Semidefinite relaxations for Max-Cut

We compare several semidefinite relaxations for the cut polytope obtained by applying the lift and project methods of Lov\’asz and Schrijver and of Lasserre. We show that the tightest relaxation is obtained when aplying the Lasserre construction to the node formulation of the max-cut problem. This relaxation $Q_t(G)$ can be defined as the projection on … Read more

Solving a Class of Semidefinite Programs via Nonlinear Programming

In this paper, we introduce a transformation that converts a class of linear and nonlinear semidefinite programming (SDP) problems into nonlinear optimization problems. For those problems of interest, the transformation replaces matrix-valued constraints by vector-valued ones, hence reducing the number of constraints by an order of magnitude. The class of transformable problems includes instances of … Read more

Complexity of Convex Optimization using Geometry-based Measures and a Reference Point

Our concern lies in solving the following convex optimization problem: minimize cx subject to Ax=b, x \in P, where P is a closed convex set, not necessarily a cone. We bound the complexity of computing an almost-optimal solution of this problem in terms of natural geometry-based measures of the feasible region and the level-set of … Read more

Continuous trajectories for primal-dual potential-reduction methods

This article considers continuous trajectories of the vector fields induced by two different primal-dual potential-reduction algorithms for solving linear programming problems. For both algorithms, it is shown that the associated continuous trajectories include the central path and the duality gap converges to zero along all these trajectories. For the algorithm of Kojima, Mizuno, and Yoshise, … Read more

Simple Efficient Solutions for Semidefinite Programming

This paper provides a simple approach for solving a semidefinite program, SDP\@. As is common with many other approaches, we apply a primal-dual method that uses the perturbed optimality equations for SDP, $F_\mu(X,y,Z)=0$, where $X,Z$ are $n \times n$ symmetric matrices and $y \in \Re^n$. However, we look at this as an overdetermined system of … Read more

SDPT3 – a MATLAB software package for semidefinite-quadratic-linear programming, version 3.0

This software package is a MATLAB implementation of infeasible path-following algorithms for solving conic programming problems whose constraint cone is a product of semidefinite cones, second-order cones, and/or nonnegative orthants. It employs a predictor-corrector primal-dual path-following method, with either the HKM or the NT search direction. The basic code is written in Matlab, but key … Read more

Semi-infinite linear programming approaches to semidefinite programming problems

Interior point methods, the traditional methods for the $SDP$, are fairly limited in the sizes of problems they can handle. This paper deals with an $LP$ approach to overcome some of these shortcomings. We begin with a semi-infinite linear programming formulation of the $SDP$ and discuss the issue of its discretization in some detail. We … Read more

On the Primal-Dual Geometry of Level Sets in Linear and Conic Optimization

For a conic optimization problem: minimize cx subject to Ax=b, x \in C, we present a geometric relationship between the maximum norms of the level sets of the primal and the inscribed sizes of the level sets of the dual (or the other way around). Citation MIT Operations Research Center Working Paper Article Download View … Read more

On the Riemannian Geometry Defined by Self-Concordant Barriers and Interior-Point Methods

We consider the Riemannian geometry defined on a convex set by the Hessian of a self-concordant barrier function, and its associated geodesic curves. These provide guidance for the construction of efficient interior-point methods for optimizing a linear function over the intersection of the set with an affine manifold. We show that algorithms that follow the … Read more

Polynomial interior point cutting plane methods

Polynomial cutting plane methods based on the logarithmic barrier function and on the volumetric center are surveyed. These algorithms construct a linear programming relaxation of the feasible region, find an appropriate approximate center of the region, and call a separation oracle at this approximate center to determine whether additional constraints should be added to the … Read more