Accelerated Bayesian imaging by relaxed proximal-point Langevin sampling

This paper presents a new accelerated proximal Markov chain Monte Carlo methodology to perform Bayesian inference in imaging inverse problems with an underlying convex geometry. The proposed strategy takes the form of a stochastic relaxed proximal-point iteration that admits two complementary interpretations. For models that are smooth or regularised by Moreau-Yosida smoothing, the algorithm is equivalent to an implicit midpoint discretisation of an overdamped Langevin diffusion targeting the posterior distribution of interest. This discretisation is asymptotically unbiased for Gaussian targets and shown to converge in an accelerated manner for any target that is $\kappa$-strongly log-concave (i.e., requiring in the order of $\sqrt{\kappa}$ iterations to converge, similarly to accelerated optimisation schemes), comparing favorably to [M. Pereyra, L. Vargas Mieles, K.C. Zygalakis, SIAM J. Imaging Sciences, 13, 2 (2020), pp. 905-935] which is only provably accelerated for Gaussian targets and has bias. For models that are not smooth, the algorithm is equivalent to a Leimkuhler-Matthews discretisation of a Langevin diffusion targeting a Moreau-Yosida approximation of the posterior distribution of interest, and hence achieves a significantly lower bias than conventional unadjusted Langevin strategies based on the Euler-Maruyama discretisation. For targets that are $\kappa$-strongly log-concave, the provided non-asymptotic convergence analysis also identifies the optimal time step which maximizes the convergence speed. The proposed methodology is demonstrated through a range of experiments related to image deconvolution with Gaussian and Poisson noise, with assumption-driven and data-driven convex priors.

On the connections between optimization algorithms, Lyapunov functions, and differential equations: theory and insights

We study connections between differential equations and optimization algorithms for $m$-strongly and $L$-smooth convex functions through the use of Lyapunov functions by generalizing the Linear Matrix Inequality framework developed by Fazylab et al. in 2018. Using the new framework we derive analytically a new (discrete) Lyapunov function for a two-parameter family of Nesterov optimization methods and characterize their convergence rate. This allows us to prove a convergence rate that improves substantially on the previously proven rate of Nesterov's method for the standard choice of coefficients, as well as to characterize the choice of coefficients that yields the optimal rate. We obtain a new Lyapunov function for the Polyak ODE and revisit the connection between this ODE and the Nesterov's algorithms. In addition discuss a new interpretation of Nesterov method as an additive Runge-Kutta discretization and explain the structural conditions that discretizations of the Polyak equation should satisfy in order to lead to accelerated optimization algorithms.