Sparse Approximations with Interior Point Methods

Large-scale optimization problems that seek sparse solutions have become ubiquitous. They are routinely solved with various specialized first-order methods. Although such methods are often fast, they usually struggle with not-so-well conditioned problems. In this paper, specialized variants of an interior point-proximal method of multipliers are proposed and analyzed for problems of this class. Computational experience … Read more

Split Bregman iteration for multi-period mean variance portfolio optimization

This paper investigates the problem of defining an optimal long-term investment strategy, where the investor can exit the investment before maturity without severe loss. Our setting is a multi-period one, where the aim is tomake a plan for allocating all of wealth among the n assets within a time horizon of m periods. In addition, … Read more

Spatially Adaptive Regularization in Image Segmentation

We modify the total-variation-regularized image segmentation model proposed by Chan, Esedoglu and Nikolova [SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics 66, 2006] by introducing local regularization that takes into account spatial image information. We propose some techniques for defining local regularization parameters, based on the cartoon-texture decomposition of the given image, on the mean and median filters, … Read more

A subspace-accelerated split Bregman method for sparse data recovery with joint l1-type regularizers

We propose a subspace-accelerated Bregman method for the linearly constrained minimization of functions of the form f(u)+tau_1 ||u||_1 + tau_2 ||D*u||_1, where f is a smooth convex function and D represents a linear operator, e.g. a finite difference operator, as in anisotropic Total Variation and fused-lasso regularizations. Problems of this type arise in a wide … Read more

BFGS-like updates of constraint preconditioners for sequences of KKT linear systems

We focus on efficient preconditioning techniques for sequences of KKT linear systems arising from the interior point solution of large convex quadratic programming problems. Constraint Preconditioners (CPs), though very effective in accelerating Krylov methods in the solution of KKT systems, have a very high computational cost in some instances, because their factorization may be the … Read more

On the application of the spectral projected gradient method in image segmentation

We investigate the application of the nonmonotone spectral projected gradient (SPG) method to a region-based variational model for image segmentation. We consider a “discretize-then-optimize” approach and solve the resulting nonlinear optimization problem by an alternating minimization procedure that exploits the SPG2 algorithm by Birgin, Martì­nez and Raydan (SIAM J. Optim., 10(4), 2000). We provide a … Read more

On the update of constraint preconditioners for regularized KKT systems

We address the problem of preconditioning sequences of regularized KKT systems, such as those arising in Interior Point methods for convex quadratic programming. In this case, Constraint Preconditioners (CPs) are very effective and widely used; however, when solving large-scale problems, the computational cost for their factorization may be high, and techniques for approximating them appear … Read more

Updating constraint preconditioners for KKT systems in quadratic programming via low-rank corrections

This work focuses on the iterative solution of sequences of KKT linear systems arising in interior point methods applied to large convex quadratic programming problems. This task is the computational core of the interior point procedure and an efficient preconditioning strategy is crucial for the efficiency of the overall method. Constraint preconditioners are very effective … Read more

A matrix-free approach to build band preconditioners for large-scale bound-constrained optimization

We propose a procedure for building symmetric positive definite band preconditioners for large-scale symmetric, possibly indefinite, linear systems, when the coefficient matrix is not explicitly available, but matrix-vector products involving it can be computed. We focus on linear systems arising in Newton-type iterations within matrix-free versions of projected methods for bound-constrained nonlinear optimization. In this … Read more

Parallel algebraic multilevel Schwarz preconditioners for a class of elliptic PDE systems

We present algebraic multilevel preconditioners for linear systems arising from the discretization of systems of coupled elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs). These preconditioners are based on modifications of Schwarz methods and of the smoothed aggregation technique, where the coarsening strategy and the restriction and prolongation operators are defined using a point-based approach with a primary … Read more