3 papers
math.OC2026
Noisy Pairwise-Comparison Random Search for Smooth Nonconvex Optimization
Taha El Bakkali, Rayane Bouftini, Qiuyi Zhang +1
We study smooth nonconvex optimization using only noisy pairwise comparisons, without access to gradients or function values. We propose Noisy-Comparison Random Search (NCRS), a si…
math.OC2026
Stochastic Zeroth-Order Optimization Under Heavy-Tailed Noise
Taha El Bakkali, El Mahdi Chayti, Qiuyi Zhang +2
We study stochastic zeroth-order (ZO) optimization of smooth nonconvex objectives under heavy-tailed sample-gradient noise. This regime is motivated by empirical evidence that grad…
math.OC2026
Nonsmooth Optimization with Zeroth Order Comparison Feedback
Taha El Bakkali, El Mahdi Chayti, Omar Saadi
We study unconstrained optimization problems of nonsmooth, nonconvex Lipschitz functions, using only noisy pairwise comparisons governed by a known link function. Our goal is to co…