Stochastic Variational Inequalities:Residual Minimization Smoothing/Sample Average approximations

The stochastic variational inequality (SVI) has been used widely, in engineering and economics, as an effective mathematical model for a number of equilibrium problems involving uncertain data. This paper presents a new expected residual minimization (ERM) formulation for a class of SVI. The objective of the ERM-formulation is Lipschitz continuous and semismooth which helps us … Read more

Optimal Distributed Online Prediction using Mini-Batches

Online prediction methods are typically presented as serial algorithms running on a single processor. However, in the age of web-scale prediction problems, it is increasingly common to encounter situations where a single processor cannot keep up with the high rate at which inputs arrive. In this work we present the distributed mini-batch algorithm, a method … Read more

The dimension of semialgebraic subdifferential graphs.

Examples exist of extended-real-valued closed functions on $\R^n$ whose subdifferentials (in the standard, limiting sense) have large graphs. By contrast, if such a function is semi-algebraic, then its subdifferential graph must have everywhere constant local dimension $n$. This result is related to a celebrated theorem of Minty, and surprisingly may fail for the Clarke subdifferential. … Read more

On Nesterov’s Nonsmooth Chebyschev-Rosenbrock Functions

We discuss two nonsmooth functions on R^n introduced by Nesterov. We show that the first variant is partly smooth in the sense of [A.S. Lewis. Active sets, nonsmoothness and sensitivity. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 13:702–725, 2003.] and that its only stationary point is the global minimizer. In contrast, we show that the second variant has … Read more

SOME REGULARITY RESULTS FOR THE PSEUDOSPECTRAL ABSCISSA AND PSEUDOSPECTRAL RADIUS OF A MATRIX

The $\epsilon$-pseudospectral abscissa $\alpha_\epsilon$ and radius $\rho_\epsilon$ of an n x n matrix are respectively the maximal real part and the maximal modulus of points in its $\epsilon$-pseudospectrum, defined using the spectral norm. It was proved in [A.S. Lewis and C.H.J. Pang. Variational analysis of pseudospectra. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 19:1048-1072, 2008] that for fixed … Read more

There is no variational characterization of the cycles in the method of periodic projections

The method of periodic projections consists in iterating projections onto $m$ closed convex subsets of a Hilbert space according to a periodic sweeping strategy. In the presence of $m\geq 3$ sets, a long-standing question going back to the 1960s is whether the limit cycles obtained by such a process can be characterized as the minimizers … Read more

An Alternating Direction Algorithm for Matrix Completion with Nonnegative Factors

This paper introduces a novel algorithm for the nonnegative matrix factorization and completion problem, which aims to nd nonnegative matrices X and Y from a subset of entries of a nonnegative matrix M so that XY approximates M. This problem is closely related to the two existing problems: nonnegative matrix factorization and low-rank matrix completion, … Read more

Variational Convergence of Bifunctions: Motivating Applications

It’s shown that a number of variational problems can be cast as finding the maxinf-points (or minsup-points) of bivariate functions, coveniently abbreviated to bifunctions. These variational problems include: linear and nonlinear complementarity problems, fixed points, variational inequalities, inclusions, non-cooperative games, Walras and Nash equilibrium problems. One can then appeal to the theory of lopsided convergence … Read more

A new, solvable, primal relaxation for convex nonlinear integer programming problems

The paper describes a new primal relaxation (PR) for computing bounds on nonlinear integer programming (NLIP) problems. It is a natural extension to NLIP problems of the geometric interpretation of Lagrangean relaxation presented by Geoffrion (1974) for linear problems, and it is based on the same assumption that some constraints are complicating and are treated … Read more

Convexity Conditions of Kantorovich Function and Related Semi-infinite Linear Matrix Inequalities

The Kantorovich function $(x^TAx)( x^T A^{-1} x)$, where $A$ is a positive definite matrix, is not convex in general. From a matrix or convex analysis point of view, it is interesting to address the question: When is this function convex? In this paper, we prove that the 2-dimensional Kantorovich function is convex if and only … Read more