Quadratic regularization with cubic descent for unconstrained optimization∗

Cubic-regularization and trust-region methods with worst-case first-order complexity O(ε−3/2) and worst-case second-order complexity O(ε−3) have been developed in the last few years. In this paper it is proved that the same complexities are achieved by means of a quadratic-regularization method with a cubic sufficient-descent condition instead of the more usual predicted-reduction based descent. Asymptotic convergence and order of convergence results are also presented. Finally, some numerical experiments comparing the new algorithm with a well-established quadratic regularization method are shown.