A Bundle Method for Exploiting Additive Structure in Difficult Optimization Problems

This paper describes a bundle method for (approximately) minimizing complicated nonsmooth convex functions with additive structure, with the primary goal of computing bounds on the solution values of difficult optimization problems such as stochastic integer programs. The method combines features that have appeared in previously proposed bundle methods, but not in the particular configuration we … Read more

On the Step Size of Symmetric Alternating Directions Method of Multipliers

The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is an application of the Douglas-Rachford splitting method; and the symmetric version of ADMM which updates the Lagrange multiplier twice at each iteration is an application of the Peaceman-Rachford splitting method. Sometimes the symmetric ADMM works empirically; but theoretically its convergence is not guaranteed. It was recently found … Read more

$\varepsilon- Subdifferential of Set-valued Map and Its Application

In this paper, firstly, the concept of $\varepsilon-$strictly efficient subdifferential for set-valued map is introduced in Hausdorff locally convex topological vector spaces. Secondly, a characterization of this subdifferential by scalarization and the generalized $\varepsilon-$ Moreau-Rockafellar type theorem for set-valued maps are established. Finally, the necessary optimality condition of the constraint set-valued optimization problem for $\varepsilon-$ … Read more

Solving nonsmooth convex optimization with complexity (\eps^{-1/2})$

This paper describes an algorithm for solving structured nonsmooth convex optimization problems using OSGA, a first-order method with the complexity $O(\eps^{-2})$ for Lipschitz continuous nonsmooth problems and $O(\eps^{-1/2})$ for smooth problems with Lipschitz continuous gradient. If the nonsmoothness of the problem is manifested in a structured way, we reformulate the problem in a form that … Read more

Distributionally robust expectation inequalities for structured distributions

Quantifying the risk of unfortunate events occurring, despite limited distributional information, is a basic problem underlying many practical questions. Indeed, quantifying constraint violation probabilities in distributionally robust programming or judging the risk of financial positions can both be seen to involve risk quantification, notwithstanding distributional ambiguity. In this work we discuss worst-case probability and conditional … Read more

Some Applications of Polynomial Optimization in Operations Research and Real-Time Decision Making

We demonstrate applications of algebraic techniques that optimize and certify polynomial inequalities to problems of interest in the operations research and transportation engineering communities. Three problems are considered: (i) wireless coverage of targeted geographical regions with guaranteed signal quality and minimum transmission power, (ii) computing real-time certificates of collision avoidance for a simple model of … Read more

Linearly Convergent Away-Step Conditional Gradient for Non-strongly Convex Functions

We consider the problem of minimizing a function, which is the sum of a linear function and a composition of a strongly convex function with a linear transformation, over a compact polyhedral set. Jaggi and Lacoste-Julien [14] showed that the conditional gradient method with away steps employed on the aforementioned problem without the additional linear … Read more

Distributed Gradient Methods with Variable Number of Working Nodes

We consider distributed optimization where $N$ nodes in a connected network minimize the sum of their local costs subject to a common constraint set. We propose a distributed projected gradient method where each node, at each iteration $k$, performs an update (is active) with probability $p_k$, and stays idle (is inactive) with probability $1-p_k$. Whenever … Read more

Lower Bounds on Complexity of Lyapunov Functions for Switched Linear Systems

We show that for any positive integer $d$, there are families of switched linear systems—in fixed dimension and defined by two matrices only—that are stable under arbitrary switching but do not admit (i) a polynomial Lyapunov function of degree $\leq d$, or (ii) a polytopic Lyapunov function with $\leq d$ facets, or (iii) a piecewise … Read more

New results on subgradient methods for strongly convex optimization problems with a unified analysis

We develop subgradient- and gradient-based methods for minimizing strongly convex functions under a notion which generalizes the standard Euclidean strong convexity. We propose a unifying framework for subgradient methods which yields two kinds of methods, namely, the Proximal Gradient Method (PGM) and the Conditional Gradient Method (CGM), unifying several existing methods. The unifying framework provides … Read more