Dual Extrapolation for Faster Lasso Solvers
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Convex sparsity-inducing regularizations are ubiquitous in high-dimension machine learning, but their non-differentiability requires the use of iterative solvers. To accelerate such solvers, state-of-the-art approaches consist in reducing the size of the optimization problem at hand. In the context of regression, this can be achieved either by discarding irrelevant features (screening techniques) or by prioritizing features likely to be included in the support of the solution (working set techniques). Duality comes into play at several steps in these techniques. Here, we propose an extrapolation technique starting from a sequence of iterates in the dual that leads to the construction of an improved dual point. This enables a tighter control of optimality as used in stopping criterion, as well as better screening performance of Gap Safe rules. Finally, we propose a working set strategy based on an aggressive use of Gap Safe rules and our new dual point construction, which improves state-of-the-art time performance on Lasso problems.
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