Title
A Stochastic Quasi-Newton Method for Large-Scale Optimization
Abstract
The question of how to incorporate curvature information into stochastic approximation methods is challenging. The direct application of classical quasi-Newton updating techniques for deterministic optimization leads to noisy curvature estimates that have harmful effects on the robustness of the iteration. In this paper, we propose a stochastic quasi-Newton method that is efficient, robust, and scalable. It employs the classical BFGS update formula in its limited memory form, and is based on the observation that it is beneficial to collect curvature information pointwise, and at spaced intervals. One way to do this is through (subsampled) Hessian-vector products. This technique differs from the classical approach that would compute differences of gradients at every iteration, and where controlling the quality of the curvature estimates can be difficult. We present numerical results on problems arising in machine learning that suggest that the proposed method shows much promise.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1137/140954362
SIAM JOURNAL ON OPTIMIZATION
Keywords
Field
DocType
stochastic optimization,quasi-Newton,sub sampling,large scale optimization
Quasi-Newton method,Sub-sampling,Stochastic optimization,Mathematical optimization,Curvature,Algorithm,Robustness (computer science),Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno algorithm,Stochastic approximation,Mathematics,Pointwise
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
26
2
1052-6234
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
76
3.42
18
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Richard H. Byrd12234227.38
S. L. Hansen2763.42
Jorge Nocedal33276301.50
Y Singer4134551559.02