Robust Principal Component Analysis using Facial Reduction

We study algorithms for robust principal component analysis (RPCA) for a partially observed data matrix. The aim is to recover the data matrix as a sum of a low-rank matrix and a sparse matrix so as to eliminate erratic noise (outliers). This problem is known to be NP-hard in general. A classical way to solve … Read more

A Globally Asymptotically Stable Polynomial Vector Field with Rational Coefficients and no Local Polynomial Lyapunov Function

We give an explicit example of a two-dimensional polynomial vector field of degree seven that has rational coefficients, is globally asymptotically stable, but does not admit an analytic Lyapunov function even locally. Citation Submitted for publication Article Download View A Globally Asymptotically Stable Polynomial Vector Field with Rational Coefficients and no Local Polynomial Lyapunov Function

Data-DrivenWater Allocation under Climate Uncertainty: A Distributionally Robust Approach

This paper investigates the application of techniques from distributionally robust optimization (DRO) to water allocation under future uncertainty. Specifically, we look at a rapidly-developing area of Tucson, Arizona. Tucson, like many arid and semi-arid regions around the world, faces considerable uncertainty in its ability to provide water for its citizens in the future. The main … Read more

MIQP-Based Algorithm for the Global Solution of Economic Dispatch Problems with Valve-Point Effects

Even in a static setting, the economic load dispatch problem (ELDP)—namely the cost-optimal distribution of power among generating units to meet a specific demand subject to system constraints—turns out to be a challenge owing to the consideration of valve-point effects (VPE), which make the cost function nonsmooth and nonconvex. We present a new method, termed … Read more

Superiorization and perturbation resilience of algorithms: A continuously updated bibliography

This document presents a, chronologically ordered, bibliography of scientific publications on the superiorization methodology and perturbation resilience of algorithms which is compiled and continuously updated by us at: http://math.haifa.ac.il/yair/bib-superiorization-censor.html. Since the topic is relatively new it is possible to trace the work that has been published about it since its inception. To the best of … Read more

Strong Convex Nonlinear Relaxations of the Pooling Problem

We investigate new convex relaxations for the pooling problem, a classic nonconvex production planning problem in which input materials are mixed in intermediate pools, with the outputs of these pools further mixed to make output products meeting given attribute percentage requirements. Our relaxations are derived by considering a set which arises from the formulation by … Read more

An Improved Method of Total Variation Superiorization Applied to Reconstruction in Proton Computed Tomography

Previous work showed that total variation superiorization (TVS) improves reconstructed image quality in proton computed tomography (pCT). The structure of the TVS algorithm has evolved since then and this work investigated if this new algorithmic structure provides additional benefits to pCT image quality. Structural and parametric changes introduced to the original TVS algorithm included: (1) … Read more

SOS-Convex Lyapunov Functions and Stability of Difference Inclusions

We introduce the concept of sos-convex Lyapunov functions for stability analysis of both linear and nonlinear difference inclusions (also known as discrete-time switched systems). These are polynomial Lyapunov functions that have an algebraic certificate of convexity and that can be efficiently found via semidefinite programming. We prove that sos-convex Lyapunov functions are universal (i.e., necessary … Read more

On Algebraic Proofs of Stability for Homogeneous Vector Fields

We prove that if a homogeneous, continuously differentiable vector field is asymptotically stable, then it admits a Lyapunov function which is the ratio of two polynomials (i.e., a rational function). We further show that when the vector field is polynomial, the Lyapunov inequalities on both the rational function and its derivative have sum of squares … Read more

A Distributed Quasi-Newton Algorithm for Empirical Risk Minimization with Nonsmooth Regularization

We propose a communication- and computation-efficient distributed optimization algorithm using second-order information for solving ERM problems with a nonsmooth regularization term. Current second-order and quasi-Newton methods for this problem either do not work well in the distributed setting or work only for specific regularizers. Our algorithm uses successive quadratic approximations, and we describe how to … Read more