Large-scale semidefinite programs in electronic structure calculation

Employing the variational approach having the two-body reduced density matrix (RDM) as variables to compute the ground state energies of atomic-molecular systems has been a long time dream in electronic structure theory in chemical physics/physical chemistry. Realization of the RDM approach has benefited greatly from recent developments in semidefinite programming (SDP). We present the actual … Read more

Sensitivity analysis in convex quadratic optimization: simultaneous perturbation of the objective and right-hand-side vectors

In this paper we study the behavior of Convex Quadratic Optimization problems when variation occurs simultaneously in the right-hand side vector of the constraints and in the coefficient vector of the linear term in the objective function. It is proven that the optimal value function is piecewise-quadratic. The concepts of transition point and invariancy interval … Read more

Towards a practical parallelisation of the simplex method

The simplex method is frequently the most efficient method of solving linear programming (LP) problems. This paper reviews previous attempts to parallelise the simplex method in relation to efficient serial simplex techniques and the nature of practical LP problems. For the major challenge of solving general large sparse LP problems, there has been no parallelisation … Read more

Some Disadvantages of a Mehrotra-Type Primal-Dual Corrector Interior Point Algorithm for Linear Programming

The Primal-Dual Corrector (PDC) algorithm that we propose computes on each iteration a corrector direction in addition to the direction of the standard primal-dual path-following interior point method (Kojima et al., 1989) for Linear Programming (LP), in an attempt to improve performance. The new iterate is chosen by moving along the sum of these directions, … Read more

A Full-Newton Step (n)$ Infeasible Interior-Point Algorithm for Linear Optimization

We present a full-Newton step infeasible interior-point algorithm. It is shown that at most $O(n)$ (inner) iterations suffice to reduce the duality gap and the residuals by the factor $\frac1{e}$. The bound coincides with the best known bound for infeasible interior-point algorithms. It is conjectured that further investigation will improve the above bound to $O(\sqrt{n})$. … Read more

Strengthened Semidefinite Bounds for Codes

We give a hierarchy of semidefinite upper bounds for the maximum size $A(n,d)$ of a binary code of word length $n$ and minimum distance at least $d$. At any fixed stage in the hierarchy, the bound can be computed (to an arbitrary precision) in time polynomial in $n$; this is based on a result of … Read more

A PTAS for the minimization of polynomials of fixed degree over the simplex

We consider the problem of computing the minimum value $p_{\min}$ taken by a polynomial $p(x)$ of degree $d$ over the standard simplex $\Delta$. This is an NP-hard problem already for degree $d=2$. For any integer $k\ge 1$, by minimizing $p(x)$ over the set of rational points in $\Delta$ with denominator $k$, one obtains a hierarchy … Read more

Rigorous Error Bounds for the Optimal Value in Semidefinite Programming

A wide variety of problems in global optimization, combinatorial optimization as well as systems and control theory can be solved by using linear and semidefinite programming. Sometimes, due to the use of floating point arithmetic in combination with ill-conditioning and degeneracy, erroneous results may be produced. The purpose of this article is to show how … Read more

Rebalancing an Investment Portfolio in the Presence of Convex Transaction Costs

The inclusion of transaction costs is an essential element of any realistic portfolio optimization. In this paper, we consider an extension of the standard portfolio problem in which convex transaction costs are incurred to rebalance an investment portfolio. In particular, we consider linear, piecewise linear, and quadratic transaction costs. The Markowitz framework of mean-variance efficiency … Read more

Convex Optimization of Centralized Inventory Operations

Given a finite set of outlets with joint normally distributed demands and identical holding and penalty costs, inventory centralization induces a cooperative cost allocation game with nonempty core. It is well known that for this newsvendor inventory setting the expected cost of centralization can be expressed as a constant multiple of the standard deviation of … Read more