Closing the Oracle-Complexity Gap in Derivative-Free Convex Optimization: A Near-Quadratic Lower Bound from Exact Function Values

Abstract

We study the deterministic query complexity of minimizing a convex Lipschitz function over a $d$-dimensional Euclidean ball using only exact function values. At accuracy $Θ(d^{-1/2})$, the previously applicable lower bound was $Ω(d)$, inherited from the stronger full first-order oracle, while an upper bound from Protasov's value-only method requires $O(d^2\log^2 d)$ evaluations. By providing a lower bound of $Ω(\,\frac{d^2}{\log(d+1)})$ on the oracle complexity in this setting, we thereby close this gap dating back to 1996, up to polylogarithmic factors. Furthermore, we are able to lift this result to the mixed-integer setting: Mixed-integer convex optimization with $d$ continuous and $n$ discrete variables using function values requires $\tildeΩ(d^2\cdot 2^n)$ queries.