In this paper, we describe the circuit polytope on series-parallel graphs. We first show the existence of a compact extended formulation. Though not being explicit, its construction process helps us to inductively provide the description in the original space. As a consequence, using the link between bonds and circuits in planar graphs, we also describe … Read more
We study the minimization of fixed-degree polynomials over the simplex. This problem is well-known to be NP-hard, as it contains the maximum stable set problem in graph theory as a special case. In this paper, we consider a rational approximation by taking the minimum over the regular grid, which consists of rational points with denominator … Read more
Although it is easy to prove the sufficient conditions for optimality of a linear program, the necessary conditions pose a pedagogical challenge. A widespread practice in deriving the necessary conditions is to invoke Farkas’ lemma, but proofs of Farkas’ lemma typically involve “nonlinear” topics such as separating hyperplanes between disjoint convex sets, or else more … Read more
This paper proposes a power-based network-constrained unit commitment (UC) model as an alternative to the traditional deterministic UCs to deal with wind generation uncertainty. The formulation draws a clear distinction between power-capacity and ramp-capability reserves to deal with wind production uncertainty. These power and ramp requirements can be obtained from wind forecast information. The model … Read more
This paper provides the convex hull description for the following basic operating constraints of a single power generation unit in Unit Commitment (UC) problems: 1) generation limits, 2) startup and shutdown capabilities, and 3) minimum up and down times. Although the model does not consider some crucial constraints, such as ramping, the proposed constraints can … Read more
This paper provides the convex hull description for the basic operation of slow- and quick-start units in power-based unit commitment (UC) problems. The basic operating constraints that are modeled for both types of units are: 1) generation limits and 2) minimum up and down times. Apart from this, the startup and shutdown processes are also … Read more
In this paper, we develop a stochastic model for topology optimization. We find robust structures that minimize the compliance for a given main load having a stochastic behavior. We propose a model that takes into account the expected value of the compliance and its variance. We show that, similarly to the case of truss structures, … Read more
We prove the first non-trivial performance ratio strictly above 0.5 for the weighted Ranking algorithm on the oblivious matching problem where nodes in a general graph can have arbitrary weights. We have discovered a new structural property of the ranking algorithm: if a node has two unmatched neighbors, then it will still be matched even … Read more
We consider the problem of minimizing the sum of two convex functions: one is smooth and given by a gradient oracle, and the other is separable over blocks of coordinates and has a simple known structure over each block. We develop an accelerated randomized proximal coordinate gradient (APCG) method for minimizing such convex composite functions. … Read more
Infinite-dimensional linear conic formulations are described for nonlinear optimal control problems. The primal linear problem consists of finding occupation measures supported on optimal relaxed controlled trajectories, whereas the dual linear problem consists of finding the largest lower bound on the value function of the optimal control problem. Various approximation results relating the original optimal control … Read more