  The accelerated method in solving optimization problems has always been an
absorbing topic. Based on the fixed-time (FxT) stability of nonlinear dynamical
systems, we provide a unified approach for designing FxT gradient flows
(FxTGFs). First, a general class of nonlinear functions in designing FxTGFs is
provided. A unified method for designing first-order FxTGFs is shown under
PolyakL jasiewicz inequality assumption, a weaker condition than strong
convexity. When there exist both bounded and vanishing disturbances in the
gradient flow, a specific class of nonsmooth robust FxTGFs with disturbance
rejection is presented. Under the strict convexity assumption, Newton-based
FxTGFs is given and further extended to solve time-varying optimization.
Besides, the proposed FxTGFs are further used for solving equation-constrained
optimization. Moreover, an FxT proximal gradient flow with a wide range of
parameters is provided for solving nonsmooth composite optimization. To show
the effectiveness of various FxTGFs, the static regret analysis for several
typical FxTGFs are also provided in detail. Finally, the proposed FxTGFs are
applied to solve two network problems, i.e., the network consensus problem and
solving a system linear equations, respectively, from the respective of
optimization. Particularly, by choosing component-wisely sign-preserving
functions, these problems can be solved in a distributed way, which extends the
existing results. The accelerated convergence and robustness of the proposed
FxTGFs are validated in several numerical examples stemming from practical
applications.
