# Momentum Improves Optimization on Riemannian Manifolds

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.04144 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.04144/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 11 Feb 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Accelerated Riemannian Optimization: Handling Constraints with a Prox to Bound Geometric Penalties](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.14645/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We develop a new Riemannian descent algorithm that relies on momentum to improve over existing first-order methods for geodesically convex optimization. In contrast, accelerated convergence rates proved in prior work have only been shown to hold for geodesically strongly-convex objective functions. We further extend our algorithm to geodesically weakly-quasi-convex objectives. Our proofs of convergence rely on a novel estimate sequence that illustrates the dependency of the convergence rate on the curvature of the manifold. We validate our theoretical results empirically on several optimization problems defined on the sphere and on the manifold of positive definite matrices.