arXiv subjects

Hoang Tran

Publications and source records attributed to Hoang Tran.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Analysis of The Ratio of $\ell_1$ and $\ell_2$ Norms in Compressed Sensing

We first propose a novel criterion that guarantees that an $s$-sparse signal is the local minimizer of the $\ell_1/\ell_2$ objective; our criterion is interpretable and useful in practice. We also give the first uniform recovery condition using a geometric characterization of the null space of the measurement matrix, and show that this condition is easily satisfied for a class of random matrices. We also present analysis on the robustness of the procedure when noise pollutes data. Numerical experiments are provided that compare $\ell_1/\ell_2$ with some other popular non-convex methods in compressed sensing. Finally, we propose a novel initialization approach to accelerate the numerical optimization procedure. We call this initialization approach \emph{support selection}, and we demonstrate that it empirically improves the performance of existing $\ell_1/\ell_2$ algorithms.

math.NA↗

arXiv2020

AdaDGS: An adaptive black-box optimization method with a nonlocal directional Gaussian smoothing gradient

The local gradient points to the direction of the steepest slope in an infinitesimal neighborhood. An optimizer guided by the local gradient is often trapped in local optima when the loss landscape is multi-modal. A directional Gaussian smoothing (DGS) approach was recently proposed in (Zhang et al., 2020) and used to define a truly nonlocal gradient, referred to as the DGS gradient, for high-dimensional black-box optimization. Promising results show that replacing the traditional local gradient with the DGS gradient can significantly improve the performance of gradient-based methods in optimizing highly multi-modal loss functions. However, the optimal performance of the DGS gradient may rely on fine tuning of two important hyper-parameters, i.e., the smoothing radius and the learning rate. In this paper, we present a simple, yet ingenious and efficient adaptive approach for optimization with the DGS gradient, which removes the need of hyper-parameter fine tuning. Since the DGS gradient generally points to a good search direction, we perform a line search along the DGS direction to determine the step size at each iteration. The learned step size in turn will inform us of the scale of function landscape in the surrounding area, based on which we adjust the smoothing radius accordingly for the next iteration. We present experimental results on high-dimensional benchmark functions, an airfoil design problem and a game content generation problem. The AdaDGS method has shown superior performance over several the state-of-the-art black-box optimization methods.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2020

A Novel Evolution Strategy with Directional Gaussian Smoothing for Blackbox Optimization

We propose an improved evolution strategy (ES) using a novel nonlocal gradient operator for high-dimensional black-box optimization. Standard ES methods with $d$-dimensional Gaussian smoothing suffer from the curse of dimensionality due to the high variance of Monte Carlo (MC) based gradient estimators. To control the variance, Gaussian smoothing is usually limited in a small region, so existing ES methods lack nonlocal exploration ability required for escaping from local minima. We develop a nonlocal gradient operator with directional Gaussian smoothing (DGS) to address this challenge. The DGS conducts 1D nonlocal explorations along $d$ orthogonal directions in $\mathbb{R}^d$, each of which defines a nonlocal directional derivative as a 1D integral. We then use Gauss-Hermite quadrature, instead of MC sampling, to estimate the $d$ 1D integrals to ensure high accuracy (i.e., small variance). Our method enables effective nonlocal exploration to facilitate the global search in high-dimensional optimization. We demonstrate the superior performance of our method in three sets of examples, including benchmark functions for global optimization, and real-world science and engineering applications.

math.OC↗

arXiv2020

Accelerating Reinforcement Learning with a Directional-Gaussian-Smoothing Evolution Strategy

Evolution strategy (ES) has been shown great promise in many challenging reinforcement learning (RL) tasks, rivaling other state-of-the-art deep RL methods. Yet, there are two limitations in the current ES practice that may hinder its otherwise further capabilities. First, most current methods rely on Monte Carlo type gradient estimators to suggest search direction, where the policy parameter is, in general, randomly sampled. Due to the low accuracy of such estimators, the RL training may suffer from slow convergence and require more iterations to reach optimal solution. Secondly, the landscape of reward functions can be deceptive and contains many local maxima, causing ES algorithms to prematurely converge and be unable to explore other parts of the parameter space with potentially greater rewards. In this work, we employ a Directional Gaussian Smoothing Evolutionary Strategy (DGS-ES) to accelerate RL training, which is well-suited to address these two challenges with its ability to i) provide gradient estimates with high accuracy, and ii) find nonlocal search direction which lays stress on large-scale variation of the reward function and disregards local fluctuation. Through several benchmark RL tasks demonstrated herein, we show that DGS-ES is highly scalable, possesses superior wall-clock time, and achieves competitive reward scores to other popular policy gradient and ES approaches.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2019

A Weighted $\ell_1$-Minimization Approach For Wavelet Reconstruction of Signals and Images

