We propose an easy-to-implement iterative method for resolving the implicit (or semi-implicit) schemes arising in solving reaction-diffusion (RD) type equations. We formulate the nonlinear time implicit scheme as a min-max saddle point problem and then apply the primal-dual hybrid gradient (PDHG) method. Suitable precondition matrices are applied to the PDHG method to accelerate the convergence of algorithms under different circumstances. Furthermore, our method is applicable to various discrete numerical schemes with high flexibility. From various numerical examples tested in this paper, the proposed method converges properly and can efficiently produce numerical solutions with sufficient accuracy.
Some aspects of the ELectrical EXplicit (ELEX) scheme for using explicit integration schemes in circuit simulation are discussed. It is pointed out that the parallel resistor approach, presented earlier to address singular matrix issues arising in the ELEX scheme, is not adequately robust for incorporation in a general-purpose simulator for power electronic circuits. New topology-aware approaches, which are more robust and efficient compared to the parallel resistor approach, are presented. Several circuit examples are considered to illustrate the new approaches.
We focus on analyzing the classical stochastic projected gradient methods under a general dependent data sampling scheme for constrained smooth nonconvex optimization. We show the worst-case rate of convergence $\tilde{O}(t^{-1/4})$ and complexity $\tilde{O}(\varepsilon^{-4})$ for achieving an $\varepsilon$-near stationary point in terms of the norm of the gradient of Moreau envelope and gradient mapping. While classical convergence guarantee requires i.i.d. data sampling from the target distribution, we only require a mild mixing condition of the conditional distribution, which holds for a wide class of Markov chain sampling algorithms. This improves the existing complexity for the constrained smooth nonconvex optimization with dependent data from $\tilde{O}(\varepsilon^{-8})$ to $\tilde{O}(\varepsilon^{-4})$ with a significantly simpler analysis. We illustrate the generality of our approach by deriving convergence results with dependent data for stochastic proximal gradient methods, adaptive stochastic gradient algorithm AdaGrad and stochastic gradient algorithm with heavy ball momentum. As an application, we obtain first online nonnegative matrix factorization algorithms for dependent data based on stochastic projected gradient methods with adaptive step sizes and optimal rate of convergence.
The equilibrium configuration of a plasma in an axially symmetric reactor is described mathematically by a free boundary problem associated with the celebrated Grad--Shafranov equation. The presence of uncertainty in the model parameters introduces the need to quantify the variability in the predictions. This is often done by computing a large number of model solutions on a computational grid for an ensemble of parameter values and then obtaining estimates for the statistical properties of solutions. In this study, we explore the savings that can be obtained using multilevel Monte Carlo methods, which reduce costs by performing the bulk of the computations on a sequence of spatial grids that are coarser than the one that would typically be used for a simple Monte Carlo simulation. We examine this approach using both a set of uniformly refined grids and a set of adaptively refined grids guided by a discrete error estimator. Numerical experiments show that multilevel methods dramatically reduce the cost of simulation, with cost reductions typically on the order of 60 or more and possibly as large as 200. Adaptive gridding results in more accurate computation of geometric quantities such as x-points associated with the model.
We focus on decentralized stochastic non-convex optimization, where $n$ agents work together to optimize a composite objective function which is a sum of a smooth term and a non-smooth convex term. To solve this problem, we propose two single-time scale algorithms: Prox-DASA and Prox-DASA-GT. These algorithms can find $\epsilon$-stationary points in $\mathcal{O}(n^{-1}\epsilon^{-2})$ iterations using constant batch sizes (i.e., $\mathcal{O}(1)$). Unlike prior work, our algorithms achieve comparable complexity without requiring large batch sizes, more complex per-iteration operations (such as double loops), or stronger assumptions. Our theoretical findings are supported by extensive numerical experiments, which demonstrate the superiority of our algorithms over previous approaches. Our code is available at //github.com/xuxingc/ProxDASA.
In this paper, we develop sixth-order hybrid finite difference methods (FDMs) for the elliptic interface problem $-\nabla \cdot( a\nabla u)=f$ in $\Omega\backslash \Gamma$, where $\Gamma$ is a smooth interface inside $\Omega$. The variable scalar coefficient $a>0$ and source $f$ are possibly discontinuous across $\Gamma$. The hybrid FDMs utilize a 9-point compact stencil at any interior regular point of the grid and a 13-point stencil at irregular points near $\Gamma$. For interior regular points away from $\Gamma$, we obtain a sixth-order 9-point compact FDM satisfying the M-matrix property. Consequently, for the elliptic problem without interface (i.e., $\Gamma$ is empty), our compact FDM satisfies the discrete maximum principle, which guarantees the theoretical sixth-order convergence. We also derive sixth-order compact (4-point for corners and 6-point for edges) FDMs having the M-matrix property at any boundary point subject to (mixed) Dirichlet/Neumann/Robin boundary conditions. For irregular points near $\Gamma$, we propose fifth-order 13-point FDMs, whose stencil coefficients can be effectively calculated by recursively solving several small linear systems. Theoretically, the proposed high order FDMs use high order (partial) derivatives of the coefficient $a$, the source term $f$, the interface curve $\Gamma$, the two jump functions along $\Gamma$, and the functions on $\partial \Omega$. Numerically, we always use function values to approximate all required high order (partial) derivatives in our hybrid FDMs without losing accuracy. Our proposed FDMs are independent of the choice representing $\Gamma$ and are also applicable if the jump conditions on $\Gamma$ only depend on the geometry (e.g., curvature) of the curve $\Gamma$. Our numerical experiments confirm the sixth-order convergence in the $l_{\infty}$ norm of the proposed hybrid FDMs for the elliptic interface problem.
