Submodular Function Minimization and Polarity

Using polarity, we give an outer polyhedral approximation for the epigraph of set functions. For a submodular function, we prove that the corresponding polar relaxation is exact; hence, it is equivalent to the Lov\’asz extension. The polar approach provides an alternative proof for the convex hull description of the epigraph of a submodular function. Computational … Read more

Energy-Efficient Timetabling in a German Underground System

Timetabling of railway traffic and other modes of transport is among the most prominent applications of discrete optimization in practice. However, it has only been recently that the connection between timetabling and energy consumption has been studied more extensively. In our joint project VAG Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft, the transit authority and operator of underground transport in the … Read more

On a class of stochastic programs with exponentially many scenarios

We consider a class of stochastic programs whose uncertain data has an exponential number of possible outcomes, where scenarios are affinely parametrized by the vertices of a tractable binary polytope. Under these conditions, we propose a novel formulation that introduces a modest number of additional variables and a class of inequalities that can be efficiently … Read more

Dynamic Node Packing

We propose a dynamic version of the classical node packing problem, also called the stable set or independent set problem. The problem is defined by a node set, a node weight vector, and an edge probability vector. For every pair of nodes, an edge is present or not according to an independent Bernoulli random variable … Read more

A Polyhedral Approach to Bisubmodular Function Minimization

We consider minimization problems with bisubmodular objective functions. We propose a class of valid inequalities, which we call the poly-bimatroid inequalities and prove that these inequalities, along with trivial bound constraints, fully describe the convex hull of the epigraph of a bisubmodular function. We develop a cutting plane algorithm for general bisubmodular minimization problems using … Read more

Convex Hulls for Non-Convex Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programs with Bounded Variables

We consider non-convex mixed-integer quadratic programs in which all variables are explicitly bounded. Many exact methods for such problems use additional variables, representing products of pairs of original variables. We study the convex hull of feasible solutions in this extended space. Some other approaches use bit representation to convert bounded integer variables into binary variables. … Read more

Short simplex paths in lattice polytopes

We consider the problem of optimizing a linear function over a lattice polytope P contained in [0,k]^n and defined via m linear inequalities. We design a simplex algorithm that, given an initial vertex, reaches an optimal vertex by tracing a path along the edges of P of length at most O(n^6 k log k). The … Read more

Integrality of Linearizations of Polynomials over Binary Variables using Additional Monomials

Polynomial optimization problems over binary variables can be expressed as integer programs using a linearization with extra monomials in addition to those arising in the given polynomial. We characterize when such a linearization yields an integral relaxation polytope, generalizing work by Del Pia and Khajavirad (SIAM Journal on Optimization, 2018) and Buchheim, Crama and Rodríguez-Heck … Read more

Persistency of Linear Programming Formulations for the Stable Set Problem

The Nemhauser-Trotter theorem states that the standard linear programming (LP) formulation for the stable set problem has a remarkable property, also known as (weak) persistency: for every optimal LP solution that assigns integer values to some variables, there exists an optimal integer solution in which these variables retain the same values. While the standard LP … Read more