Six mathematical gems from the history of Distance Geometry

This is a partial account of the fascinating history of Distance Geometry. We make no claim to completeness, but we do promise a dazzling display of beautiful, elementary mathematics. We prove Heron’s formula, Cauchy’s theorem on the rigidity of polyhedra, Cayley’s generalization of Heron’s formula to higher dimensions, Menger’s characterization of abstract semi-metric spaces, a … Read more

A Fast Branch-and-Bound Algorithm for Non-convex Quadratic Integer Optimization Subject To Linear Constraints Using Ellipsoidal Relaxations

We propose two exact approaches for non-convex quadratic integer minimization subject to linear constraints where lower bounds are computed by considering ellipsoidal relaxations of the feasible set. In the first approach, we intersect the ellipsoids with the feasible linear subspace. In the second approach we penalize exactly the linear constraints. We investigate the connection between … Read more

A note on the ergodic convergence of symmetric alternating proximal gradient method

We consider the alternating proximal gradient method (APGM) proposed to solve a convex minimization model with linear constraints and separable objective function which is the sum of two functions without coupled variables. Inspired by Peaceman-Rachford splitting method (PRSM), a nature idea is to extend APGM to the symmetric alternating proximal gradient method (SAPGM), which can … Read more

An optimization-based method for feature ranking in nonlinear regression problems

In this work we consider the feature ranking problem where, given a set of training instances, the task is to associate a score to the features in order to assess their relevance. Feature ranking is a very important tool for decision support systems, and may be used as an auxiliary step of feature selection to … Read more

A Parallel Evolution Strategy for an Earth Imaging Problem in Geophysics

In this paper we propose a new way to compute a warm starting point for a challenging global optimization problem related to Earth imaging in geophysics. The warm start consists of a velocity model that approximately solves a full-waveform inverse problem at low frequency. Our motivation arises from the availability of massively parallel computing platforms … Read more

On the cone eigenvalue complementarity problem for higher-order tensors

In this paper, we consider the tensor generalized eigenvalue complementarity problem (TGEiCP), which is an interesting generalization of matrix eigenvalue complementarity problem (EiCP). First, we given an affirmative result showing that TGEiCP is solvable and has at least one solution under some reasonable assumptions. Then, we introduce two optimization reformulations of TGEiCP, thereby beneficially establishing … Read more

Variational principles with generalized distances and applications to behavioral sciences

This paper has a two-fold focus on proving that the quasimetric and the weak $\tau$-distance versions of the Ekeland variational principle are equivalent in the sense that one implies the other and on presenting the need of such extensions for possible applications in the formation and break of workers hiring and firing routines. Article Download … Read more

On an open question about the complexity of a dynamic spectrum management problem

In this paper we discuss the complexity of a dynamic spectrum management problem within a multi-user communication system with K users and N available tones. In this problem a common utility function is optimized. In particular, so called min-rate, harmonic mean and geometric mean utility functions are considered. The complexity of the optimization problems with … Read more

Convergence analysis for Lasserre’s measure–based hierarchy of upper bounds for polynomial optimization

We consider the problem of minimizing a continuous function f over a compact set K. We analyze a hierarchy of upper bounds proposed by Lasserre in [SIAM J. Optim. 21(3) (2011), pp. 864-􀀀885], obtained by searching for an optimal probability density function h on K which is a sum of squares of polynomials, so that … Read more

On proximal subgradient splitting method for minimizing the sum of two nonsmooth convex functions

In this paper we present a variant of the proximal forward-backward splitting method for solving nonsmooth optimization problems in Hilbert spaces, when the objective function is the sum of two nondifferentiable convex functions. The proposed iteration, which will be call the Proximal Subgradient Splitting Method, extends the classical projected subgradient iteration for important classes of … Read more