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

Geometry of Sample Sets in Derivative Free Optimization. Part II: Polynomial Regression and Underdetermined Interpolation

In the recent years, there has been a considerable amount of work in the development of numerical methods for derivative free optimization problems. Some of this work relies on the management of the geometry of sets of sampling points for function evaluation and model building. In this paper, we continue the work developed in [Conn, … 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

Efficient and cheap bounds for (standard) quadratic optimization

A standard quadratic optimization problem (StQP) consists in minimizing a quadratic form over a simplex. A number of problems can be transformed into a StQP, including the general quadratic problem over a polytope and the maximum clique problem in a graph. In this paper we present several polynomial-time bounds for StQP ranging from very simple … 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

Knitro: An Integrated Package for Nonlinear Optimization

This paper describes Knitro 5.0, a C-package for nonlinear optimization that combines complementary approaches to nonlinear optimization to achieve robust performance over a wide range of application requirements. The package is designed for solving large-scale, smooth nonlinear programming problems, and it is also effective for the following special cases: unconstrained optimization, nonlinear systems of equations, … Read more

A primal-dual interior point method for nonlinear optimization over second order cones

In this paper, we are concerned with nonlinear minimization problems with second order cone constraints. A primal-dual interior point method is proposed for solving the problems. We also propose a new primal-dual merit function by combining the barrier penalty function and the potential function within the framework of the line search strategy, and show the … Read more

A General Robust-Optimization Formulation for Nonlinear Programming

Most research in robust optimization has so far been focused on inequality-only, convex conic programming with simple linear models for uncertain parameters. Many practical optimization problems, however, are nonlinear and non-convex. Even in linear programming, coefficients may still be nonlinear functions of uncertain parameters. In this paper, we propose robust formulations that extend the robust-optimization … Read more

Constructing Generalized Mean Functions Using Convex Functions with Regularity Conditions

The generalized mean function has been widely used in convex analysis and mathematical programming. This paper studies a further generalization of such a function. A necessary and sufficient condition is obtained for the convexity of a generalized function. Additional sufficient conditions that can be easily checked are derived for the purpose of identifying some classes … Read more