Decentralized Optimization

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Overview

Decentralized optimization studies how networked agents can jointly minimize an objective or coordinate decisions while each uses local data and communicates with neighbors rather than relying on a central coordinator. Common approaches include gossip and consensus, decentralized stochastic gradient descent with gradient tracking, primal-dual and ADMM methods, and local updates paired with compressed or intermittent communication. These methods are tested in settings such as image and language-model training, online and bilevel learning, power systems, and multi-robot estimation. A central challenge is balancing communication cost, network topology, data heterogeneity, and robustness against noise or adversaries while retaining fast convergence and reliable solutions.

Latest papers

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60 papers15 papers in the last four weeks, up 150% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. On the Limits of Stochastic Push-Pull over Time-Varying Digraphs

    Oct 23, 2026Feiming Wang, Yutong He, Sulaiman Alghunaim +1Decentralized OptimizationStochastic Optimization Convergence

    School of Statistics and Data Science, Nankai University, Tianjin, China. · Center for Machine Learning Research, Peking University. · Electrical Engineering Department, Kuwait University.

  2. Decentralized Bi-Level Optimization for Cooperative Orbital Transportation of a Rigid Payload

    Oct 22, 2026Sidhdharth D. Sikka, Revathy Ravuri, Hei Yin Jowett Chan +2Trajectory OptimizationMulti-Robot Cargo Transportation

    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA · Manifold Research Group, San Francisco, CA 94110 USA · University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom

  3. Group Distributionally Robust Optimization over Decentralized Networks

    Oct 21, 2026Haomin Bai, Junyan Sun, Quan Cheng +2Group Distributionally Robust OptimizationDistributionally Robust Optimization

    State Key Laboratory of Novel Software Technology, Nanjing University · School of Artificial Intelligence, Nanjing University · School of Software Technology, Zhejiang University

  4. Decentralized Online Exp-Concave Optimization

    Oct 18, 2026Hao Qiu, Mengxiao Zhang, Yuanyu WanDecentralized OptimizationOnline Convex Optimization

    National University of Singapore, Singapore · Department of Business Analytics, Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, USA · School of Software Technology, Zhejiang University, Ningbo, China +1

  5. Adding Heavy-Ball Momentum to Distributed Constrained Optimization for Energy Resource Management Subject to Time-Delays and Quantization

    Oct 17, 2026Mohammadreza Doostmohammadian, Sergio PequitoDistributed OptimizationConstrained Optimization

  6. Multi-Token Random-Walk Learning via Meeting-Triggered Information Exchange

    Oct 10, 2026Taichun Yeh, Xingran ChenDecentralized LearningDecentralized Optimization

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway Township, NJ 08854, USA · Engineering Systems and Design Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372, Singapore

  7. Decentralized SGD under Heavy-Tailed Noise: Optimal Convergence Rates and the Role of Gradient Clipping

    Oct 7, 2026Aleksandar Armacki, Haoyuan Cai, Ali H. SayedDecentralized OptimizationStochastic Gradient Descent

    Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

  8. Network Intervention by Polling Strategic Agents

    Oct 6, 2026Chenyu Zhang, Rohit Parasnis, Saurabh AminMechanism DesignGame Theory

    MIT · IIT Bombay

  9. LFHE: Local-First Heuristic Evolution for Bounded Local Topology Search in Decentralized Learning with Non-IID Data

    Oct 6, 2026Yin-Kuan Liang, Yan Gao, Yang LongGraph Structure LearningDecentralized Learning

    Durham University · University of Cambridge

  10. Towards Decentralized Formation of Minimum-Length Communication Networks Using Robot Swarms

    Oct 5, 2026Genki Miyauchi, Mohamed S. Talamali, Julian Rau +1Swarm RoboticsCombinatorial Optimization

    Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK · School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK · Department of Computer Science, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

  11. Dimension-Free Decentralized Nonsmooth Nonconvex Stochastic Optimization

    Oct 5, 2026Yuanyu Wan, Lan Xue, Haomin Bai +2Nonconvex Stochastic OptimizationDecentralized Optimization

    School of Software Technology, Zhejiang University · State Key Laboratory of Blockchain and Security, Zhejiang University · School of Artificial Intelligence, Nanjing University +1

  12. Scalar Communication via Random Direction Refreshing for Distributed Optimization

    Oct 5, 2026Mohammadreza Rostami, Solmaz S. KiaDistributed OptimizationDecentralized Optimization

    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697

  13. From Mixing to Tearing: Graph Decomposition in Decentralized Optimization via Message Passing

    Oct 2, 2026Kuangyu Ding, Gesualdo ScutariDecentralized OptimizationPrimal-Dual Optimization

    Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. · Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering & Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

  14. Decentralized Power-Optimal Coordination for Spacecraft Swarms Using Time-Varying Magnetorquer Actuation

    Oct 1, 2026Yuta Takahashi, Shin-ichiro SakaiMulti-Agent CoordinationFeedback Control

