Benders Decomposition for Very Large Scale Partial Set Covering and Maximal Covering Problems

Covering problems constitute an important family of facility location problems. This paper intro- duces a new exact algorithm for two important members of this family: i) the maximal covering location problem, which requires finding a subset of facilities that maximizes the amount of demand covered while respecting a budget constraint on the cost of the … Read more

Convergence rates for an inertial algorithm of gradient type associated to a smooth nonconvex minimization

We investigate an inertial algorithm of gradient type in connection with the minimization of a nonconvex differentiable function. The algorithm is formulated in the spirit of Nesterov’s accelerated convex gradient method. We show that the generated sequences converge to a critical point of the objective function, if a regularization of the objective function satis es the … Read more

Envelope Theorems for Multi-Stage Linear Stochastic Optimization

We propose a method to compute derivatives of multi-stage linear stochastic optimization problems with respect to parameters that influence the problem’s data. Our results are based on classical envelope theorems, and can be used in problems directly solved via their deterministic equivalents as well as in stochastic dual dynamic programming for which the derivatives of … Read more

On Distributionally Robust Chance Constrained Programs with Wasserstein Distance

This paper studies a distributionally robust chance constrained program (DRCCP) with Wasserstein ambiguity set, where the uncertain constraints should be satisfied with a probability at least a given threshold for all the probability distributions of the uncertain parameters within a chosen Wasserstein distance from an empirical distribution. In this work, we investigate equivalent reformulations and … Read more

Interior Point Methods and Preconditioning for PDE-Constrained Optimization Problems Involving Sparsity Terms

PDE-constrained optimization problems with control or state constraints are challenging from an analytical as well as numerical perspective. The combination of these constraints with a sparsity-promoting L1 term within the objective function requires sophisticated optimization methods. We propose the use of an Interior Point scheme applied to a smoothed reformulation of the discretized problem, and … Read more

On the Complexity of Detecting Convexity over a Box

It has recently been shown that the problem of testing global convexity of polynomials of degree four is {strongly} NP-hard, answering an open question of N.Z. Shor. This result is minimal in the degree of the polynomial when global convexity is of concern. In a number of applications however, one is interested in testing convexity … Read more

On the heavy-tail behavior of the distributionally robust newsvendor

Since the seminal work of Scarf (1958) [A min-max solution of an inventory problem, Studies in the Mathematical Theory of Inventory and Production, pages 201-209] on the newsvendor problem with ambiguity in the demand distribution, there has been a growing interest in the study of the distributionally robust newsvendor problem. The optimal order quantity is … Read more

Strict Complementarity in MaxCut SDP

The MaxCut SDP is one of the most well-known semidefinite programs, and it has many favorable properties. One of its nicest geometric/duality properties is the fact that the vertices of its feasible region correspond exactly to the cuts of a graph, as proved by Laurent and Poljak in 1995. Recall that a boundary point x … Read more

Selection of variables in parallel space decomposition for the mesh adaptive direct search algorithm

The parallel space decomposition of the Mesh Adaptive Direct Search algorithm (PSDMADS proposed in 2008) is an asynchronous parallel method for constrained derivative-free optimization with large number of variables. It uses a simple generic strategy to decompose a problem into smaller dimension subproblems. The present work explores new strategies for selecting subset of variables defining … Read more

Convergence Rates for Projective Splitting

Projective splitting is a family of methods for solving inclusions involving sums of maximal monotone operators. First introduced by Eckstein and Svaiter in 2008, these methods have enjoyed significant innovation in recent years, becoming one of the most flexible operator splitting frameworks available. While weak convergence of the iterates to a solution has been established, … Read more