Strong global convergence properties of algorithms for nonlinear symmetric cone programming

Sequential optimality conditions have played a major role in proving strong global convergence properties of numerical algorithms for many classes of optimization problems. In particular, the way complementarity is dealt is fundamental to achieve a strong condition. Typically, one uses the inner product structure to measure complementarity, which gives a very general approach to a … Read more

On Rank-Monotone Graph Operations and Minimal Obstruction Graphs for the Lovász-Schrijver SDP Hierarchy

We study the lift-and-project rank of the stable set polytopes of graphs with respect to the Lovász-Schrijver SDP operator LS_+, with a particular focus on finding and characterizing the smallest graphs with a given LS_+-rank (the least number of iterations of the LS_+ operator on the fractional stable set polytope to compute the stable set … Read more

QUBO Dual Bounds via SDP Plane Projection Method

In this paper, we present a new method to solve a certain type of Semidefinite Programming (SDP) problems. These types of SDPs naturally arise in the Quadratic Convex Reformulation (QCR) method and can be used to obtain dual bounds of Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problems. QUBO problems have recently become the focus of attention … Read more

An Exceptionally Difficult Binary Quadratic Optimization Problem with Symmetry: a Challenge for The Largest Unsolved QAP Instance Tai256c

Tai256c is the largest unsolved quadratic assignment problem (QAP) instance in QAPLIB. It is known that QAP tai256c can be converted into a 256 dimensional binary quadratic optimization problem (BQOP) with a single cardinality constraint which requires the sum of the binary variables to be 92. As the BQOP is much simpler than the original … Read more

Exact Matrix Completion via High-Rank Matrices in Sum-of-Squares Relaxations

We study exact matrix completion from partially available data with hidden connectivity patterns. Exact matrix completion was shown to be possible recently by Cosse and Demanet in 2021 with Lasserre’s relaxation using the trace of the variable matrix as the objective function with given data structured in a chain format. In this study, we introduce … Read more

Semidefinite programming by Projective Cutting-Planes

\(\) Seeking tighter relaxations of combinatorial optimization problems, semidefinite programming is a generalization of linear programming that offers better bounds and is still polynomially solvable. Yet, in practice, a semidefinite program is still significantly harder to solve than a similar-size Linear Program (LP). It is well-known that a semidefinite program can be written as an … Read more

Higher-Order Newton Methods with Polynomial Work per Iteration

\(\) We present generalizations of Newton’s method that incorporate derivatives of an arbitrary order \(d\) but maintain a polynomial dependence on dimension in their cost per iteration. At each step, our \(d^{\text{th}}\)-order method uses semidefinite programming to construct and minimize a sum of squares-convex approximation to the \(d^{\text{th}}\)-order Taylor expansion of the function we wish … Read more

Exact Solutions for the NP-hard Wasserstein Barycenter Problem using a Doubly Nonnegative Relaxation and a Splitting Method

\(\) The simplified Wasserstein barycenter problem consists in selecting one point from \(k\) given sets, each set consisting of \(n\) points, with the aim of minimizing the sum of distances to the barycenter of the \(k\) points chosen. This problem is known to be NP-hard. We compute the Wasserstein barycenter by exploiting the Euclidean distance … Read more

Geometry of exactness of moment-SOS relaxations for polynomial optimization

The moment-SOS (sum of squares) hierarchy is a powerful approach for solving globally non-convex polynomial optimization problems (POPs) at the price of solving a family of convex semidefinite optimization problems (called moment-SOS relaxations) of increasing size, controlled by an integer, the relaxation order. We say that a relaxation of a given order is exact if … Read more

On Tractable Convex Relaxations of Standard Quadratic Optimization Problems under Sparsity Constraints

Standard quadratic optimization problems (StQPs) provide a versatile modelling tool in various applications. In this paper, we consider StQPs with a hard sparsity constraint, referred to as sparse StQPs. We focus on various tractable convex relaxations of sparse StQPs arising from a mixed-binary quadratic formulation, namely, the linear optimization relaxation given by the reformulation-linearization technique, … Read more