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Quantum Algorithms and Lower Bounds for Finite-Sum Optimization
Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Machine Learning, PMLR 235:60244-60270, 2024.
Abstract
Finite-sum optimization has wide applications in machine learning, covering important problems such as support vector machines, regression, etc. In this paper, we initiate the study of solving finite-sum optimization problems by quantum computing. Specifically, let f1,…,fn:Rd→R be ℓ-smooth convex functions and ψ:Rd→R be a μ-strongly convex proximal function. The goal is to find an ϵ-optimal point for F(x)=1n∑ni=1fi(x)+ψ(x). We give a quantum algorithm with complexity ˜O(n+√d+√ℓ/μ(n1/3d1/3+n−2/3d5/6)), improving the classical tight bound ˜Θ(n+√nℓ/μ). We also prove a quantum lower bound ˜Ω(n+n3/4(ℓ/μ)1/4) when d is large enough. Both our quantum upper and lower bounds can extend to the cases where ψ is not necessarily strongly convex, or each fi is Lipschitz but not necessarily smooth. In addition, when F is nonconvex, our quantum algorithm can find an ϵ-critial point using ˜O(n+ℓ(d1/3n1/3+√d)/ϵ2) queries.