We consider several semidefinite programming relaxations for the max-$k$-cut problem, with increasing complexity. The optimal solution of the weakest presented semidefinite programming relaxation has a closed form expression that includes the largest Laplacian eigenvalue of the graph under consideration. This is the first known eigenvalue bound for the max-$k$-cut when $k>2$ that is applicable to … Read more
We introduce a novel metaheuristic methodology to improve the initialization of a given deterministic or stochastic optimization algorithm. Our objective is to improve the performance of the considered algorithm, called core optimization algorithm, by reducing its number of cost function evaluations, by increasing its success rate and by boosting the precision of its results. In … Read more
We describe in this paper a new approach to parallelize branch-and-bound on a certain number of processors. We propose to split the optimization of the original problem into the optimization of several subproblems that can be optimized separately with the goal that the amount of work that each processor carries out is balanced between the … Read more
The Swap Body Vehicle Routing Problem (SB-VRP) is a generalization of the classical Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) where a particular structure as well as several operational aspects for the trucks composing the fleet are considered. This research has been motivated by the VeRoLog Solver Challenge 2014, organized together by VeRoLog and PTV group, aiming to … Read more
In this paper we address the Vehicle Routing Problem with Pickups and Deliveries (VRPPD), an extension of the classical Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) where we consider precedences among customers, and develop an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) based local search procedure. We consider the capacitated one-to-one variant, where a particular precedence must be satisfied between pairs … Read more
The limited predictability and high variability of renewable generations has brought significant challenges on the real-time operation of bulk power systems. This paper proposes the concept of real-time dispatchability (RTDA) of power systems with variable energy resources, which focuses on investigating the impact of operating constraints and the cost of corrective actions on the flexibility … Read more
Fitting piecewise affine models to data points is a pervasive task in many scientific disciplines. In this work, we address the k- Piecewise Affine Model Fitting with Pairwise Linear Separability problem (k-PAMF-PLS) where, given a set of real points and the corresponding observations, we have to partition the real domain into k pairwise linearly separable … Read more
For an infeasible network flow system with supplies and demands, we consider the problem of finding a minimum irreducible infeasible subsystem cover, i.e., a smallest set of constraints that must be dropped to obtain a feasible system. The special cases of covers which only contain flow balance constraints (node cover) or only flow bounds (arc … Read more
We investigate structural properties of the completely positive semidefinite cone, consisting of all the nxn symmetric matrices that admit a Gram representation by positive semidefinite matrices of any size. This cone has been introduced to model quantum graph parameters as conic optimization problems. Recently it has also been used to characterize the set Q of … Read more
Dantzig-Wolfe reformulation of a mixed integer program partially convexifies a subset of the constraints, i.e., it implicitly adds all valid inequalities for the associated integer hull. Projecting an optimal basic solution of the reformulation’s LP relaxation to the original space does is in general not yield a basic solution of the original LP relaxation. Cutting … Read more