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

Lifts of Convex Sets and Cone Factorizations

In this paper we address the basic geometric question of when a given convex set is the image under a linear map of an affine slice of a given closed convex cone. Such a representation or ‘lift’ of the convex set is especially useful if the cone admits an efficient algorithm for linear optimization over … Read more

A Complete Characterization of the Gap between Convexity and SOS-Convexity

Our first contribution in this paper is to prove that three natural sum of squares (sos) based sufficient conditions for convexity of polynomials via the definition of convexity, its first order characterization, and its second order characterization are equivalent. These three equivalent algebraic conditions, henceforth referred to as sos-convexity, can be checked by semidefinite programming … Read more

Joint Spectral Radius and Path-Complete Graph Lyapunov Functions

We introduce the framework of path-complete graph Lyapunov functions for approximation of the joint spectral radius. The approach is based on the analysis of the underlying switched system via inequalities imposed among multiple Lyapunov functions associated to a labeled directed graph. Inspired by concepts in automata theory and symbolic dynamics, we define a class of … Read more

Joint Spectral Radius and Path-Complete Graph Lyapunov Functions

We introduce the framework of path-complete graph Lyapunov functions for approximation of the joint spectral radius. The approach is based on the analysis of the underlying switched system via inequalities imposed among multiple Lyapunov functions associated to a labeled directed graph. Inspired by concepts in automata theory and symbolic dynamics, we define a class of … 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

Approximating the Exponential, the Lanczos Method and an \tilde{O}(m)-Time Spectral Algorithm for Balanced Separator

We give a novel spectral approximation algorithm for the balanced separator problem that, given a graph G, a constant balance b \in (0,1/2], and a parameter \gamma, either finds an \Omega(b)-balanced cut of conductance O(\sqrt{\gamma}) in G, or outputs a certificate that all b-balanced cuts in G have conductance at least \gamma, and runs in … Read more

A Primal Barrier Function Phase I Algorithm for Nonsymmetric Conic Optimization Problems

We call a positive semidefinite matrix whose elements are nonnegative a doubly nonnegative matrix, and the set of those matrices the doubly nonnegative cone (DNN cone). The DNN cone is not symmetric but can be represented as the projection of a symmetric cone embedded in a higher dimension. In \cite{aYOSHISE10}, the authors demonstrated the efficiency … Read more

An extension of the elimination method for a sparse SOS polynomial

We propose a method to reduce the sizes of SDP relaxation problems for a given polynomial optimization problem (POP). This method is an extension of the elimination method for a sparse SOS polynomial in [Kojima et al., Mathematical Programming] and exploits sparsity of polynomials involved in a given POP. In addition, we show that this … Read more

Differentiable exact penalty functions for nonlinear second-order cone programs

We propose a method to solve nonlinear second-order cone programs (SOCPs), based on a continuously differentiable exact penalty function. The construction of the penalty function is given by incorporating a multipliers estimate in the augmented Lagrangian for SOCPs. Under the nondegeneracy assumption and the strong second-order sufficient condition, we show that a generalized Newton method … Read more