We provide a general framework to construct finite dimensional approximations of the space of convex functions, which also applies to the space of c-convex functions and to the space of support functions of convex bodies. We give estimates of the distance between the approximation space and the admissible set. This framework applies to the approximation of convex functions by piecewise linear functions on a mesh of the domain and by other finite-dimensional spaces such as tensor-product splines. We show how these discretizations are well suited for the numerical solution of problems of calculus of variations under convexity constraints. Our implementation relies on proximal algorithms, and can be easily parallelized, thus making it applicable to large scale problems in dimension two and three. We illustrate the versatility and the efficiency of our approach on the numerical solution of three problems in calculus of variation : 3D denoising, the principal agent problem, and optimization within the class of convex bodies.
Aguilera and Morin @cite_3 proposed a finite-difference approximation of the space of convex functions using discrete convex Hessians. They prove that it is possible to impose convexity by requiring a linear number of nonlinear constraints with respect to the number of nodes. The leading fully nonlinear optimization problems are solved using semidefinite programming codes. Whereas, convergence is proved in a rather general setting, the practical efficiency of this approach is limited by the capability of semidefinite solvers. In a similar spirit, Oberman @cite_10 considers the space of function that satisfy local convexity constraints on a finite set of directions. By changing the size of the stencil, the author proposed different discretizations which lead to exterior or interior approximations. Estimates of the quality of the approximation are given for smooth convex functions.
@cite_10 @cite_3
2016361304 2094993225 2157959686 2038497950
Many problems of theoretical and practical interest involve finding an optimum over a family of convex functions. For instance, finding the projection on the convex functions in Hk(Ω), and optimizing functionals arising from some problems in economics. In the continuous setting and assuming smoothness, the convexity constraints may be given locally by asking the Hessian matrix to be positive semidefinite, but in making discrete approximations two difficulties arise: the continuous solutions may be not smooth, and functions with positive semidefinite discrete Hessian need not be convex in a discrete sense. Previous work has concentrated on non-local descriptions of convexity, making the number of constraints to grow super-linearly with the number of nodes even in dimension 2, and these descriptions are very difficult to extend to higher dimensions. In this paper we propose a finite difference approximation using positive semidefinite programs and discrete Hessians, and prove convergence under very general conditions, even when the continuous solution is not smooth, working on any dimension, and requiring a linear number of constraints in the number of nodes. Using semidefinite programming codes, we show concrete examples of approximations to problems in two and three dimensions. For convex minimization we introduce an algorithm based on **-space decomposition. The method uses a bundle subroutine to generate a sequence of approximate proximal points. When a primal-dual track leading to a solution and zero subgradient pair exists, these points approximate the primal track points and give the algorithm's **, or corrector, steps. The subroutine also approximates dual track points that are **-gradients needed for the method's **-Newton predictor steps. With the inclusion of a simple line search the resulting algorithm is proved to be globally convergent. The convergence is superlinear if the primal-dual track points and the objective's **-Hessian are approximated well enough. In this paper we develop a new affine-invariant primal–dual subgradient method for nonsmooth convex optimization problems. This scheme is based on a self-concordant barrier for the basic feasible set. It is suitable for finding approximate solutions with certain relative accuracy. We discuss some applications of this technique including fractional covering problem, maximal concurrent flow problem, semidefinite relaxations and nonlinear online optimization. For all these problems, the rate of convergence of our method does not depend on the problem’s data. For the problem of minimizing a lower semicontinuous proper convex function f on a Hilbert space, the proximal point algorithm in exact form generates a sequence @math by taking @math to be the minimizes of @math , where @math . This algorithm is of interest for several reasons, but especially because of its role in certain computational methods based on duality, such as the Hestenes-Powell method of multipliers in nonlinear programming. It is investigated here in a more general form where the requirement for exact minimization at each iteration is weakened, and the subdifferential @math is replaced by an arbitrary maximal monotone operator T. Convergence is established under several criteria amenable to implementation. The rate of convergence is shown to be “typically” linear with an arbitrarily good modulus if @math stays large enough, in fact superlinear if @math . The case of @math is treated in extra detail. Applicati...