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

Two-Stage Stochastic Semidefinite Programming and Decomposition Based Interior Point Methods

We introduce two-stage stochastic semidefinite programs with recourse and present a Benders decomposition based linearly convergent interior point algorithms to solve them. This extends the results of Zhao, who showed that the logarithmic barrier associated with the recourse function of two-stage stochastic linear programs with recourse behaves as a strongly self-concordant barrier on the first … Read more

On generalized branching methods for mixed integer programming

In this paper we present a restructuring of the computations in Lenstra’s methods for solving mixed integer linear programs. We show that the problem of finding a good branching hyperplane can be formulated on an adjoint lattice of the Kernel lattice of the equality constraints without requiring any dimension reduction. As a consequence the short … Read more

Sums of Random Symmetric Matrices and Applications

Let B_i be deterministic symmetric m\times m matrices, and \xi_i be independent random scalars with zero mean and “of order of one” (e.g., \xi_i are Gaussian with zero mean and unit standard deviation). We are interested in conditions for the “typical norm” of the random matrix S_N = \xi_1B_1+…+\xi_NB_N to be of order of 1. … Read more

Convergent relaxations of polynomial matrix inequalities and static output feedback

Using a moment interpretation of recent results on sum-of-squares decompositions of non-negative polynomial matrices, we propose a hierarchy of convex linear matrix inequality (LMI) relaxations to solve non-convex polynomial matrix inequality (PMI) optimization problems, including bilinear matrix inequality (BMI) problems. This hierarchy of LMI relaxations generates a monotone sequence of lower bounds that converges to … Read more

Large-Scale Semidefinite Programming via Saddle Point Mirror-Prox Algorithm

In this paper, we first develop “economical” representations for positive semidefinitness of well-structured sparse symmetric matrix. Using the representations, we then reformulate well-structured large-scale semidefinite problems into smooth convex-concave saddle point problems, which can be solved by a Prox-method with efficiency ${\cal O}(\epsilon^{-1})$ developed in \cite{Nem}. Some numerical implementations for large-scale Lovasz capacity and MAXCUT … Read more

The Q Method for Second-order Cone Programming

Based on the Q method for SDP, we develop the Q method for SOCP. A modified Q method is also introduced. Properties of the algorithms are discussed. Convergence proofs are given. Finally, we present numerical results. Citation AdvOl-Report#2004/15 McMaster University, Advanced Optimization Laboratory Article Download View The Q Method for Second-order Cone Programming

On the Behavior of the Homogeneous Self-Dual Model for Conic Convex Optimization

There is a natural norm associated with a starting point of the homogeneous self-dual (HSD) embedding model for conic convex optimization. In this norm two measures of the HSD model’s behavior are precisely controlled independent of the problem instance: (i) the sizes of epsilon-optimal solutions, and (ii) the maximum distance of epsilon-optimal solutions to the … Read more

Complex Quadratic Optimization and Semidefinite Programming

In this paper we study the approximation algorithms for a class of discrete quadratic optimization problems in the Hermitian complex form. A special case of the problem that we study corresponds to the max-3-cut model used in a recent paper of Goemans and Williamson. We first develop a closed-form formula to compute the probability of … Read more

Recovering Risk-Neutral Probability Density Functions from Options Prices using Cubic Splines

We present a new approach to estimate the risk-neutral probability density function (pdf) of the future prices of an underlying asset from the prices of options written on the asset. The estimation is carried out in the space of cubic spline functions, yielding appropriate smoothness. The resulting optimization problem, used to invert the data and … Read more