解决马尔可夫噪声下PL条件优化的高概率收敛问题
High-Probability PL-SGD with Markovian Noise: Optimal Mixing and Tail Dependence
- 用滞后分块法改进SGD,实现与期望界匹配的高概率误差
- 轻尾情况下误差依赖混合时间线性项,达到理论最优
- 重尾情形设计截断块方法,对噪声鲁棒且性能最优
研究在外部马尔可夫链生成梯度样本时,满足Polyak-Łojasiewicz(PL)条件的光滑目标函数的一阶优化方法。在轻尾设定下,此前普通SGD的统一高概率界为$ ilde{O}(t_{mix}^2/k)$,与$ ilde{O}(t_{mix}/k)$的期望界存在差距。本文通过滞后分块论证,建立了几何混合条件下$ ilde{O}(t_{mix}/(k+K_0))$的统一高概率保证,证明混合时间的线性依赖是紧的,给出在二次目标和持续两状态链下的$Ω(σ^2 t_{mix}/k)$下界。进一步扩展至满足平稳有限$p$-阶矩条件($p∈(1,2]$)的重尾马尔可夫梯度。设计全样本截断块算法,在总转移数$T$约束下,实现高概率随机误差$ ilde{O}(σ_p^2(t_{mix}/T)^{2(p-1)/p})$。通过将PL优化归约为粘滞马尔可夫链的重尾均值估计,建立匹配下界。最终,精确刻画了轻尾情形下关于混合时间的最优多项式依赖,以及重尾情形下的最优重尾指数与有效样本量依赖。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
We study first-order methods for smooth objectives satisfying the Polyak-Łojasiewicz (PL) condition when gradient samples are generated by an exogenous Markov chain. In the light-tailed setting, prior uniform-in-time high-probability bounds for ordinary Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) under a standard growth envelope scale as $\widetilde{O}(t_{mix}^2/k)$, leaving a gap with the $\widetilde{O}(t_{mix}/k)$ expectation bounds. We close this gap using a lag-blocking argument to establish a uniform high-probability guarantee with a leading stochastic term of $\widetilde{O}(t_{mix}/(k+K_0))$ under geometric mixing. We prove this linear dependence on the mixing time is optimal via a matching $Ω(σ^2 t_{mix}/k)$ lower bound on a quadratic objective driven by a persistent two-state chain. We then extend this framework to heavy-tailed Markovian gradients satisfying a stationary finite-$p$-moment condition, $p \in (1,2]$. We design an all-samples clipped block method that uses every Markov transition while mitigating Markovian bias. Under a transition budget $T$, this algorithm achieves a high-probability stochastic error of $\widetilde{O}(σ_p^2(t_{mix}/T)^{2(p-1)/p})$. We establish a matching lower bound by reducing PL optimization to heavy-tailed mean estimation for a sticky Markov chain. Ultimately, this work tightly characterizes the optimal polynomial dependence on mixing time for light-tailed PL-SGD, and the optimal heavy-tail exponent and effective-sample-size dependence in the robust regime.
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