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. 2018 Jan 18;176(2):399–409. doi: 10.1007/s10957-017-1214-0

On the Weak Convergence of the Extragradient Method for Solving Pseudo-Monotone Variational Inequalities

Phan Tu Vuong 1,
PMCID: PMC6951821  PMID: 31983774

Abstract

In infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, we prove that the iterative sequence generated by the extragradient method for solving pseudo-monotone variational inequalities converges weakly to a solution. A class of pseudo-monotone variational inequalities is considered to illustrate the convergent behavior. The result obtained in this note extends some recent results in the literature; especially, it gives a positive answer to a question raised in Khanh (Acta Math Vietnam 41:251–263, 2016).

Keywords: Variational inequality, Extragradient method, Pseudo-monotonicity, Weak convergence

Introduction

Variational inequalities serve as a powerful mathematical model, which unifies important concepts in applied mathematics like systems of nonlinear equations, necessary optimality conditions for optimization problems, complementarity problems, obstacle problems, or network equilibrium problems [1]. Therefore, this model has numerous applications in the fields of engineering, mathematical programming, network economics, transportation research, game theory, and regional sciences [2].

Several techniques for the solution of a variational inequality (VI) in finite-dimensional spaces have been suggested such as projection method, extragradient method, Tikhonov regularization method and proximal point method; see, e.g., [1]. Typically, for guaranteeing the convergence to a solution of the VI, some kinds of monotonicity of the assigned mapping is required. In case of gradient maps, generalized monotonicity characterizes generalized convexity of the underlying function [3]. The well-known gradient projection method can be successfully applied for solving strongly monotone VIs and inverse strongly monotone VIs [1, 4]. In practice, these assumptions are rather strong. The Tikhonov regularization and proximal point methods can serve as an efficient solution method for solving monotone VIs. For pseudo-monotone VIs, however, it may happen that every regularized problem generated by the Tikhonov regularization (resp. every problem generated by the proximal point method) is not pseudo-monotone [5]. This implies that the regularization procedures performed in Tikhonov regularization and proximal point methods may destroy completely the given pseudo-monotone structure of the original problem and can make auxiliary problems more difficult to solve than the original one.

To overcome this drawback, Korpelevich introduced the extragradient method [6]. In the original paper, this method was applied for solving monotone VIs in finite-dimensional spaces. It is a known fact [1, Theorem 12.2.11] that the extragradient method can be successfully applied for solving pseudo-monotone VIs. Because of its importance, extragradient-type methods have been widely studied and generalized [1].

Recently, the extragradient method has been considered for solving VIs in infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces [79]. Providing that the VI has solutions and the assigned mapping is monotone and Lipschitz continuous, it is proved that the iterative sequence generated by the extragradient method converges weakly to a solution. However, as stated in [9, Section 6, Q2], it is not clear if the weak convergence is still available when monotonicity is replaced by pseudo-monotonicity. The aim of this paper is to give a positive answer to this question. As a consequence, the scope of the related optimization problems can be enlarged from convex optimization problems to pseudo-convex optimization problems. This guarantees the advantage of extragradient method in comparing with the other solution methods.

The paper is organized as follows: We first recall some basic definitions and results in Sect. 2. The weak convergence of the extragradient method for solving pseudo-monotone, Lipschitz continuous VIs is discussed in Sect. 3. An example is presented in Sect. 4 to illustrate the behavior of the extragradient method. We conclude the note with some final remarks in Sect. 5.

Preliminaries

Let H be real Hilbert space with inner product ·,· and induced norm . and K be a nonempty, closed and convex subset of H. For each uH, there exists a unique point in K (see [2, p. 8]), denoted by PK(u), such that

u-PK(u)u-vvK.

It is well known [2, 10] that the projection operator can be characterized by

u-PK(u),v-PK(u)0vK. 1

Let F:HH be a mapping. The variational inequality VI(KF) defined by K and F consists in finding a point uK such that

F(u),u-u0uK. 2

The solution set of VI(KF) is abbreviated to Sol(KF).

Remark 2.1

uSol(K,F) if and only if u=PK(u-λF(u)) for all λ>0.

We recall some concepts which are useful in the sequel.

