## Global Optimization of Non-Linear Systems of Equations by Simulating the Flight of a Projectile in the Conformational Space

A new heuristic optimization algorithm is presented based on an analogy with the physical phenomenon of a projectile launched in a conformational space under the influence of a gravitational force. Its implementation simplicity and the option to enhance it with local search methods make it ideal for the optimization of non-linear systems of equations. The … Read more

## Optimal Geometric Partitions, Covers and K-Centers

In this paper we present some new, practical, geometric optimization techniques for computing polygon partitions, 1D and 2D point, interval, square and rectangle covers, as well as 1D and 2D interval and rectangle K-centers. All the techniques we present have immediate applications to several cost optimization and facility location problems which are quite common in … Read more

## A globally convergent primal-dual interior-point 3D filter method for nonlinear SDP

This paper proposes a primal-dual interior-point filter method for nonlinear semidefinite programming, which is the first multidimensional (three-dimensional) filter methods for interior-point methods, and of course for constrained optimization. A freshly new definition of filter entries is proposed, which is greatly different from those in all the current filter methods. A mixed norm is used … Read more

## A Framework for Optimization under Ambiguity

In this paper, single stage stochastic programs with ambiguous distributions for the involved random variables are considered. Though the true distribution is unknown, existence of a reference measure P enables the construction of non-parametric ambiguity sets as Kantorovich balls around P. The resulting robustified problems are infinite optimization problems and can therefore not be solved … Read more

## On complexity of Selecting Branching Disjunctions in Integer Programming

Branching is an important component of branch-and-bound algorithms for solving mixed integer linear programs. We consider the problem of selecting, at each iteration of the branch-and-bound algorithm, a general branching disjunction of the form $“\pi x \leq \pi_0 \vee \pi x \geq \pi_0 + 1”$, where $\pi, \pi_0$ are integral. We show that the problem … Read more

## Infeasibility Detection and SQP Methods for Nonlinear Optimization

This paper addresses the need for nonlinear programming algorithms that provide fast local convergence guarantees regardless of whether a problem is feasible or infeasible. We present a sequential quadratic programming method derived from an exact penalty approach that adjusts the penalty parameter automatically, when appropriate, to emphasize feasibility over optimality. The superlinear convergence of such … Read more

## Lattice-based Algorithms for Number Partitioning in the Hard Phase

The number partitioning problem (NPP) is to divide n numbers a_1,…,a_n into two disjoint subsets such that the difference between the two subset sums – the discrepancy, D, is minimized. In the balanced version of NPP (BalNPP), the subsets must have the same cardinality. With $a_j$s chosen uniformly from $[1,R]$, R > 2^n gives the … Read more

## Comparison and robustification of Bayes and Black-Litterman models

For determining an optimal portfolio allocation, parameters representing the underlying market — characterized by expected asset returns and the covariance matrix — are needed. Traditionally, these point estimates for the parameters are obtained from historical data samples, but as experts often have strong opinions about (some of) these values, approaches to combine sample information and … Read more

## Solving the Rectangular assignment problem and applications

The rectangular assignment problem is a generalization of the linear assignment problem (LAP): one wants to assign a number of persons to a smaller number of jobs, minimizing the total corresponding costs. Applications are, e.g., in the fields of object recognition and scheduling. Further, we show how it can be used to solve variants of … Read more

## Duality-Based Algorithms for Total-Variation-Regularized Image Restoration

Image restoration models based on total variation (TV) have become popular since their introduction by Rudin, Osher, and Fatemi (ROF) in 1992. The dual formulation of this model has a quadratic objective with separable constraints, making projections onto the feasible set easy to compute. This paper proposes application of gradient projection (GP) algorithms to the … Read more