Theory · optimization papers, 2023–2026

Key findings

• Theory · optimization went from 123 papers in 2023 to 584 in 2026, roughly 4.7x in three years.
• NeurIPS publishes the most Theory · optimization work: 778 papers from 2023 to 2026, 42% of the four-venue total.
• The fastest-growing overlap is with Low-Rank Adaptation: papers tagged with both rose from 0 in 2023 to 31 in 2026.
• Among the 5 topics under Theory and Statistics, it ranks #1 by 2026 paper count; the fastest grower in the group, Theory · learning theory, is up 5.6x versus 4.7x here.

Representative papers

Spread across years and venues so every edition shows up

• NeurIPS 2026A Mechanistic Investigation of Theory of Mind in a Large Language Model
• ICML 2026A Direct Second-Order Method for Solving Two-Player Zero-Sum Games
• ICLR 2026A Convergence Analysis of Adaptive Optimizers under Floating-point Quantization
• CVPR 2026TriSim Tri-Dimensional Similarity Modeling with Extreme Value Theory for False-Negative
• NeurIPS 20253BASiL: An Algorithmic Framework for Sparse plus Low-Rank Compression of LLMs
• ICML 2025Active Learning of Deep Neural Networks via Gradient-Free Cutting Planes
• ICLR 2025A Coefficient Makes SVRG Effective
• CVPR 2025Dynamic Stereotype Theory Induced Micro-expression Recognition with Oriented Deformation
• NeurIPS 2024A Combinatorial Algorithm for the Semi-Discrete Optimal Transport Problem
• ICML 2024A Statistical Theory of Regularization-Based Continual Learning
• ICLR 2024A Discretization Framework for Robust Contextual Stochastic Optimization
• NeurIPS 2023[Re] Bandit Theory and Thompson Sampling-guided Directed Evolution for Sequence Optimization
• ICML 2023Averaged Method of Multipliers for Bi-Level Optimization without Lower-Level Strong Convexity
• ICLR 2023Adaptive Optimization in the $\infty$-Width Limit
• CVPR 2023Deep Hashing With Minimal-Distance-Separated Hash Centers
• NeurIPS 2026Avoiding Obfuscation with Prover-Estimator Debate
• ICML 2026A General Framework for Dynamic Consistent Submodular Maximization
• ICLR 2026A Memory-Efficient Hierarchical Algorithm for Large-scale Optimal Transport Problems
• CVPR 2026FedAdamom Adaptive Momentum for Improved Generalization in Federated Optimization
• NeurIPS 2025A Beyond-Worst-Case Analysis of Greedy k-means++

