Exercise · ZW-LINE-SEARCH-003 · ★☆☆ Basic

What must the direction \(p_k\) satisfy for line search to make sense?

Choose one option.

Show answer
  • D. Be a descent direction, with \(\nabla f(x_k)^\top p_k<0\)

Explanation

A descent direction has a negative inner product with the gradient, which guarantees the function can decrease. The growth option reverses this sign and is useless for minimization.

Study Continuous optimization in ZWMath →

Review the concept: Line search

Line search is a procedure that chooses the step size \(\alpha\) along a descent direction \(p_k\) to reduce the value of the objective function.

\[f(x_k+\alpha p_k)\le f(x_k)+c_1\alpha\nabla f(x_k)^\top p_k\]

More practice problems: line search

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