We developed a new method PROTES for black-box optimization, which is based on the probabilistic sampling from a probability density function given in the low-parametric tensor train format. We tested it on complex multidimensional arrays and discretized multivariable functions taken, among others, from real-world applications, including unconstrained binary optimization and optimal control problems, for which the possible number of elements is up to $2^{1000}$. In numerical experiments, both on analytic model functions and on complex problems, PROTES outperforms popular discrete optimization methods (Particle Swarm Optimization, Covariance Matrix Adaptation, Differential Evolution, and others).

We present a novel procedure for optimization based on the combination of efficient quantized tensor train representation and a generalized maximum matrix volume principle.We demonstrate the applicability of the new Tensor Train Optimizer (TTOpt) method for various tasks, ranging from minimization of multidimensional functions to reinforcement learning.Our algorithm compares favorably to popular gradient-free methods and outperforms them by the number of function evaluations or execution time, often by a significant margin.