Second-Order Guarantees of Distributed Gradient Algorithms

Abstract

We consider distributed smooth nonconvex unconstrained optimization over net- works, modeled as a connected graph. We examine the behavior of distributed gradient-based algorithms near strict saddle points. Specifically, we establish that (i) the renowned distributed gradient descent algorithm likely converges to a neighborhood of a second-order stationary (SoS) solution; and (ii) the more recent class of distributed algorithms based on gradient tracking---implementable also over digraphs---likely converges to exact SoS solutions, thus avoiding (strict) saddle points. Furthermore, new convergence rate results for first-order critical points is established for the latter class of algorithms.