Definition 2.1

The mapping F:HH is said to be

  1. pseudo-monotone if
    F(u),v-u0F(v),v-u0u,vH;
  2. monotone if
    F(u)-F(v),u-v0u,vH;
  3. Lipschitz continuous if there exists L>0 such that
    F(u)-F(v)Lu-vu,vH;
  4. sequentially weakly continuous if for each sequence {un} we have: {un} converges weakly to u implies {F(un)} converges weakly to F(u).

Remark 2.2

It is clear that monotonicity implies pseudo-monotonicity. However, the converse does not hold. For example, the mapping F:0,+0,+, defined by F(u)=aa+u with a>0 is pseudo-monotone but not monotone.

We recall a result which is called Minty lemma [11, Lemma 2.1].

Proposition 2.1

Consider the problem VI(KF) with K being a nonempty, closed, convex subset of a real Hilbert space H and F:KH being pseudo-monotone and continuous. Then, u is a solution of VI(KF) if and only if

F(u),u-u0uK.

Weak Convergence of the Extragradient Method

In this section, we consider the problem VI(KF) with K being nonempty, closed, convex and F being pseudo-monotone on H and Lipschitz continuous with modulus L>0 on K. We also assume that the solution set Sol(KF) is nonempty.

Extragradient Algorithm

  • Data: u0K and {λk}[a,b], where 0<ab<1/L.

  • Step 0: Set k=0.

  • Step 1: If uk=PK(uk-λkF(uk)) then stop.

  • Step 2: Otherwise, set
    u¯k=PK(uk-λkF(uk)),uk+1=PK(uk-λkF(u¯k)).

Replace k by k+1; go to Step 1.

Remark 3.1

If at some iteration we have F(uk)=0, then uk=PK(uk-λkF(uk)) and the Extragradient Algorithm terminates at step k with a solution uk. From now on, we assume that F(uk)0 for all k and the Extragradient Algorithm generates an infinite sequence.

We recall an important property of the iterative sequence {uk} generated by the Extragradient Algorithm; see, e.g., [6, 9].

Proposition 3.1

Assume that F is pseudo-monotone and L-Lipschitz continuous on K and Sol(KF) is nonempty. Let u be a solution of VI(KF). Then, for every kN, we have

uk+1-u2uk-u2-1-λk2L2uk-u¯k2. 3

We are now in the position to establish the main result of this note. The following theorem states that the sequence {uk} converges weakly to a solution of VI(KF). This result extends the Extragradient Algorithm for solving monotone VIs [7, 9] to pseudo-monotone VIs.

Theorem 3.1

Assume that F is pseudo-monotone on H, sequentially weakly continuous and L-Lipschitz continuous on K. Assume also that Sol(KF) is nonempty. Then, the sequence {uk} generated by the Extragradient Algorithm converges weakly to a solution of VI(KF).

Proof

Since 0<aλkb<1/L, it holds that

0<1-b2L21-λk2L21-a2L2<1.

Therefore, from Proposition 3.1, the sequence {uk} is bounded and

limkuk-u¯k=0.

Since F is Lipschitz continuous on K we have

F(uk)-F(u¯k)Luk-u¯k.

Hence

limkF(uk)-F(u¯k)=0.

As {uk} is a bounded sequence in a Hilbert space, there exists a subsequence {uki} of {uk} converging weakly to an element u^K. Since limkuk-u¯k=0, {u¯ki} also converges weakly to u^. We will prove that u^Sol(K,F). Indeed, since

u¯k=PK(uk-λkF(uk)),

by the projection characterization (1), it holds

uki-λkiF(uki)-u¯ki,v-u¯ki0vK,

or equivalently,

1λkiuki-u¯ki,v-u¯kiF(uki),v-u¯kivK.

