Interior-Point Methods for Nonconvex Nonlinear Programming: Regularization and Warmstarts

In this paper, we investigate the use of an exact primal-dual penalty approach within the framework of an interior-point method for nonconvex nonlinear programming. This approach provides regularization and relaxation, which can aid in solving ill-behaved problems and in warmstarting the algorithm. We present details of our implementation within the LOQO algorithm and provide extensive … Read more

On warm starts for interior methods

An appealing feature of interior methods for linear programming is that the number of iterations required to solve a problem tends to be relatively insensitive to the choice of initial point. This feature has the drawback that it is difficult to design interior methods that efficiently utilize information from an optimal solution to a “nearby” … Read more

Dynamic updates of the barrier parameter in primal-dual methods for nonlinear programming

We introduce a framework in which updating rules for the barrier parameter in primal-dual interior-point methods become dynamic. The original primal-dual system is augmented to incorporate explicitly an updating function. A Newton step for the augmented system gives a primal-dual Newton step and also a step in the barrier parameter. Based on local information and … Read more

SOS approximation of polynomials nonnegative on a real algebraic set

Let $V\subset R^n$ be a real algebraic set described by finitely many polynomials equations $g_j(x)=0,j\in J$, and let $f$ be a real polynomial, nonnegative on $V$. We show that for every $\epsilon>0$, there exist nonnegative scalars $\{\lambda_j\}_{j\in J}$ such that, for all $r$ sufficiently large, $f+\epsilon\theta_r+\sum_{j\in J} \lambda_j g_j^2$ is a sum of squares. Here, … Read more

A Note on Multiobjective Optimization and Complementarity Constraints

We propose a new approach to convex nonlinear multiobjective optimization that captures the geometry of the Pareto set by generating a discrete set of Pareto points optimally. We show that the problem of finding an optimal representation of the Pareto surface can be formulated as a mathematical program with complementarity constraints. The complementarity constraints arise … Read more

Variational Two-electron Reduced Density Matrix Theory for Many-electron Atoms and Molecules: Implementation of the Spin- and Symmetry-adapted T2 Condition through First-order Semidefinite Programming

The energy and properties of a many-electron atom or molecule may be directly computed from a variational optimization of a two-electron reduced density matrix (2-RDM) that is constrained to represent many-electron quantum systems. In this paper we implement a variational 2-RDM method with a representability constraint, known as the $T_2$ condition. The optimization of the … Read more

Iterative Solution of Augmented Systems Arising in Interior Methods

Iterative methods are proposed for certain augmented systems of linear equations that arise in interior methods for general nonlinear optimization. Interior methods define a sequence of KKT equations that represent the symmetrized (but indefinite) equations associated with Newton’s method for a point satisfying the perturbed optimality conditions. These equations involve both the primal and dual … Read more

A New Low Rank Quasi-Newton Update Scheme for Nonlinear Programming

A new quasi-Newton scheme for updating a low rank positive semi-definite Hessian approximation is described, primarily for use in sequential quadratic programming methods for nonlinear programming. Where possible the symmetric rank one update formula is used, but when this is not possible a new rank two update is used, which is not in the Broyden … Read more

A primal-infeasible interior point algorithm for linearly constrained convex programming

In the paper a primal-infeasible interior point algorithm is proposed for linearly constrained convex programming. The starting point is any positive primal-infeasible dual-feasible point in a large region. The method maintains positivity of the iterates which point satisfies primal-infeasible dual-feasible point. At each iterates it requires to solve approximately a nonlinear system. It is shown … Read more

Density-based Globally Convergent Trust-Region Methods for Self-Consistent Field Electronic Structure Calculations

A theory of globally convergent trust-region methods for self-consistent field electronic structure calculations that use the density matrices as variables is developed. The optimization is performed by means of sequential global minimizations of a quadratic model of the true energy. The global minimization of this quadratic model, subject to the idempotency of the density matrix … Read more