Local Analysis of the Feasible Primal-Dual Interior-Point Method

In this paper we analyze the rate of local convergence of the Newton primal-dual interior-point method when the iterates are kept strictly feasible with respect to the inequality constraints. It is shown under the classical conditions that the rate is q-quadratic when the functions associated to the inequality constraints define a locally concave feasible region. … Read more

Using Sampling and Simplex Derivatives in Pattern Search Methods

Pattern search methods can be made more efficient if past function evaluations are appropriately reused. In this paper we will introduce a number of ways of reusing previous evaluations of the objective function based on the computation of simplex derivatives (e.g., simplex gradients) to improve the efficiency of a pattern search iteration. At each iteration … Read more

Recovering Risk-Neutral Probability Density Functions from Options Prices using Cubic Splines

We present a new approach to estimate the risk-neutral probability density function (pdf) of the future prices of an underlying asset from the prices of options written on the asset. The estimation is carried out in the space of cubic spline functions, yielding appropriate smoothness. The resulting optimization problem, used to invert the data and … Read more

A Multicriteria Approach to Bilevel Optimization

In this paper we study the relationship between bilevel optimization and bicriteria optimization. Given a bilevel optimization problem, we introduce an order relation such that the optimal solutions of the bilevel problem are the nondominated points with respect to the order relation. In the case where the lower level problem of the bilevel optimization problem … Read more

Error Estimates and Poisedness in Multivariate Polynomial Interpolation

We show how to derive error estimates between a function and its interpolating polynomial and between their corresponding derivatives. The derivation is based on a new definition of well-poisedness for the interpolation set, directly connecting the accuracy of the error estimates with the geometry of the points in the set. This definition is equivalent to … Read more

Pattern Search Methods for User-Provided Points:Application to Molecular Geometry Problems

This paper deals with the application of pattern search methods to the numerical solution of a class of molecular geometry problems with important applications in molecular physics and chemistry. The goal is to find a configuration of a cluster or a molecule with minimum total energy. The minimization problems in this class of geometry molecular … Read more

Space mapping: Models, sensitivities, and trust-regions methods

The goal of this paper is to organize some of the mathematical and algorithmic aspects of the recently proposed space-mapping technique for continuous optimization with expensive function evaluations. First, we consider the mapping from the fine space to the coarse space when the models are vector-valued functions and when the space-mapping (nonlinear) least-squares residual is … Read more

A globally convergent primal-dual interior-point filter method for nonlinear programming

In this paper, the filter technique of Fletcher and Leyffer (1997) is used to globalize the primal-dual interior-point algorithm for nonlinear programming, avoiding the use of merit functions and the updating of penalty parameters. The new algorithm decomposes the primal-dual step obtained from the perturbed first-order necessary conditions into a normal and a tangential step, … Read more