal-Dual splitting methods identify a pair of primal and dual smooth manifolds in a finite number of iterations, and then (ii) enter a local linear convergence regime, which is characterized based on the structure of the underlying active smooth manifolds. We also show how our results for Primal-Dual splitting can be specialized to cover existing ones on Forward-Backward splitting and Douglas-Rachford splitting/ADMM (alternating direction methods of multipliers). Moreover, based on these obtained local convergence analysis result, several practical acceleration techniques are discussed. To exemplify the usefulness of the obtained result, we consider several concrete numerical experiments arising from fields including signal/image processing, inverse problems and machine learning, etc. The demonstration not only verifies the local linear convergence behaviour of Primal-Dual splitting methods, but also the insights on how to accelerate them in practice

Non-smooth Non-convex Bregman Minimization: Unification and new Algorithms

We propose a unifying algorithm for non-smooth non-convex optimization. The algorithm approximates the objective function by a convex model function and finds an approximate (Bregman) proximal point of the convex model. This approximate minimizer of the model function yields a descent direction, along which the next iterate is found. Complemented with an Armijo-like line search strategy, we obtain a flexible algorithm for which we prove (subsequential) convergence to a stationary point under weak assumptions on the growth of the model function error. Special instances of the algorithm with a Euclidean distance function are, for example, Gradient Descent, Forward--Backward Splitting, ProxDescent, without the common requirement of a "Lipschitz continuous gradient". In addition, we consider a broad class of Bregman distance functions (generated by Legendre functions) replacing the Euclidean distance. The algorithm has a wide range of applications including many linear and non-linear inverse problems in signal/image processing and machine learning

Activity Identification and Local Linear Convergence of Forward--Backward-type methods

In this paper, we consider a class of Forward--Backward (FB) splitting methods that includes several variants (e.g. inertial schemes, FISTA) for minimizing the sum of two proper convex and lower semi-continuous functions, one of which has a Lipschitz continuous gradient, and the other is partly smooth relatively to a smooth active manifold $\mathcal{M}$. We propose a unified framework, under which we show that, this class of FB-type algorithms (i) correctly identifies the active manifolds in a finite number of iterations (finite activity identification), and (ii) then enters a local linear convergence regime, which we characterize precisely in terms of the structure of the underlying active manifolds. For simpler problems involving polyhedral functions, we show finite termination. We also establish and explain why FISTA (with convergent sequences) locally oscillates and can be slower than FB. These results may have numerous applications including in signal/image processing, sparse recovery and machine learning. Indeed, the obtained results explain the typical behaviour that has been observed numerically for many problems in these fields such as the Lasso, the group Lasso, the fused Lasso and the nuclear norm regularization to name only a few.Comment: Full length version of the previous short on

A Multi-step Inertial Forward--Backward Splitting Method for Non-convex Optimization

In this paper, we propose a multi-step inertial Forward--Backward splitting algorithm for minimizing the sum of two non-necessarily convex functions, one of which is proper lower semi-continuous while the other is differentiable with a Lipschitz continuous gradient. We first prove global convergence of the scheme with the help of the Kurdyka-{\L}ojasiewicz property. Then, when the non-smooth part is also partly smooth relative to a smooth submanifold, we establish finite identification of the latter and provide sharp local linear convergence analysis. The proposed method is illustrated on a few problems arising from statistics and machine learning.Comment: This paper is in company with our recent work on Forward--Backward-type splitting methods http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.0370

Sensitivity Analysis for Mirror-Stratifiable Convex Functions

This paper provides a set of sensitivity analysis and activity identification results for a class of convex functions with a strong geometric structure, that we coined "mirror-stratifiable". These functions are such that there is a bijection between a primal and a dual stratification of the space into partitioning sets, called strata. This pairing is crucial to track the strata that are identifiable by solutions of parametrized optimization problems or by iterates of optimization algorithms. This class of functions encompasses all regularizers routinely used in signal and image processing, machine learning, and statistics. We show that this "mirror-stratifiable" structure enjoys a nice sensitivity theory, allowing us to study stability of solutions of optimization problems to small perturbations, as well as activity identification of first-order proximal splitting-type algorithms. Existing results in the literature typically assume that, under a non-degeneracy condition, the active set associated to a minimizer is stable to small perturbations and is identified in finite time by optimization schemes. In contrast, our results do not require any non-degeneracy assumption: in consequence, the optimal active set is not necessarily stable anymore, but we are able to track precisely the set of identifiable strata.We show that these results have crucial implications when solving challenging ill-posed inverse problems via regularization, a typical scenario where the non-degeneracy condition is not fulfilled. Our theoretical results, illustrated by numerical simulations, allow to characterize the instability behaviour of the regularized solutions, by locating the set of all low-dimensional strata that can be potentially identified by these solutions

Convergence Rates with Inexact Non-expansive Operators

In this paper, we present a convergence rate analysis for the inexact Krasnosel'skii-Mann iteration built from nonexpansive operators. Our results include two main parts: we first establish global pointwise and ergodic iteration-complexity bounds, and then, under a metric subregularity assumption, we establish local linear convergence for the distance of the iterates to the set of fixed points. The obtained iteration-complexity result can be applied to analyze the convergence rate of various monotone operator splitting methods in the literature, including the Forward-Backward, the Generalized Forward-Backward, Douglas-Rachford, alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and Primal-Dual splitting methods. For these methods, we also develop easily verifiable termination criteria for finding an approximate solution, which can be seen as a generalization of the termination criterion for the classical gradient descent method. We finally develop a parallel analysis for the non-stationary Krasnosel'skii-Mann iteration. The usefulness of our results is illustrated by applying them to a large class of structured monotone inclusion and convex optimization problems. Experiments on some large scale inverse problems in signal and image processing problems are shown.Comment: This is an extended version of the work presented in http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.6636, and is accepted by the Mathematical Programmin