The L1-Norm Best-Fit Hyperplane Problem

We formalize an algorithm for solving the L1-norm best-fit hyperplane problem derived using first principles and geometric insights about L1 projection and L1 regression. The procedure follows from a new proof of global optimality and relies on the solution of a small number of linear programs. The procedure is implemented for validation and testing. This … Read more

Row by row methods for semidefinite programming

We present a row-by-row (RBR) method for solving semidefinite programming (SDP) problem based on solving a sequence of problems obtained by restricting the n-dimensional positive semidefinite constraint on the matrix X. By fixing any (n-1)-dimensional principal submatrix of X and using its (generalized) Schur complement, the positive semidefinite constraint is reduced to a simple second-order … Read more

NESTA: A Fast and Accurate First-order Method for Sparse Recovery

Accurate signal recovery or image reconstruction from indirect and possibly under- sampled data is a topic of considerable interest; for example, the literature in the recent field of compressed sensing is already quite immense. Inspired by recent breakthroughs in the development of novel fi rst-order methods in convex optimization, most notably Nesterov’s smoothing technique, this paper … Read more

An accelerated proximal gradient algorithm for nuclear norm regularized least squares problems

The affine rank minimization problem, which consists of finding a matrix of minimum rank subject to linear equality constraints, has been proposed in many areas of engineering and science. A specific rank minimization problem is the matrix completion problem, in which we wish to recover a (low-rank) data matrix from incomplete samples of its entries. … Read more

Convergent relaxations of polynomial optimization problems with non-commuting variables

We consider optimization problems with polynomial inequality constraints in non-commuting variables. These non-commuting variables are viewed as bounded operators on a Hilbert space whose dimension is not fixed and the associated polynomial inequalities as semidefinite positivity constraints. Such problems arise naturally in quantum theory and quantum information science. To solve them, we introduce a hierarchy … Read more

Provably Near-Optimal Solutions for Very Large Single-Row Facility Layout Problems

The facility layout problem is a global optimization problem that seeks to arrange a given number of rectangular facilities so as to minimize the total cost associated with the (known or projected) interactions between them. This paper is concerned with the single-row facility layout problem (SRFLP), the one-dimensional version of facility layout that is also … Read more

Classification with Guaranteed Probability of Error

We introduce a general-purpose learning machine that we call the “Guaranteed Error Machine”, or GEM, and two learning algorithms, a “real GEM algorithm” and an “ideal GEM algorithm”. The real GEM algorithm is for use in real applications, while the ideal GEM algorithm is introduced as a theoretical tool; however, these two algorithms have identical … Read more

On the complexity of the hybrid proximal extragradient method for the iterates and the ergodic mean

In this paper we analyze the iteration-complexity of the hybrid proximal extragradient (HPE) method for finding a zero of a maximal monotone operator recently proposed by Solodov and Svaiter. One of the key points of our analysis is the use of new termination criteria based on the $\varepsilon$-enlargement of a maximal monotone operator. The advantage … Read more

A convex polynomial that is not sos-convex

A multivariate polynomial $p(x)=p(x_1,…,x_n)$ is sos-convex if its Hessian $H(x)$ can be factored as $H(x)= M^T(x) M(x)$ with a possibly nonsquare polynomial matrix $M(x)$. It is easy to see that sos-convexity is a sufficient condition for convexity of $p(x)$. Moreover, the problem of deciding sos-convexity of a polynomial can be cast as the feasibility of … Read more

Numerical block diagonalization of matrix hBcalgebras with application to semidefinite programming

Semidefinite programming (SDP) is one of the most active areas in mathematical programming, due to varied applications and the availability of interior point algorithms. In this paper we propose a new pre-processing technique for SDP instances that exhibit algebraic symmetry. We present computational results to show that the solution times of certain SDP instances may … Read more