Non-convex Stochastic Composite Optimization with Polyak Momentum
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Abstract (arXiv)
The stochastic proximal gradient method is a powerful generalization of the widely used stochastic gradient descent (SGD) method and has found numerous applications in Machine Learning. However, it is notoriously known that this method fails to converge in non-convex settings where the stochastic noise is significant (i.e. when only small or bounded batch sizes are used). In this paper, we focus on the stochastic proximal gradient method with Polyak momentum. We prove this method attains an optimal convergence rate for non-convex composite optimization problems, regardless of batch size. Additionally, we rigorously analyze the variance reduction effect of the Polyak momentum in the composite optimization setting and we show the method also converges when the proximal step can only be solved inexactly. Finally, we provide numerical experiments to validate our theoretical results.
Key facts. Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 29 of its 46 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 5 Mar 2024.
Builds on
29 of 46 references.
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17 more
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Citing papers per year: 2024: 2; 2025: 6; 2026: 1.
9 papers.
- 2024Variance-reduced first-order methods for deterministically constrained stochastic nonconvex optimization with strong convergence guaranteescited by 11
- 2025Complexity of normalized stochastic first-order methods with momentum under heavy-tailed noisecited by 11
- 2025Composite Optimization with Error Feedback: the Dual Averaging Approachcited by 2
- 2025Stochastic Difference-of-Convex Optimization with Momentumcited by 2
- 2025Non-Convex Federated Optimization under Cost-Aware Client Selectioncited by 1
- 2024A stochastic first-order method with multi-extrapolated momentum for highly smooth unconstrained optimizationcited by 0
- 2025Decentralized Nonconvex Composite Federated Learning with Gradient Tracking and Momentumcited by 0
- 2025Bias-Variance Trade-off for Clipped Stochastic First-Order Methods: From Bounded Variance to Infinite Meancited by 0
- 2026MoSSP: A Momentum-Based Single-Loop Stochastic Penalty Method for Nonconvex Constrained DC-Regularized Optimizationcited by 0
- 2026MoSSP: A Momentum-Based Single-Loop Stochastic Penalty Method for Nonconvex Constrained DC-Regularized Optimization28 May 2026
- 2025Bias-Variance Trade-off for Clipped Stochastic First-Order Methods: From Bounded Variance to Infinite Mean16 Dec 2025
- 2025Non-Convex Federated Optimization under Cost-Aware Client Selection5 Dec 2025
- 2025Stochastic Difference-of-Convex Optimization with Momentum20 Oct 2025
- 2025Composite Optimization with Error Feedback: the Dual Averaging Approach3 Oct 2025
- 2025Complexity of normalized stochastic first-order methods with momentum under heavy-tailed noise12 Jun 2025
- 2025Decentralized Nonconvex Composite Federated Learning with Gradient Tracking and Momentum17 Apr 2025
- 2024A stochastic first-order method with multi-extrapolated momentum for highly smooth unconstrained optimization19 Dec 2024
- 2024Variance-reduced first-order methods for deterministically constrained stochastic nonconvex optimization with strong convergence guarantees16 Sep 2024