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

609 papers, page 6 of 13

251. ICLR 2025A Unified Theory of Quantum Neural Network Loss Landscapes
252. ICLR 2025Accelerated Over-Relaxation Heavy-Ball Method: Achieving Global Accelerated Convergence with Broad Generalization
253. ICLR 2025Accelerated training through iterative gradient propagation along the residual path
254. ICLR 2025Achieving Dimension-Free Communication in Federated Learning via Zeroth-Order Optimization
255. ICLR 2025AdaFisher: Adaptive Second Order Optimization via Fisher Information
256. ICLR 2025AdaGrad under Anisotropic Smoothness
257. ICLR 2025Adam Exploits $\ell_\infty$-geometry of Loss Landscape via Coordinate-wise Adaptivity
258. ICLR 2025ADAM Optimization with Adaptive Batch Selection
259. ICLR 2025Adam-mini: Use Fewer Learning Rates To Gain More
260. ICLR 2025Adaptive backtracking line search
261. ICLR 2025Adaptive Methods through the Lens of SDEs: Theoretical Insights on the Role of Noise
262. ICLR 2025Addax: Utilizing Zeroth-Order Gradients to Improve Memory Efficiency and Performance of SGD for Fine-Tuning Language Models
263. ICLR 2025ADMM for Nonconvex Optimization under Minimal Continuity Assumption
264. ICLR 2025ADMM for Structured Fractional Minimization
265. ICLR 2025Adversarial Generative Flow Network for Solving Vehicle Routing Problems
266. ICLR 2025Adversarial Training Can Provably Improve Robustness: Theoretical Analysis of Feature Learning Process Under Structured Data
267. ICLR 2025An Asynchronous Bundle Method for Distributed Learning Problems
268. ICLR 2025An Effective Manifold-based Optimization Method for Distributionally Robust Classification
269. ICLR 2025An Online Learning Theory of Trading-Volume Maximization
270. ICLR 2025Analyzing Neural Scaling Laws in Two-Layer Networks with Power-Law Data Spectra
271. ICLR 2025Approximation algorithms for combinatorial optimization with predictions
272. ICLR 2025Asymptotic Analysis of Two-Layer Neural Networks after One Gradient Step under Gaussian Mixtures Data with Structure
273. ICLR 2025Attention layers provably solve single-location regression
274. ICLR 2025Boosting Perturbed Gradient Ascent for Last-Iterate Convergence in Games
275. ICLR 2025Bounds on $L_p$ Errors in Density Ratio Estimation via $f$-Divergence Loss Functions
276. ICLR 2025BP-Modified Local Loss for Efficient Training of Deep Neural Networks
277. ICLR 2025BTBS-LNS: Binarized-Tightening, Branch and Search on Learning LNS Policies for MIP
278. ICLR 2025Cauchy-Schwarz Regularizers
279. ICLR 2025Collaborative Discrete-Continuous Black-Box Prompt Learning for Language Models
280. ICLR 2025Competitive Fair Scheduling with Predictions
281. ICLR 2025Complexity Lower Bounds of Adaptive Gradient Algorithms for Non-convex Stochastic Optimization under Relaxed Smoothness
282. ICLR 2025Computational Explorations of Total Variation Distance
283. ICLR 2025CONGO: Compressive Online Gradient Optimization
284. ICLR 2025Contractive Dynamical Imitation Policies for Efficient Out-of-Sample Recovery
285. ICLR 2025Convergence of Distributed Adaptive Optimization with Local Updates
286. ICLR 2025Convex Formulations for Training Two-Layer ReLU Neural Networks
287. ICLR 2025Debiasing Federated Learning with Correlated Client Participation
288. ICLR 2025Debiasing Mini-Batch Quadratics for Applications in Deep Learning
289. ICLR 2025dEBORA: Efficient Bilevel Optimization-based low-Rank Adaptation
290. ICLR 2025Decentralized Optimization with Coupled Constraints
291. ICLR 2025Decision Information Meets Large Language Models: The Future of Explainable Operations Research
292. ICLR 2025Decision Tree Induction Through LLMs via Semantically-Aware Evolution
293. ICLR 2025Decoding Game: On Minimax Optimality of Heuristic Text Generation Strategies
294. ICLR 2025Decomposition Polyhedra of Piecewise Linear Functions
295. ICLR 2025Deep Distributed Optimization for Large-Scale Quadratic Programming
296. ICLR 2025DeeperForward: Enhanced Forward-Forward Training for Deeper and Better Performance
297. ICLR 2025Descent with Misaligned Gradients and Applications to Hidden Convexity
298. ICLR 2025Direct Distributional Optimization for Provable Alignment of Diffusion Models
299. ICLR 2025Do Deep Neural Network Solutions Form a Star Domain?
300. ICLR 2025Do Stochastic, Feel Noiseless: Stable Stochastic Optimization via a Double Momentum Mechanism

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.