Exact Branch-and-Price Algorithm for Live Operating Room Reoptimization

Live reoptimization of operating room schedules is required to cope with disruptions such as emergency arrivals and deviations in surgery durations under strict time limits. The resulting problem can be formulated as a large-scale Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP). While exact optimization methods are attractive in this context due to their ability to provide … Read more

Beyond Hand-Derived Inequalities: Decision Diagrams for Cut Generation in Binary Polynomial Optimization

We study cutting-plane generation for binary polynomial optimization (BPO), whose feasible region is the multilinear set of a hypergraph. Strong inequalities for this set—such as two-links, flowers, and odd $\beta$-cycles—are classically hand-derived for fixed support patterns. Instead, we propose a decision-diagram (DD) approach: for any chosen support, it separates a facet-defining cut in the local … Read more

Entropy-Smooth Convex Optimization Cannot Be Accelerated

We prove an $\Omega(L/T)$ lower bound for the convergence rate of minimization in the class of functions that are convex and $L$-smooth relative to negative entropy on the standard $d$-simplex, valid for every first-order method when $d = \Omega(T^2)$. In particular, this shows that mirror descent is optimal up to a logarithmic factor in this … Read more

A Quantum Optimization Framework for Data-Assimilation-Augmented Parameter Estimation

Parameter estimation is a fundamental challenge in the calibration of ordinary differential equation (ODE) models, where repeated numerical integration can lead to high computational cost. In this work, we investigate whether quantum algorithms can be leveraged to assist parameter estimation in nonlinear dynamical systems. We develop a hybrid classical–quantum framework that reformulates a data-assimilation-augmented parameter … Read more

A Data-Assimilation-Augmented Optimization Framework for Parameter Estimation in Dynamical Systems

Parameter estimation in nonlinear dynamical systems from observational data is a fundamental inverse problem with applications in many disciplines such as epidemiology, systems biology, climate science, and related fields. In practice, this is further complicated by the fact that observational data are often noisy, sparse, and available only for a subset of the state variables. … Read more

Second shortest simple paths in directed graphs: a crossing decomposition and a span-adaptive exact algorithm

We study the computation of a second shortest simple \(s\)–\(t\) path (2-SP) in a directed graph with \(n\) nodes, \(m\) arcs and nonnegative integer arc costs bounded by \(C\). Working with reduced costs and a depth-first search that gives priority to a fixed shortest path \(P_{st}\), every candidate second path is a prefix of \(P_{st}\), … Read more

A new theorem of alternatives leading to sufficient conditions for the superiorization guarantee question of Dynamic String-Averaging in the inconsistent case

We study the Superiorization Methodology (SM) in the context of the General Dynamic String-Averaging (GDSA) method in the inconsistent case (that is, where the input operators don’t have a common fixed point) which primarily aims at achieving convex feasibility while simultaneously reducing an objective function. In many scientific and real-world problems modeled as constrained minimization … Read more

On the boundedness of infinite products of relaxed projections: perturbations resilience and dynamic string-averaging

Very recently (2026), Bauschke and Tung extended from finite- to infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces a result published by Meshulam in 1996 (following an earlier result of Aharoni-Duchet-Wajnryb from 1984) regarding the boundedness of infinite products of relaxed projections onto a finite family of closed affine subspaces. In the present note we extend in various ways the … Read more

Aggregated quadratic formulations and semidefinite relaxations of the stable set polytope

The stable set problem admits various binary linear and quadratic formulations. The Shor relaxation of a particular quadratic formulation is the well-known theta body. We consider aggregations of quadratic constraints of this formulation, yielding exact and inexact quadratic formulations of the stable set problem, and then establish conditions under which the aggregated quadratic formulation is … Read more

Symmetry-Compatible Matrix-Gradient Methods: Equivariant Updates, Spectral Operators, and Convergence

We develop a symmetry-compatible framework for first-order methods on matrix optimization problems. The central principle is that the update rule for a matrix variable should be equivariant with respect to the natural symmetry group acting on that variable. For matrix representations of linear operators, this leads to bi-orthogonal equivariance under left and right orthogonal changes … Read more