In this effort, we propose a convex optimization approach based on weighted $\ell_1$-regularization for reconstructing objects of interest, such as signals or images, that are sparse or compressible in a wavelet basis. We recover the wavelet coefficients associated to the functional representation of the object of interest by solving our proposed optimization problem. We give a specific choice of weights and show numerically that the chosen weights admit efficient recovery of objects of interest from either a set of sub-samples or a noisy version. Our method not only exploits sparsity but also helps promote a particular kind of structured sparsity often exhibited by many signals and images. Furthermore, we illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed convex optimization problem by providing numerical examples using both orthonormal wavelets and a frame of wavelets. We also provide an adaptive choice of weights which is a modification of the iteratively reweighted $\ell_1$-minimization method.

eess.IV↗

arXiv2019

Reconstruction of jointly sparse vectors via manifold optimization

In this paper, we consider the challenge of reconstructing jointly sparse vectors from linear measurements. Firstly, we show that by utilizing the rank of the output data matrix we can reduce the problem to a full column rank case. This result reveals a reduction in the computational complexity of the original problem and enables a simple implementation of joint sparse recovery algorithms for full-rank setting. Secondly, we propose a new method for joint sparse recovery in the form of a non-convex optimization problem on a non-compact Stiefel manifold. In our numerical experiments our method outperforms the commonly used $\ell_{2,1}$ minimization in the sense that much fewer measurements are required for accurate sparse reconstructions. We postulate this approach possesses the desirable rank aware property, that is, being able to take advantage of the rank of the unknown matrix to improve the recovery.

math.NA↗

arXiv2019

Reconstructing high-dimensional Hilbert-valued functions via compressed sensing

We present and analyze a novel sparse polynomial technique for approximating high-dimensional Hilbert-valued functions, with application to parameterized partial differential equations (PDEs) with deterministic and stochastic inputs. Our theoretical framework treats the function approximation problem as a joint sparse recovery problem, where the set of jointly sparse vectors is possibly infinite. To achieve the simultaneous reconstruction of Hilbert-valued functions in both parametric domain and Hilbert space, we propose a novel mixed-norm based $\ell_1$ regularization method that exploits both energy and sparsity. Our approach requires extensions of concepts such as the restricted isometry and null space properties, allowing us to prove recovery guarantees for sparse Hilbert-valued function reconstruction. We complement the enclosed theory with an algorithm for Hilbert-valued recovery, based on standard forward-backward algorithm, meanwhile establishing its strong convergence in the considered infinite-dimensional setting. Finally, we demonstrate the minimal sample complexity requirements of our approach, relative to other popular methods, with numerical experiments approximating the solutions of high-dimensional parameterized elliptic PDEs.

math.NA↗

arXiv2019

A class of null space conditions for sparse recovery via nonconvex, non-separable minimizations

For the problem of sparse recovery, it is widely accepted that nonconvex minimizations are better than $\ell_1$ penalty in enhancing the sparsity of solution. However, to date, the theory verifying that nonconvex penalties outperform (or are at least as good as) $\ell_1$ minimization in exact, uniform recovery has mostly been limited to separable cases. In this paper, we establish general recovery guarantees through null space conditions for nonconvex, non-separable regularizations, which are slightly less demanding than the standard null space property for $\ell_1$ minimization.

math.OC↗

arXiv2018

On Cross-validation for Sparse Reduced Rank Regression

In high-dimensional data analysis, regularization methods pursuing sparsity and/or low rank have received a lot of attention recently. To provide a proper amount of shrinkage, it is typical to use a grid search and a model comparison criterion to find the optimal regularization parameters. However, we show that fixing the parameters across all folds may result in an inconsistency issue, and it is more appropriate to cross-validate projection-selection patterns to obtain the best coefficient estimate. Our in-sample error studies in jointly sparse and rank-deficient models lead to a new class of information criteria with four scale-free forms to bypass the estimation of the noise level. By use of an identity, we propose a novel scale-free calibration to help cross-validation achieve the minimax optimal error rate non-asymptotically. Experiments support the efficacy of the proposed methods.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2018

A mixed $\ell_1$ regularization approach for sparse simultaneous approximation of parameterized PDEs

We present and analyze a novel sparse polynomial technique for the simultaneous approximation of parameterized partial differential equations (PDEs) with deterministic and stochastic inputs. Our approach treats the numerical solution as a jointly sparse reconstruction problem through the reformulation of the standard basis pursuit denoising, where the set of jointly sparse vectors is infinite. To achieve global reconstruction of sparse solutions to parameterized elliptic PDEs over both physical and parametric domains, we combine the standard measurement scheme developed for compressed sensing in the context of bounded orthonormal systems with a novel mixed-norm based $\ell_1$ regularization method that exploits both energy and sparsity. In addition, we are able to prove that, with minimal sample complexity, error estimates comparable to the best $s$-term and quasi-optimal approximations are achievable, while requiring only a priori bounds on polynomial truncation error with respect to the energy norm. Finally, we perform extensive numerical experiments on several high-dimensional parameterized elliptic PDE models to demonstrate the superior recovery properties of the proposed approach.

