Computing Weighted Analytic Center for Linear Matrix Inequalities Using Infeasible Newton’s Method

We study the problem of computing weighted analytic center for system of linear matrix inequality constraints. The problem can be solved using the Standard Newton’s method. However, this approach requires that a starting point in the interior point of the feasible region be given or a Phase I problem be solved. We address the problem … Read more

Statistical Inference of Semidefinite Programming

In this paper we consider covariance structural models with which we associate semidefinite programming problems. We discuss statistical properties of estimates of the respective optimal value and optimal solutions when the `true’ covariance matrix is estimated by its sample counterpart. The analysis is based on perturbation theory of semidefinite programming. As an example we consider … Read more

Geometry of 3D Environments and Sum of Squares Polynomials

Motivated by applications in robotics and computer vision, we study problems related to spatial reasoning of a 3D environment using sublevel sets of polynomials. These include: tightly containing a cloud of points (e.g., representing an obstacle) with convex or nearly-convex basic semialgebraic sets, computation of Euclidean distance between two such sets, separation of two convex … Read more

Semidefinite Programming Approach to Russell Measure Model

Throughout its evolution, data envelopment analysis (DEA) has mostly relied on linear programming, particularly because of simple primal-dual relations and the existence of standard software for solving linear programs. Although also non-linear models, such as Russell measure or hyperbolic measure models, have been introduced, their use in applications has been limited mainly because of their … Read more

A Penalty Method for Rank Minimization Problems in Symmetric Matrices

The problem of minimizing the rank of a symmetric positive semidefinite matrix subject to constraints can be cast equivalently as a semidefinite program with complementarity constraints (SDCMPCC). The formulation requires two positive semidefinite matrices to be complementary. We investigate calmness of locally optimal solutions to the SDCMPCC formulation and hence show that any locally optimal … Read more

Convergence rates of moment-sum-of-squares hierarchies for volume approximation of semialgebraic sets

Moment-sum-of-squares hierarchies of semidefinite programs can be used to approximate the volume of a given compact basic semialgebraic set $K$. The idea consists of approximating from above the indicator function of $K$ with a sequence of polynomials of increasing degree $d$, so that the integrals of these polynomials generate a convergence sequence of upper bounds … Read more

Rigorous results in electronic structure calculations

Electronic structure calculations, in particular the computation of the ground state energy, lead to challenging problems in optimization. These problems are of enormous importance in quantum chemistry for calculations of properties of solids and molecules. Minimization methods for computing the ground state energy can be developed by employing a variational approach, where the second-order reduced … Read more

Distributionally Robust Project Crashing with Partial or No Correlation Information

Crashing is a method for optimally shortening the project makespan by reducing the time of one or more activities in a project network by allocating resources to it. Activity durations are however uncertain and techniques in stochastic optimization, robust optimization and distributionally robust optimization have been developed to tackle this problem. In this paper, we … Read more

SPECTRA – a Maple library for solving linear matrix inequalities in exact arithmetic

This document briefly describes our freely distributed Maple library {\sc spectra}, for Semidefinite Programming solved Exactly with Computational Tools of Real Algebra. It solves linear matrix inequalities in exact arithmetic and it is targeted to small-size, possibly degenerate problems for which symbolic infeasibility or feasibility certificates are required. Article Download View SPECTRA – a Maple … Read more

Moment methods in energy minimization: New bounds for Riesz minimal energy problems

We use moment methods to construct a converging hierarchy of optimization problems to lower bound the ground state energy of interacting particle systems. We approximate the infinite dimensional optimization problems in this hierarchy by block diagonal semidefinite programs. For this we develop the necessary harmonic analysis for spaces consisting of subsets of another space, and … Read more