Quasinormality in nonlinear second-order cone programming

We introduce quasinormality and pseudonormality for nonlinear second-order cone programming by exploiting the spectral geometry of the Lorentz cone. The proposed quasinormality distinguishes interior and boundary multipliers and, in the latter case, relates constraint violation to the corresponding spectral direction. It recovers classical quasinormality when all cone blocks are one-dimensional and is strictly weaker than … Read more

Normalized-step stochastic SQP methods for nonconvex constrained optimization under heavy-tailed noise

In this paper, we study nonconvex constrained optimization with expectation equality constraints and non-negative bounds under heavy-tailed noise. The objective gradients, constraint values, and constraint Jacobian are accessed through stochastic oracles whose errors have bounded $p$th central moments for some $p\in(1,2)$. These conditions allow infinite-variance errors for the three types of stochastic oracles, rendering traditional … Read more

A Stochastic Proximal-Gradient Method for Regularized Generally Constrained Continuous Optimization

A stochastic proximal-gradient method is proposed and analyzed for solving regularized optimization problems subject to nonlinear equality constraints and nonnegativity bounds. The objective function’s values and gradients are available only through inexact stochastic oracles. The method decomposes each trial step into one component that reduces linearized infeasibility and a second component that seeks optimality while … Read more

Risk-Constrained MPPI Tuning with Update-Aware MA-ES Racing

We formulate offline tuning of Model Predictive Path Integral (MPPI) controllers as a chance-constrained black-box optimization problem and develop an update-aware framework based on Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (MA-ES). We use statistical information from noisy controller evaluations to determine when the evolutionary update is sufficiently reliable. When the recombination direction is certified, a derivative-free nonmonotone … Read more

Stochastic Augmented Lagrangian Framework with Second-Order Convergence Guarantees for Nonconvex Expectation-Constrained Optimization

In this paper, we propose and analyze an augmented Lagrangian framework for solving stochastic nonconvex optimization problems with expectation-based equality constraints over a closed and convex constraint set. The framework generates a sequence of nonconvex primal subproblems, which are solved inexactly using stochastic second-order methods. We establish iteration complexity results for obtaining approximate second-order stationary … Read more

A branch-and-bound algorithm for the computation of optimal point mappings of parametric optimization problems

We propose a novel branch‑and‑bound algorithm that constructs rigorous outer approximations of the optimal point mapping for parametric optimization problems with guaranteed feasibility and optimality tolerances. The method uses the improvement‑function reformulation to define discarding and inclusion tests on sub-boxes, constructing a rigorous outer approximation. Under the same regularity conditions that ensure exactness of this … Read more

A Computational Toolbox for Linear Optimization with Joint Affine Chance Constraints

We present a Julia computational toolbox for linear optimization problems with joint affine chance constraints under elliptically symmetric uncertainty. The toolbox combines a spherical–radial oracle for estimating the joint probability and its gradient with three structured optimization methods: Proximal, Feasible, and Penalty. The oracle supports several elliptically symmetric distributions and is integrated with these methods … Read more

A Proximal Approach for Nonsmooth Composite-Constrained Optimization

We propose a proximal-type algorithm for nonsmooth and nonconvex optimization problems with composite constraints. The constraint is defined by the composition of a locally upper-\(C^2\) outer function with a locally Lipschitz continuous inner mapping. The method is based on an improvement function that balances objective decrease and constraint satisfaction, and on a surrogate model obtained … Read more

An optimal orbit design for LISA

The ESA/NASA joint LISA (laser interferometer space antenna) mission is designed to detect gravitational waves to perform gravitational astronomy. A key mission requirement is the maintenance of a three-spacecraft constellation in a near-equilateral triangular configuration with a prescribed inter-spacecraft separation. Existing approaches have addressed this problem using simplified dynamical models to enhance tractability; however, the … Read more

New inexact adaptive proximal gradient algorithms for nonconvex composite optimization problems

In this paper, we propose new inexact adaptive proximal gradient algorithms for solving nonconvex composite optimization problems, where the objective is the sum of a differentiable nonconvex function and a convex non-differentiable function. A new relative error criterion to compute the proximal operator inexactly has been proposed together with new adaptive strate- gies for selecting … Read more