A regularized simplex method

In case of a special problem class, the simplex method can be implemented as a cutting-plane method that approximates a certain convex polyhedral objective function. In this paper we consider a regularized version of this cutting-plane method, and interpret the resulting procedure as a regularized simplex method. (Regularization is performed in the dual space and … Read more

Addressing rank degeneracy in constraint-reduced interior-point methods for linear optimization

In earlier work (Tits et al., SIAM J. Optim., 17(1):119–146, 2006; Winternitz et al., COAP, doi=10.1007/s10589-010-9389-4, 2011), the present authors and their collaborators proposed primal-dual interior-point (PDIP) algorithms for linear optimization that, at each iteration, use only a subset of the (dual) inequality constraints in constructing the search direction. For problems with many more constraints … Read more

An upper bound for the number of different solutions generated by the primal simplex method with any selection rule of entering variables

Kitahara and Mizuno (2011a) obtained an upper bound for the number of different solutions generated by the primal simplex method with Dantzig’s (the most negative) pivoting rule. In this paper, we obtain an upper bound with any pivoting rule which chooses an entering variable whose reduced cost is negative at each iteration. The bound is … Read more

Improved Column Generation for Highly Degenerate Master Problems

Column generation for solving linear programs with a huge number of variables alternates between solving a master problem and a pricing subproblem to add variables to the master problem as needed. The method is known to suffer from degeneracy of the master problem, exposing what is called the tailing-off effect. Inspired by recent advances in … Read more

A First-Order Smoothing Technique for a Class of Large-Scale Linear Programs

We study a class of linear programming (LP) problems motivated by large-scale machine learning applications. After reformulating the LP as a convex nonsmooth problem, we apply Nesterov’s primal-dual smoothing technique. It turns out that the iteration complexity of the smoothing technique depends on a parameter $\th$ that arises because we need to bound the originally … Read more

Robust Rankings for College Football

We investigate the sensitivity of the Colley Matrix (CM) rankings—one of six computer rankings used by the Bowl Championship Series—to (hypothetical) changes in the outcomes of (actual) games. Specifically, we measure the shift in the rankings of the top 25 teams when the win-loss outcome of, say, a single game between two teams, each with … Read more

PuLP: A Linear Programming Toolkit for Python

This paper introduces the PuLP library, an open source package that allows mathematical programs to be described in the Python computer programming language. PuLP is a high-level modelling library that leverages the power of the Python language and allows the user to create programs using expressions that are natural to the Python language, avoiding special … Read more

A smooth perceptron algorithm

The perceptron algorithm, introduced in the late fifties in the machine learning community, is a simple greedy algorithm for finding a solution to a finite set of linear inequalities. The algorithm’s main advantages are its simplicity and noise tolerance. The algorithm’s main disadvantage is its slow convergence rate. We propose a modified version of the … Read more

A Proof by the Simplex Method for the Diameter of a (0,1)-Polytope

Naddef shows that the Hirsch conjecture is true for (0,1)-polytopes by proving that the diameter of any $(0,1)$-polytope in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space is at most $d$. In this short paper, we give a simple proof for the diameter. The proof is based on the number of solutions generated by the simplex method for a linear … Read more

Lower bounds for the maximum number of solutions generated by the simplex method

Kitahara and Mizuno get upper bounds for the maximum number of different basic feasible solutions generated by Dantzig�s simplex method. In this paper, we obtain lower bounds of the maximum number. Part of the results in this paper are shown in a paper by the authors as a quick report without proof. They present a … Read more