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

670 papers, page 1 of 14

1. CVPR 2025A Theory of Learning Unified Model via Knowledge Integration from Label Space Varying Domains
2. CVPR 2025Dynamic Stereotype Theory Induced Micro-expression Recognition with Oriented Deformation
3. CVPR 2025EvOcc: Accurate Semantic Occupancy for Automated Driving Using Evidence Theory
4. CVPR 2025Foundations of the Theory of Performance-Based Ranking
5. CVPR 2025HotSpot: Signed Distance Function Optimization with an Asymptotically Sufficient Condition
6. CVPR 2025Investigating the Role of Weight Decay in Enhancing Nonconvex SGD
7. CVPR 2025Locally Orderless Images for Optimization in Differentiable Rendering
8. CVPR 2025PIDLoc: Cross-View Pose Optimization Network Inspired by PID Controllers
9. CVPR 2025Spatial Transport Optimization by Repositioning Attention Map for Training-Free Text-to-Image Synthesis
10. ICLR 2025A Coefficient Makes SVRG Effective
11. ICLR 2025A Deep Generative Learning Approach for Two-stage Adaptive Robust Optimization
12. ICLR 2025A New Perspective on Shampoo's Preconditioner
13. ICLR 2025A Stochastic Approach to the Subset Selection Problem via Mirror Descent
14. ICLR 2025A Theory of Initialisation's Impact on Specialisation
15. ICLR 2025A Tight Convergence Analysis of Inexact Stochastic Proximal Point Algorithm for Stochastic Composite Optimization Problems
16. ICLR 2025A Unified Theory of Quantum Neural Network Loss Landscapes
17. ICLR 2025Accelerated Over-Relaxation Heavy-Ball Method: Achieving Global Accelerated Convergence with Broad Generalization
18. ICLR 2025Accelerated training through iterative gradient propagation along the residual path
19. ICLR 2025Achieving Dimension-Free Communication in Federated Learning via Zeroth-Order Optimization
20. ICLR 2025AdaFisher: Adaptive Second Order Optimization via Fisher Information
21. ICLR 2025AdaGrad under Anisotropic Smoothness
22. ICLR 2025Adam Exploits $\ell_\infty$-geometry of Loss Landscape via Coordinate-wise Adaptivity
23. ICLR 2025ADAM Optimization with Adaptive Batch Selection
24. ICLR 2025Adam-mini: Use Fewer Learning Rates To Gain More
25. ICLR 2025Adaptive backtracking line search
26. ICLR 2025Adaptive Methods through the Lens of SDEs: Theoretical Insights on the Role of Noise
27. ICLR 2025Addax: Utilizing Zeroth-Order Gradients to Improve Memory Efficiency and Performance of SGD for Fine-Tuning Language Models
28. ICLR 2025ADMM for Nonconvex Optimization under Minimal Continuity Assumption
29. ICLR 2025ADMM for Structured Fractional Minimization
30. ICLR 2025Adversarial Generative Flow Network for Solving Vehicle Routing Problems
31. ICLR 2025Adversarial Training Can Provably Improve Robustness: Theoretical Analysis of Feature Learning Process Under Structured Data
32. ICLR 2025An Asynchronous Bundle Method for Distributed Learning Problems
33. ICLR 2025An Effective Manifold-based Optimization Method for Distributionally Robust Classification
34. ICLR 2025An Online Learning Theory of Trading-Volume Maximization
35. ICLR 2025Analyzing Neural Scaling Laws in Two-Layer Networks with Power-Law Data Spectra
36. ICLR 2025Approximation algorithms for combinatorial optimization with predictions
37. ICLR 2025Asymptotic Analysis of Two-Layer Neural Networks after One Gradient Step under Gaussian Mixtures Data with Structure
38. ICLR 2025Attention layers provably solve single-location regression
39. ICLR 2025Boosting Perturbed Gradient Ascent for Last-Iterate Convergence in Games
40. ICLR 2025Bounds on $L_p$ Errors in Density Ratio Estimation via $f$-Divergence Loss Functions
41. ICLR 2025BP-Modified Local Loss for Efficient Training of Deep Neural Networks
42. ICLR 2025BTBS-LNS: Binarized-Tightening, Branch and Search on Learning LNS Policies for MIP
43. ICLR 2025Cauchy-Schwarz Regularizers
44. ICLR 2025Collaborative Discrete-Continuous Black-Box Prompt Learning for Language Models
45. ICLR 2025Competitive Fair Scheduling with Predictions
46. ICLR 2025Complexity Lower Bounds of Adaptive Gradient Algorithms for Non-convex Stochastic Optimization under Relaxed Smoothness
47. ICLR 2025Computational Explorations of Total Variation Distance
48. ICLR 2025CONGO: Compressive Online Gradient Optimization
49. ICLR 2025Contractive Dynamical Imitation Policies for Efficient Out-of-Sample Recovery
50. ICLR 2025Convergence of Distributed Adaptive Optimization with Local Updates

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.