The general ellipse packing problem is to find a non-overlapping arrangement of 𝑛 ellipses with (in principle) arbitrary size and orientation parameters inside a given type of container set. Here we consider the general ellipse packing problem with respect to an optimized circle container with minimal radius. Following the review of selected topical literature, we … Read more
In this paper we exploit a slight variant of a result previously proved in [11] to define a procedure which delivers the convex envelope of some bivariate functions over polytopes. The procedure is based on the solution of a KKT system and simplifies the derivation of the convex envelope with respect to previously proposed techniques. … Read more
For binary polynomial optimization problems (POPs) of degree $d$ with $n$ variables, we prove that the $\lceil(n+d-1)/2\rceil$th semidefinite (SDP) relaxation in Lasserre’s hierarchy of the SDP relaxations provides the exact optimal value. If binary POPs involve only even-degree monomials, we show that it can be further reduced to $\lceil(n+d-2)/2\rceil$. This bound on the relaxation order … Read more
We study large scale extended trust region subproblems (eTRS) i.e., the minimization of a general quadratic function subject to a norm constraint, known as the trust region subproblem (TRS) but with an additional linear inequality constraint. It is well known that strong duality holds for the TRS and that there are efficient algorithms for solving … Read more
Traditional decomposition based branch-and-bound algorithms, like branch-and-price, can be very efficient if the duality gap is not too large. However, if this is not the case, the branch-and-bound tree may grow rapidly, preventing the method to find a good solution. In this paper, we present a new decompositon algorithm, called ADGO (Alternating Direction Global Optimization … Read more
In this paper, we study the extended trust region subproblem (eTRS) in which the trust region intersects the unit ball with a single linear inequality constraint. By reformulating the Lagrangian dual of eTRS as a two-parameter linear eigenvalue problem, we state a necessary and sufficient condition for its strong duality in terms of an optimal … Read more
In this article we introduce a stability concept for the coercivity of multivariate polynomials $f \in \mathbb{R}[x]$. In particular, we consider perturbations of $f$ by polynomials up to the so-called degree of stable coercivity, and we analyze this stability concept in terms of the corresponding Newton polytopes at infinity. For coercive polynomials $f \in \mathbb{R}[x]$ … Read more
Optimal distribution of power among generating units to meet a specific demand subject to system constraints is an ongoing research topic in the power system community. The problem, even in a static setting, turns out to be hard to solve with conventional optimization methods owing to the consideration of valve-point effects, which make the cost … Read more
We consider the problem of decomposing a multivariate polynomial as the difference of two convex polynomials. We introduce algebraic techniques which reduce this task to linear, second order cone, and semidefinite programming. This allows us to optimize over subsets of valid difference of convex decompositions (dcds) and find ones that speed up the convex-concave procedure … Read more
As the modern transmission control and relay technologies evolve, transmission line switching has become an important option in power system operators’ toolkits to reduce operational cost and improve system reliability. Most recent research has relied on the DC approximation of the power flow model in the optimal transmission switching problem. However, it is known that … Read more