Reinforcement learning often needs to deal with the exponential growth of states and actions when exploring optimal control in high-dimensional spaces (often known as the curse of dimensionality). In this work, we address this issue by learning the inherent structure of action-wise similar MDP to appropriately balance the performance degradation versus sample/computational complexity. In particular, we partition the action spaces into multiple groups based on the similarity in transition distribution and reward function, and build a linear decomposition model to capture the difference between the intra-group transition kernel and the intra-group rewards. Both our theoretical analysis and experiments reveal a \emph{surprising and counter-intuitive result}: while a more refined grouping strategy can reduce the approximation error caused by treating actions in the same group as identical, it also leads to increased estimation error when the size of samples or the computation resources is limited. This finding highlights the grouping strategy as a new degree of freedom that can be optimized to minimize the overall performance loss. To address this issue, we formulate a general optimization problem for determining the optimal grouping strategy, which strikes a balance between performance loss and sample/computational complexity. We further propose a computationally efficient method for selecting a nearly-optimal grouping strategy, which maintains its computational complexity independent of the size of the action space.
This work focuses on developing methods for approximating the solution operators of a class of parametric partial differential equations via neural operators. Neural operators have several challenges, including the issue of generating appropriate training data, cost-accuracy trade-offs, and nontrivial hyperparameter tuning. The unpredictability of the accuracy of neural operators impacts their applications in downstream problems of inference, optimization, and control. A framework is proposed based on the linear variational problem that gives the correction to the prediction furnished by neural operators. The operator associated with the corrector problem is referred to as the corrector operator. Numerical results involving a nonlinear diffusion model in two dimensions with PCANet-type neural operators show almost two orders of increase in the accuracy of approximations when neural operators are corrected using the proposed scheme. Further, topology optimization involving a nonlinear diffusion model is considered to highlight the limitations of neural operators and the efficacy of the correction scheme. Optimizers with neural operator surrogates are seen to make significant errors (as high as 80 percent). However, the errors are much lower (below 7 percent) when neural operators are corrected following the proposed method.
We present implicit and explicit versions of a numerical algorithm for solving a Volterra integro-differential equation. These algorithms are an extension of our previous work, and cater for a kernel of general form. We use an appropriate test equation to study the stability of both algorithms,, numerically deriving stability regions. The region for the implicit method appears to be unbounded, while the explicit has a bounded region close to the origin. We perform a few calculations to demonstrate our results.
A lattice of integers is the collection of all linear combinations of a set of vectors for which all entries of the vectors are integers and all coefficients in the linear combinations are also integers. Lattice reduction refers to the problem of finding a set of vectors in a given lattice such that the collection of all integer linear combinations of this subset is still the entire original lattice and so that the Euclidean norms of the subset are reduced. The present paper proposes simple, efficient iterations for lattice reduction which are guaranteed to reduce the Euclidean norms of the basis vectors (the vectors in the subset) monotonically during every iteration. Each iteration selects the basis vector for which projecting off (with integer coefficients) the components of the other basis vectors along the selected vector minimizes the Euclidean norms of the reduced basis vectors. Each iteration projects off the components along the selected basis vector and efficiently updates all information required for the next iteration to select its best basis vector and perform the associated projections.
Partial differential equations (PDEs) are ubiquitous in science and engineering. Prior quantum algorithms for solving the system of linear algebraic equations obtained from discretizing a PDE have a computational complexity that scales at least linearly with the condition number $\kappa$ of the matrices involved in the computation. For many practical applications, $\kappa$ scales polynomially with the size $N$ of the matrices, rendering a polynomial-in-$N$ complexity for these algorithms. Here we present a quantum algorithm with a complexity that is polylogarithmic in $N$ but is independent of $\kappa$ for a large class of PDEs. Our algorithm generates a quantum state that enables extracting features of the solution. Central to our methodology is using a wavelet basis as an auxiliary system of coordinates in which the condition number of associated matrices is independent of $N$ by a simple diagonal preconditioner. We present numerical simulations showing the effect of the wavelet preconditioner for several differential equations. Our work could provide a practical way to boost the performance of quantum-simulation algorithms where standard methods are used for discretization.