All Theory · optimization papers

1,871 papers, page 16 of 38

751. ICLR 2025Scalable Decentralized Learning with Teleportation
752. ICLR 2025Scaling FP8 training to trillion-token LLMs
753. ICLR 2025Second-Order Min-Max Optimization with Lazy Hessians
754. ICLR 2025Self-Play Preference Optimization for Language Model Alignment
755. ICLR 2025SEPARATE: A Simple Low-rank Projection for Gradient Compression in Modern Large-scale Model Training Process
756. ICLR 2025Separation Power of Equivariant Neural Networks
757. ICLR 2025Sequential Stochastic Combinatorial Optimization Using Hierarchal Reinforcement Learning
758. ICLR 2025SGD with memory: fundamental properties and stochastic acceleration
759. ICLR 2025Sharper Guarantees for Learning Neural Network Classifiers with Gradient Methods
760. ICLR 2025Sharpness-Aware Black-Box Optimization
761. ICLR 2025Sharpness-Aware Minimization: General Analysis and Improved Rates
762. ICLR 2025SOAP: Improving and Stabilizing Shampoo using Adam for Language Modeling
763. ICLR 2025Solving hidden monotone variational inequalities with surrogate losses
764. ICLR 2025SOREL: A Stochastic Algorithm for Spectral Risks Minimization
765. ICLR 2025Stochastic Polyak Step-sizes and Momentum: Convergence Guarantees and Practical Performance
766. ICLR 2025Strategic Classification With Externalities
767. ICLR 2025Streaming Algorithms For $\ell_p$ Flows and $\ell_p$ Regression
768. ICLR 2025Taming Transformer Without Using Learning Rate Warmup
769. ICLR 2025The Complexity of Two-Team Polymatrix Games with Independent Adversaries
770. ICLR 2025The Computational Complexity of Positive Non-Clashing Teaching in Graphs
771. ICLR 2025The Directionality of Optimization Trajectories in Neural Networks
772. ICLR 2025The Optimization Landscape of SGD Across the Feature Learning Strength
773. ICLR 2025The Utility and Complexity of In- and Out-of-Distribution Machine Unlearning
774. ICLR 2025Tight Lower Bounds under Asymmetric High-Order Hölder Smoothness and Uniform Convexity
775. ICLR 2025Tight Time Complexities in Parallel Stochastic Optimization with Arbitrary Computation Dynamics
776. ICLR 2025To Clip or not to Clip: the Dynamics of SGD with Gradient Clipping in High-Dimensions
777. ICLR 2025Towards Faster Decentralized Stochastic Optimization with Communication Compression
778. ICLR 2025Towards Foundation Models for Mixed Integer Linear Programming
779. ICLR 2025Training Nonlinear Transformers for Chain-of-Thought Inference: A Theoretical Generalization Analysis
780. ICLR 2025Tuning-Free Bilevel Optimization: New Algorithms and Convergence Analysis
781. ICLR 2025Understanding Optimization in Deep Learning with Central Flows
782. ICLR 2025Understanding Warmup-Stable-Decay Learning Rates: A River Valley Loss Landscape View
783. ICLR 2025Universal Sharpness Dynamics in Neural Network Training: Fixed Point Analysis, Edge of Stability, and Route to Chaos
784. ICLR 2025Unlocking Global Optimality in Bilevel Optimization: A Pilot Study
785. ICLR 2025Verifying Properties of Binary Neural Networks Using Sparse Polynomial Optimization
786. ICLR 2025Vertical Federated Learning with Missing Features During Training and Inference
787. ICLR 2025What should a neuron aim for? Designing local objective functions based on information theory
788. ICLR 2025When GNNs meet symmetry in ILPs: an orbit-based feature augmentation approach
789. ICLR 2025Wide Neural Networks Trained with Weight Decay Provably Exhibit Neural Collapse
790. ICML 2025$\mathcal{V}ista\mathcal{DPO}$: Video Hierarchical Spatial-Temporal Direct Preference Optimization for Large Video Models
791. ICML 2025A Bregman Proximal Viewpoint on Neural Operators
792. ICML 2025A Generalization Result for Convergence in Learning-to-Optimize
793. ICML 2025A Near Linear Query Lower Bound for Submodular Maximization
794. ICML 2025A Parameter-Free and Near-Optimal Zeroth-Order Algorithm for Stochastic Convex Optimization
795. ICML 2025A Parametric Contextual Online Learning Theory of Brokerage
796. ICML 2025A Unified View on Learning Unnormalized Distributions via Noise-Contrastive Estimation
797. ICML 2025Active Learning of Deep Neural Networks via Gradient-Free Cutting Planes
798. ICML 2025Adapting to Linear Separable Subsets with Large-Margin in Differentially Private Learning
799. ICML 2025Advancing Constrained Monotonic Neural Networks: Achieving Universal Approximation Beyond Bounded Activations
800. ICML 2025Aligned Multi Objective Optimization

FAQ

How many Theory · optimization papers were published at NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML and CVPR from 2023 to 2026?

1,871 in total: 123 in 2023, 494 in 2024, 670 in 2025, 584 in 2026.

How many Theory · optimization papers are at NeurIPS 2026?

NeurIPS 2026 has 119 Theory · optimization papers, versus 318 the year before.

How many Theory · optimization papers are at ICLR 2026?

ICLR 2026 has 244 Theory · optimization papers, versus 196 the year before.

How many Theory · optimization papers are at ICML 2026?

ICML 2026 has 214 Theory · optimization papers, versus 147 the year before.

How many Theory · optimization papers are at CVPR 2026?

CVPR 2026 has 7 Theory · optimization papers, versus 9 the year before.

Which conference publishes the most Theory · optimization papers?

NeurIPS, with 778 papers from 2023 to 2026.