This implies that

1λkiuki-u¯ki,v-u¯ki+F(uki),u¯ki-ukiF(uki),v-ukivK. 4

Fixing vK and letting i+ in the last inequality, remembering that limkuk-u¯k=0 and λk[a,b]]0,1/L[ for all k, we have

lim infiF(uki),v-uki0. 5

Now we choose a sequence {ϵi}i of positive numbers decreasing and tending to 0. For each ϵi, we denote by ni the smallest positive integer such that

F(ukj),v-ukj+ϵi0jni, 6

where the existence of ni follows from (5). Since ϵi is decreasing, it is easy to see that the sequence ni is increasing. Furthermore, for each i, F(ukni)0 and, setting

vkni=F(ukni)F(ukni)2,

we have F(ukni),vkni=1 for each i. Now we can deduce from (6) that for each i

F(ukni),v+ϵivkni-ukni0,

and, since F is pseudo-monotone, that

F(v+ϵivkni),v+ϵivkni-ukni0. 7

On the other hand, we have that uki converges weakly to u^ when i. Since F is sequentially weakly continuous on K, F(uki) converges weakly to F(u^). We can suppose that F(u^)0 (otherwise, u^ is a solution). Since the norm mapping is sequentially weakly lower semicontinuous, we have

F(u^)liminfiF(uki).

Since ukniuki and ϵi0 as i0, we obtain

0limiϵivkni=limiϵiF(ukni)0F(u^)=0.

Hence, taking the limit as i in (7), we obtain

F(v),v-u^0.

It follows from Proposition 2.1 that u^Sol(K,F).

Finally, we prove that the sequence {uk} converges weakly to u^. To do this, it is sufficient to show that {uk} cannot have two distinct weak sequential cluster points in Sol(KF). Let {ukj} be another subsequence of {uk} converging weakly to u¯. We have to prove that u^=u¯. As it has been proven above, u¯Sol(K,F). From Proposition 3.1, the sequences {uk-u^} and {uk-u¯} are monotonically decreasing and therefore converge. Since for all kN,

2uk,u¯-u^=uk-u^2-uk-u¯2+u¯2-u^2,

we deduce that the sequence {uk,u¯-u^} also converges. Setting

l=limkuk,u¯-u^,

and passing to the limit along {uki} and {ukj} yields, respectively,

l=u^,u¯-u^=u¯,u¯-u^.

This implies that u^-u¯2=0 and therefore u^=u¯.

Remark 3.2

The author in [13] studied the extragradient method for solving strongly pseudo-monotone variational inequalities with the following choice of stepsizes:

k=0λk=,limkλk=0.

It was proved that the iterative sequence generated by the extragradient method converges strongly to a solution. By considering an example [13, Example 4.2], the author stated that the condition limkλk=0 cannot be omitted. We have shown that if this condition is violated then the strong convergence reduces to the weak convergence.

It is also worth stressing that, the basic extragradient method can serve as an adequate solution method for solving pseudo-monotone VIs, which was not guaranteed by the method studied in [13].

Remark 3.3

If we replace the Lipschitz continuity of F on K by its Lipschitz continuity on the whole space H, then the conclusion in Theorem 3.1 still holds for the subgradient extragradient method [7]. Indeed, a careful reviewing shows that Lemma 5.2 in [7] is also guaranteed for pseudo-monotone mappings instead of monotone ones (see also [12]). The conclusion can be obtained by using a similar technique as in Theorem 3.1.

Remark 3.4

When the function F is monotone, it is not necessary to impose the sequential weak continuity on F. Indeed, in that case, it follows from (4) and the monotonicity of F that

1λkiuki-u¯ki,v-u¯ki+F(uki),u¯ki-ukiF(uki),v-ukiF(v),v-ukivK.

Letting i+ in the last inequality, remembering that limkuk-u¯k=0 and λk[a,b]]0,1/L[ for all k, we have

F(v),v-u^0vK.

An Illustrative Example

In this section, we present an example to illustrate the main results obtained in Sect. 3. Another example can be found in [9, Example 5.2], where the mapping F is monotone and Lipchitz continuous. The following example is considered in [13], where the mapping F is pseudo-monotone but not monotone.

Let H=2, the real Hilbert space, whose elements are the square-summable sequences of real numbers, i.e., H={u=(u1,u2,,ui,):i=1|ui|2<+}. The inner product and the norm on H are given by setting

u,v=i=1uiviandu=u,u

for any u=(u1,u2,,ui,),v=(v1,v2,,vi,)H.

