On High-order Model Regularization for Constrained Optimization

In two recent papers regularization methods based on Taylor polynomial models for minimization were proposed that only rely on H\”older conditions on the higher order employed derivatives. Grapiglia and Nesterov considered cubic regularization with a sufficient descent condition that uses the current gradient and resembles the classical Armijo’s criterion. Cartis, Gould, and Toint used Taylor … Read more

QPLIB: A Library of Quadratic Programming Instances

This paper describes a new instance library for Quadratic Programming (QP), i.e., the family of continuous and (mixed)-integer optimization problems where the objective function, the constrains, or both are quadratic. QP is a very “varied” class of problems, comprising sub-classes of problems ranging from trivial to undecidable. Solution methods for QP are very diverse, ranging … Read more

Optimization Techniques for Tree-Structured Nonlinear Problems

Robust model predictive control approaches and other applications lead to nonlinear optimization problems defined on (scenario) trees. We present structure-preserving Quasi-Newton update formulas as well as structured inertia correction techniques that allow to solve these problems by interior-point methods with specialized KKT solvers for tree-structured optimization problems. The same type of KKT solvers could be … Read more

Some theoretical limitations of second-order algorithms for smooth constrained optimization

In second-order algorithms, we investigate the relevance of the constant rank of the full set of active constraints in ensuring global convergence to a second-order stationary point. We show that second-order stationarity is not expected in the non-constant rank case if the growth of the so-called tangent multipliers, associated with a second-order complementarity measure, is … Read more

A Condensing Algorithm for Nonlinear MPC with a Quadratic Runtime in Horizon Length

A large number of practical algorithms for Optimal Control Problems (OCP) relies on a so-called condensing procedure to exploit the given structure in the quadratic programming (QP) subproblems. While the established structure-exploiting condensing algorithm is of cubic complexity in the horizon length, in this technical note we propose a novel algorithm that is only of … Read more

On the steplength selection in gradient methods for unconstrained optimization

The seminal paper by Barzilai and Borwein [IMA J. Numer. Anal. 8 (1988)] has given rise to an extensive investigation aimed at developing effective gradient methods, able to deal with large-scale optimization problems. Several steplength rules have been first designed for unconstrained quadratic problems and then extended to general nonlinear problems; these rules share the … Read more

Asynchronous Parallel Algorithms for Nonconvex Big-Data Optimization. Part I: Model and Convergence

We propose a novel asynchronous parallel algorithmic framework for the minimization of the sum of a smooth nonconvex function and a convex nonsmooth regularizer, subject to both convex and nonconvex constraints. The proposed framework hinges on successive convex approximation techniques and a novel probabilistic model that captures key elements of modern computational architectures and asynchronous … Read more

Asynchronous Parallel Algorithms for Nonconvex Big-Data Optimization. Part II: Complexity and Numerical Results

We present complexity and numerical results for a new asynchronous parallel algorithmic method for the minimization of the sum of a smooth nonconvex function and a convex nonsmooth regularizer, subject to both convex and nonconvex constraints. The proposed method hinges on successive convex approximation techniques and a novel probabilistic model that captures key elements of … Read more

Quasi-Newton methods for constrained nonlinear systems: complexity analysis and application

We address the solution of convex constrained nonlinear systems by new linesearch Quasi-Newton methods. These methods are based on a proper use of the projection map onto the constraint set and on a derivative-free and nonmonotone linesearch strategy. The convergence properties of the proposed methods are presented along with a worst-case iteration complexity bound. Several … 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