On Componental Operators in Hilbert Space

We consider a Hilbert space that is a product of a finite number of Hilbert spaces and operators that are represented by “componental operators” acting on the Hilbert spaces that form the product space. We attribute operatorial properties to the componental operators rather than to the full operators. The operatorial properties that we discuss include … Read more

Mirror-prox sliding methods for solving a class of monotone variational inequalities

In this paper we propose new algorithms for solving a class of structured monotone variational inequality (VI) problems over compact feasible sets. By identifying the gradient components existing in the operator of VI, we show that it is possible to skip computations of the gradients from time to time, while still maintaining the optimal iteration … Read more

Quadratic Regularization Methods with Finite-Difference Gradient Approximations

This paper presents two quadratic regularization methods with finite-difference gradient approximations for smooth unconstrained optimization problems. One method is based on forward finite-difference gradients, while the other is based on central finite-difference gradients. In both methods, the accuracy of the gradient approximations and the regularization parameter in the quadratic models are jointly adjusted using a … Read more

Global Complexity Bound of a Proximal ADMM for Linearly-Constrained Nonseperable Nonconvex Composite Programming

This paper proposes and analyzes a dampened proximal alternating direction method of multipliers (DP.ADMM) for solving linearly-constrained nonconvex optimization problems where the smooth part of the objective function is nonseparable. Each iteration of DP.ADMM consists of: (ii) a sequence of partial proximal augmented Lagrangian (AL) updates, (ii) an under-relaxed Lagrange multiplier update, and (iii) a … Read more

Global Convergence of Algorithms Under Constant Rank Conditions for Nonlinear Second-Order Cone Programming

In [R. Andreani, G. Haeser, L. M. Mito, H. Ramírez C., Weak notions of nondegeneracy in nonlinear semidefinite programming, arXiv:2012.14810, 2020] the classical notion of nondegeneracy (or transversality) and Robinson’s constraint qualification have been revisited in the context of nonlinear semidefinite programming exploiting the structure of the problem, namely, its eigendecomposition. This allows formulating the … Read more

Tight bounds on the maximal area of small polygons: Improved Mossinghoff polygons

A small polygon is a polygon of unit diameter. The maximal area of a small polygon with $n=2m$ vertices is not known when $m \ge 7$. In this paper, we construct, for each $n=2m$ and $m\ge 3$, a small $n$-gon whose area is the maximal value of a one-variable function. We show that, for all … Read more

An Accelerated Inexact Dampened Augmented Lagrangian Method for Linearly-Constrained Nonconvex Composite Optimization Problems

This paper proposes and analyzes an accelerated inexact dampened augmented Lagrangian (AIDAL) method for solving linearly-constrained nonconvex composite optimization problems. Each iteration of the AIDAL method consists of: (i) inexactly solving a dampened proximal augmented Lagrangian (AL) subproblem by calling an accelerated composite gradient (ACG) subroutine; (ii) applying a dampened and under-relaxed Lagrange multiplier update; … Read more

Adaptive Finite-Difference Interval Estimation for Noisy Derivative-Free Optimization

A common approach for minimizing a smooth nonlinear function is to employ finite-difference approximations to the gradient. While this can be easily performed when no error is present within the function evaluations, when the function is noisy, the optimal choice requires information about the noise level and higher-order derivatives of the function, which is often … Read more

Solving Optimization Problems over the Stiefel Manifold by Smooth Exact Penalty Function

In this paper, we present a novel penalty model called ExPen for optimization over the Stiefel manifold. Different from existing penalty functions for orthogonality constraints, ExPen adopts a smooth penalty function without using any first-order derivative of the objective function. We show that all the first-order stationary points of ExPen with a sufficiently large penalty … Read more

Constrained Optimization in the Presence of Noise

The problem of interest is the minimization of a nonlinear function subject to nonlinear equality constraints using a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method. The minimization must be performed while observing only noisy evaluations of the objective and constraint functions. In order to obtain stability, the classical SQP method is modified by relaxing the standard Armijo … Read more