Let α,βR be such that β>α>β2>0. Put

Kα={uH:uα},Fβ(u)=(β-u)u,

where α and β are parameters. It is easy to verify that Fβ is sequentially weakly continuous on H and Sol(Kα,Fβ)={0}. Note that Fβ is Lipschitz continuous and pseudo-monotone on Kα. Indeed, for any u,vKα,

Fβ(u)-Fβ(v)=(β-u)u-(β-v)v=β(u-v)-u(u-v)-(u-v)vβu-v+uu-v+|u-v|vβu-v+αu-v+u-vα=(β+2α)u-v.

Hence, Fβ is Lipschitz continuous on Kα with the Lipschitz constant L:=β+2α. Let u,vKα be such that Fβ(u),v-u0. Then

(β-u)u,v-u0.

Since uα<β, we have u,v-u0. Hence,

Fβ(v),v-u=(β-v)v,v-u(β-v)(v,v-u-u,v-u)(β-α)u-v20.

We have thus shown that Fβ is pseudo-monotone on Kα. It is worthy to stress that Fβ is not monotone on Kα. To see this, it suffices to choose u=(β2,0,,0,),v=(α,0,,0,)Kα and note that

Fβ(u)-Fβ(v),u-v=β2-α3<0.

We now apply the Extragradient Algorithm for solving the variational inequality VI(Kα,Fβ). We choose λk=λ0,1L=0,1β+2α and we take starting point as any u0Kα. The projection onto Kα is explicitly calculated as

PKαu=u,ifuα,αuu,otherwise. 8

Since for all k,

0<λ<1β+2α<1β-uk,

then we have

uk-λFβ(uk)=1-λβ-ukukukα.

Therefore,

u¯k=PKα(uk-λkF(uk))=1-λβ-ukuk.

Similarly, we can deduce that

uk-λkFβ(u¯k)α.

Indeed, we have

uk-λkFβ(u¯k)=uk-λβ-u¯k1-λβ-ukuk.

Since

1-λβ-u¯k1-λβ-uk=1-λβ-u¯k+λ2β-u¯kβ-uk1-λβ-u¯k>0, 9

we can write

uk-λkFβ(u¯k)=1-λβ-u¯k1-λβ-ukukukα.

This and (9) imply that

uk+1=PKα(uk-λkFβ(u¯k))=uk-λβ-u¯ku¯k=1-λβ-u¯k1-λβ-ukuk. 10

We have

λβ-u¯k1-λβ-uk=λβ-u¯k1-λβ+λukλβ-u¯k1-λβ=λβ-(1-λβ)uk-λuk21-λβ. 11

Considering the function f(x):=β-1-λβx-λx2 with x[0,α], it is easy to see that f is decreasing on [0,α]. Therefore, the minimal value of f is

β-1-λβα-λα2,

which is attained at x=α. Combining this with (11) and (10) yields

uk+11-λβ-1-λβα-λα21-λβuk=1-λβ-λα+λ2αβ-λ2α21-λβuk=1-β-αλ1+αλ1-λβuk. 12

We claim that

q:=β-αλ1+αλ1-λβ]0,1[.

Indeed, since α<β and 0<λ<1β+2α, we have q>0. To verify that q<1, it is sufficient to show that β-αλ1+αλ<1. Since β/2<α<β and 0<λ<1β+2α we have

β-αλ1+αλ<β-α1β+2α1+αβ+2α<β21β+β1+ββ+β=38.

This implies that q]0,1[ and we can deduce from (12) that

uk1-qku0,

for all kN. This means that the sequence {uk} converges strongly to 0, the unique solution of VI(Kα,Fβ).

Conclusions

We have considered the extragradient method for solving infinite-dimensional variational inequalities with a pseudo-monotone and Lipschitz continuous mapping. We have shown that the iterative sequence generated by the extragradient method converges weakly to a solution of the considered variational inequality, provided that such a solution exists. The strong convergence of the iteration sequence is still an open question that could be an interesting topic for a future research.

Acknowledgements

Open access funding provided by Austrian Science Fund (FWF). The author wishes to express his gratitude to the Editor-in-Chief, the two anonymous referees and Prof. Jean Jacques Strodiot for their detailed comments and useful suggestions that allowed to improve significantly the presentation of this paper. This research is supported by the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) under Grant No. P26640-N25.

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