Open research areas in distance geometry

Distance Geometry is based on the inverse problem that asks to find the positions of points, in a Euclidean space of given dimension, that are compatible with a given set of distances. We briefly introduce the field, and discuss some open and promising research areas. Article Download View Open research areas in distance geometry

The Multilinear polytope for acyclic hypergraphs

We consider the Multilinear polytope defined as the convex hull of the set of binary points satisfying a collection of multilinear equations. Such sets are of fundamental importance in many types of mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problems, such as binary polynomial optimization. Utilizing an equivalent hypergraph representation, we study the facial structure of the Multilinear polytope … Read more

Optimal Deterministic Algorithm Generation

A formulation for the automated generation of algorithms via mathematical programming (optimization) is proposed. The formulation is based on the concept of optimizing within a parameterized family of algorithms, or equivalently a family of functions describing the algorithmic steps. The optimization variables are the parameters – within this family of algorithms- that encode algorithm design: … Read more

Branch and Bound based methods to minimize the energy consumed by an electrical vehicle on long travels with slopes

We consider the problem of minimization of the energy consumed by an electrical vehicle performing quite long travels with slopes. The model we address here, takes into account the electrical and mechanical differential equations of the vehicle. This yields a mixed-integer optimal control problem that can be approximated, using a methodology based on some decomposition … Read more

Global Optimization in Hilbert Space

This paper proposes a complete-search algorithm for solving a class of non-convex, possibly infinite-dimensional, optimization problems to global optimality. We assume that the optimization variables are in a bounded subset of a Hilbert space, and we determine worst-case run-time bounds for the algorithm under certain regularity conditions of the cost functional and the constraint set. … Read more

A new branch-and-bound algorithm for standard quadratic programming problems

In this paper we propose convex and LP bounds for Standard Quadratic Programming (StQP) problems and employ them within a branch-and-bound approach. We first compare different bounding strategies for StQPs in terms both of the quality of the bound and of the computation times. It turns out that the polyhedral bounding strategy is the best … Read more

Best subset selection for eliminating multicollinearity

This paper proposes a method for eliminating multicollinearity from linear regression models. Specifically, we select the best subset of explanatory variables subject to the upper bound on the condition number of the correlation matrix of selected variables. We first develop a cutting plane algorithm that, to approximate the condition number constraint, iteratively appends valid inequalities … Read more

Parallel stochastic line search methods with feedback for minimizing finite sums

We consider unconstrained minimization of a finite sum of $N$ continuously differentiable, not necessarily convex, cost functions. Several gradient-like (and more generally, line search) methods, where the full gradient (the sum of $N$ component costs’ gradients) at each iteration~$k$ is replaced with an inexpensive approximation based on a sub-sample~$\mathcal N_k$ of the component costs’ gradients, … Read more

On cone based decompositions of proper Pareto optimality

In recent years, the research focus in multi-objective optimization has shifted from approximating the Pareto optimal front in its entirety to identifying solutions that are well-balanced among their objectives. Proper Pareto optimality is an established concept for eliminating Pareto optimal solutions that exhibit unbounded tradeo ffs. Imposing a strict tradeo ff bound allows specifying how many units … Read more

New error measures and methods for realizing protein graphs from distance data

The interval Distance Geometry Problem (iDGP) consists in finding a realization in R^K of a simple undirected graph G=(V,E) with nonnegative intervals assigned to the edges in such a way that, for each edge, the Euclidean distance between the realization of the adjacent vertices is within the edge interval bounds. Our aim is to determine … Read more