Non-monotone Behavior of the Heavy Ball Method

Abstract

We focus on the solutions of second-order stable linear difference equations and demonstrate that their behavior can be non-monotone and exhibit peak effects depending on initial conditions. The results are applied to the analysis of the accelerated unconstrained optimization method -- the Heavy Ball method. We explain non-standard behavior of the method discovered in practical applications. In addition, such non-monotonicity complicates the correct choice of the parameters in optimization methods. We propose to overcome this difficulty by introducing new Lyapunov function which should decrease monotonically. By use of this function convergence of the method is established under less restrictive assumptions (for instance, with the lack of convexity). We also suggest some restart techniques to speed up the methods' convergence.