math.NA↗

arXiv2018

Analysis of sparse recovery for Legendre expansions using envelope bound

We provide novel sufficient conditions for the uniform recovery of sparse Legendre expansions using $\ell_1$ minimization, where the sampling points are drawn according to orthogonalization (uniform) measure. So far, conditions of the form $m \gtrsim Θ^2 s \times \textit{log factors}$ have been relied on to determine the minimum number of samples $m$ that guarantees successful reconstruction of $s$-sparse vectors when the measurement matrix is associated to an orthonormal system. However, in case of sparse Legendre expansions, the uniform bound $Θ$ of Legendre systems is so high that these conditions are unable to provide meaningful guarantees. In this paper, we present an analysis which employs the envelop bound of all Legendre polynomials instead, and prove a new recovery guarantee for $s$-sparse Legendre expansions, $$ m \gtrsim {s^2} \times \textit{log factors}, $$ which is independent of $Θ$. Arguably, this is the first recovery condition established for orthonormal systems without assuming the uniform boundedness of the sampling matrix. The key ingredient of our analysis is an extension of chaining arguments, recently developed in [Bou14,CDTW15], to handle the envelope bound. Furthermore, our recovery condition is proved via restricted eigenvalue property, a less demanding replacement of restricted isometry property which is perfectly suited to the considered scenario. Along the way, we derive simple criteria to detect good sample sets. Our numerical tests show that sets of uniformly sampled points that meet these criteria will perform better recovery on average.

math.NA↗

arXiv2018

Neutron Scattering Instrumentation at Compact Neutron Sources

There is currently a strong interest in Compact Accelerator-based Neutron Source (CANS) as a possible new type of source for neutron scattering experiments. A workshop around the "Neutron scattering instrumentation around CANS" was organized in July 2017 between several European institutes. This report summarizes the main outcome of the discussions. The document is aiming at providing general guidelines for the instrumentation around CANS. Detailed technical discussions are or will be provided in specific publications.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2016

Polynomial approximation via compressed sensing of high-dimensional functions on lower sets

This work proposes and analyzes a compressed sensing approach to polynomial approximation of complex-valued functions in high dimensions. Of particular interest is the setting where the target function is smooth, characterized by a rapidly decaying orthonormal expansion, whose most important terms are captured by a lower (or downward closed) set. By exploiting this fact, we present an innovative weighted $\ell_1$ minimization procedure with a precise choice of weights, and a new iterative hard thresholding method, for imposing the downward closed preference. Theoretical results reveal that our computational approaches possess a provably reduced sample complexity compared to existing compressed sensing techniques presented in the literature. In addition, the recovery of the corresponding best approximation using these methods is established through an improved bound for the restricted isometry property. Our analysis represents an extension of the approach for Hadamard matrices in [5] to the general case of continuous bounded orthonormal systems, quantifies the dependence of sample complexity on the successful recovery probability, and provides an estimate on the number of measurements with explicit constants. Numerical examples are provided to support the theoretical results and demonstrate the computational efficiency of the novel weighted $\ell_1$ minimization strategy.

math.NA↗

arXiv2015

Analysis of quasi-optimal polynomial approximations for parameterized PDEs with deterministic and stochastic coefficients

In this work, we present a generalized methodology for analyzing the convergence of quasi-optimal Taylor and Legendre approximations, applicable to a wide class of parameterized elliptic PDEs with finite-dimensional deterministic and stochastic inputs. Such methods construct an optimal index set that corresponds to the sharp estimates of the polynomial coefficients. Our analysis furthermore represents a new approach for estimating best $M$-term approximation errors by means of coefficient bounds, without using Stechkin inequality. The framework we propose for analyzing asymptotic truncation errors is based on an extension of the underlying multi-index set into a continuous domain, and then an approximation of the cardinality (number of integer multi-indices) by its Lebesgue measure. Several types of isotropic and anisotropic (weighted) multi-index sets are explored, and rigorous proofs reveal sharp asymptotic error estimates in which we achieve sub-exponential convergence rates of the form $M \exp(-(κM)^{1/N})$, with $κ$ a constant depending on the shape and size of multi-index sets) with respect to the total number of degrees of freedom. Through several theoretical examples, we explicitly derive the constant $κ$ and use the resulting sharp bounds to illustrate the effectiveness of Legendre over Taylor approximations, as well as compare our rates of convergence with current published results. Computational evidence complements the theory and shows the advantage of our generalized framework compared to previously developed estimates.

math.AP↗