Cut-based Conflict Analysis in Mixed Integer Programming

For almost two decades, mixed integer programming (MIP) solvers have used graph- based conflict analysis to learn from local infeasibilities during branch-and-bound search. In this paper, we improve MIP conflict analysis by instead using reasoning based on cuts, inspired by the development of conflict-driven solvers for pseudo- Boolean optimization. Phrased in MIP terminology, this type … Read more

A Multi-Reference Relaxation Enforced Neighborhood Search Heuristic in SCIP

This paper proposes and evaluates a Multi-Reference Relaxation Enforced Neighborhood Search (MRENS) heuristic within the SCIP solver. This study marks the first integration and evaluation of MRENS in a full-fledged MILP solver, specifically coupled with the recently-introduced Lagromory separator for generating multiple reference solutions. Computational experiments on the MIPLIB 2017 benchmark set show that MRENS, … Read more

The SCIP Optimization Suite 9.0

The SCIP Optimization Suite provides a collection of software packages for mathematical optimization, centered around the constraint integer programming (CIP) framework SCIP. This report discusses the enhancements and extensions included in the SCIP Optimization Suite 9.0. The updates in SCIP 9.0 include improved symmetry handling, additions and improvements of nonlinear handlers and primal heuristics, a … Read more

Branch and Price for the Length-Constrained Cycle Partition Problem

The length-constrained cycle partition problem (LCCP) is a graph optimization problem in which a set of nodes must be partitioned into a minimum number of cycles. Every node is associated with a critical time and the length of every cycle must not exceed the critical time of any node in the cycle. We formulate LCCP … Read more

Improving Conflict Analysis in MIP Solvers by Pseudo-Boolean Reasoning

Conflict analysis has been successfully generalized from Boolean satisfiability (SAT) solving to mixed integer programming (MIP) solvers, but although MIP solvers operate with general linear inequalities, the conflict analysis in MIP has been limited to reasoning with the more restricted class of clausal constraint. This is in contrast to how conflict analysis is performed in … Read more

Using Multiple Reference Vectors and Objective Scaling in the Feasibility Pump

The Feasibility Pump (FP) is one of the best-known primal heuristics for mixed-integer programming (MIP): more than 15 papers suggested various modifications of all of its steps. So far, no variant considered information across multiple iterations, but all instead maintained the principle to optimize towards a single reference integer point. In this paper, we evaluate … Read more