In the last few years, Algorithms for Convex Optimization have revolutionized algorithm design, both for discrete and continuous optimization problems. For problems like maximum flow, maximum matching, and submodular function minimization, the fastest algorithms involve essential methods such as gradient descent, mirror descent, interior point methods, and ellipsoid methods. The goal of this self-contained book is to enable researchers and professionals in computer science, data science, and machine learning to gain an in-depth understanding of these algorithms. The text emphasizes how to derive key algorithms for convex optimization from first principles and how to establish precise running time bounds. This modern text explains the success of these algorithms in problems of discrete optimization, as well as how these methods have significantly pushed the state of the art of convex optimization itself.

In the last few years, Algorithms for Convex Optimization have revolutionized algorithm design, both for discrete and continuous optimization problems. For problems like maximum flow, maximum matching, and submodular function minimization, the fastest algorithms involve essential methods such as gradient descent, mirror descent, interior point methods, and ellipsoid methods. The goal of this self-contained book is to enable researchers and professionals in computer science, data science, and machine learning to gain an in-depth understanding of these algorithms. The text emphasizes how to derive key algorithms for convex optimization from first principles and how to establish precise running time bounds. This modern text explains the success of these algorithms in problems of discrete optimization, as well as how these methods have significantly pushed the state of the art of convex optimization itself.

Faster Algorithms via Approximation Theory illustrates how classical and modern techniques from approximation theory play a crucial role in obtaining results that are relevant to the emerging theory of fast algorithms. The key lies in the fact that such results imply faster ways to approximate primitives such as products of matrix functions with vectors and, to compute matrix eigenvalues and eigenvectors, which are fundamental to many spectral algorithms. The first half of the book is devoted to the ideas and results from approximation theory that are central, elegant, and may have wider applicability in theoretical computer science. These include not only techniques relating to polynomial approximations but also those relating to approximations by rational functions and beyond. The remaining half illustrates a variety of ways that these results can be used to design fast algorithms. Faster Algorithms via Approximation Theory is self-contained and should be of interest to researchers and students in theoretical computer science, numerical linear algebra, and related areas.

The ability to solve a system of linear equations lies at the heart of areas like optimization, scientific computing, and computer science and has traditionally been a central topic of research in the area of numerical linear algebra. An important class of instances that arise in practice has the form Lx=b where L is the Laplacian of an undirected graph. After decades of sustained research and combining tools from disparate areas, we now have Laplacian solvers that run in time nearly-linear in the sparsity of the system, which is a distant goal for general systems. Surprisingly, Laplacian solvers are impacting the theory of fast algorithms for fundamental graph problems. In this monograph, the emerging paradigm of employing Laplacian solvers to design novel fast algorithms for graph problems is illustrated through a small but carefully chosen set of examples. A significant part of this monograph is also dedicated to developing the ideas that go into the construction of near-linear time Laplacian solvers. An understanding of these methods, which marry techniques from linear algebra and graph theory, will not only enrich the tool-set of an algorithm designer but will also provide the ability to adapt these methods to design fast algorithms for other fundamental problems. This monograph can be used as the text for a graduate-level course, or act as a supplement to a course on spectral graph theory or algorithms. The writing style, which deliberately emphasizes the presentation of key ideas over rigor, will make it accessible to advanced undergraduates.