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · Department of Spacecraft Engineering, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Kanagawa, Japan

  15. MANET-GNN: Learned Decentralized Optimization of Power Allocation in Multi-Channel MANETs

    Sep 30, 2026Tomer Alter, Nir Shlezinger, Michael SegalGraph Neural NetworksWireless Communications

    ECE School, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

  16. Decentralized Optimization with Cross-Coupled Mixed Affine Constraints

    Sep 26, 2026Ewsey Obzherin, Ilya Khomchenko, Natalia Shelegeda +4Decentralized OptimizationConstrained Optimization

    Moscow Independent Research Institute of Artificial Intelligence · FusionBrain Lab · Innopolis University

  17. Private Decentralized Optimization with Noise Reduction and Bias Correction

    Sep 23, 2026Yizhao Fan, Wenjian Luo, Jiaojiao ZhangDifferential PrivacyVariance Reduction

    Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen · Great Bay University

  18. ZO-COSMO: Index-Free One-Hop Mixing for Decentralized Zeroth-Order Optimization

    Sep 23, 2026Shengjun Zhang, Tingyi Liu, Heng Zhang +1Communication-Efficient Distributed TrainingMulti-Agent Consensus

    School of Artificial Intelligence, Hubei University, Wuhan, China · School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China · School of Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China +1

  19. Curvature-Independent Regret Bounds for Distributed Online Optimization on Hadamard Manifolds

    Sep 12, 2026Zhanyuan Cai, Emre Sahinoglu, Shahin ShahrampourRiemannian OptimizationDecentralized Optimization

    Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115

  20. Input-to-State Stability Framework for Fully Distributed Primal-Dual Dynamics for Quadratic GNEPs Without Multiplier Consensus

    Sep 7, 2026Shao-An YinPrimal-Dual OptimizationDynamical Systems

    independent researcher

  21. Dec-BFTRL: Squre-Root Regret for Decentralized Online Upper-Linearizable Optimization under Separation Access with Application to Continuous Submodular Maximization

    Aug 31, 2026Yiyang Lu, Mohammad Pedramfar, Vaneet AggarwalSubmodular OptimizationFollow-the-Regularized-Leader

    Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA · Mila - Quebec AI Institute/McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

  22. Resilient Decentralized Wireless Federated Learning via Gradient Tracking with AdamW

    Aug 26, 2026Nguyen Van Thieu, Ti Ti Nguyen, Ons Aouedi +2Decentralized LearningCommunication-Efficient Distributed Training

    Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

  23. Distributed Optimization with Streaming Data: A Temporal Weighting Perspective

    Aug 10, 2026Muhammad Faraz Ul Abrar, Nicolò Michelusi, Erik G. LarssonOnline Convex OptimizationDecentralized Optimization

    School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University · Department of Electrical Engineering (ISY), Linköping University, 58183 Linköping, Sweden

  24. Argonaut: Interactive Visual Exploration for Distributed Optimization

    Jul 30, 2026Srijoni Majumdar, Chuhao Qin, Evangelos PournarasMulti-Agent System OptimizationVisual Analytics

    School of Computer Science, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. · School of Energy Systems, LUT University, 53850 Lappeenranta, Finland

  25. Distributed Convolutional Rank Regression over Decentralized Networks

    Jul 26, 2026Chunjing Li, Tiange Zhao, Xiaohui YuanDecentralized LearningDecentralized Optimization

    School of Mathematics and Statistics, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun 130012, Jilin, China

  26. Decentralized Online Riemannian Optimization for Strongly Geodesically Convex Functions

    Jul 22, 2026Zhanyuan Cai, Emre Sahinoglu, Shahin ShahrampourOnline Convex OptimizationRiemannian Optimization

    Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA

  27. The Optimization Trilemma: Efficiency, Comfort and Fairness in Decentralized Multi-agent Coordination

    Jul 19, 2026Jovan Nikolic, Maciej Krzysztof Zuziak, Evangelos PournarasMulti-Agent CoordinationFair Resource Allocation

    Google, Zurich, 8002 Zurich, Switzerland. · School of Computer Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. · School of Energy Systems, LUT University, 53850 Lappeenranta, Finland

  28. Alignment of a Total Automation Economy

    Jul 19, 2026David McAllesterAI AlignmentLinear Programming

  29. Decentralized Gradient Descent: Bottleneck Regimes and Budget Complexity

    Jul 13, 2026Nicolò MichelusiDistributed OptimizationStochastic Optimization Convergence

    School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University.

  30. Decentralized Stochastic Subgradient-type Methods with Communication Compression for Nonsmooth Nonconvex Optimization

    Jul 2, 2026Siyuan Zhang, Nachuan Xiao, Xin LiuStochastic OptimizationNonconvex Optimization