A proximal gradient method for ensemble density functional theory

The ensemble density functional theory is valuable for simulations of metallic systems due to the absence of a gap in the spectrum of the Hamiltonian matrices. Although the widely used self-consistent field iteration method can be extended to solve the minimization of the total energy functional with respect to orthogonality constraints, there is no theoretical … Read more

An O(1/k) Convergence Rate for the Variable Stepsize Bregman Operator Splitting Algorithm

An earlier paper proved the convergence of a variable stepsize Bregman operator splitting algorithm (BOSVS) for minimizing $\phi(Bu)+H(u)$ where $H$ and $\phi$ are convex functions, and $\phi$ is possibly nonsmooth. The algorithm was shown to be relatively efficient when applied to partially parallel magnetic resonance image reconstruction problems. In this paper, the convergence rate of … Read more

Decomposition algorithm for large-scale two-stage unit-commitment

Everyday, electricity generation companies submit a generation schedule to the grid operator for the coming day; computing an optimal schedule is called the unit-commitment problem. Generation companies can also occasionally submit changes to the schedule, that can be seen as intra-daily incomplete recourse actions. In this paper, we propose a two-stage formulation of unit-commitment, wherein … Read more

An exact solution method for binary equilibrium problems with compensation and the power market uplift problem

We propose a novel method to fi nd Nash equilibria in games with binary decision variables by including compensation payments and incentive-compatibility constraints from non-cooperative game theory directly into an optimization framework in lieu of using first order conditions of a linearization, or relaxation of integrality conditions. The reformulation off ers a new approach to obtain and … Read more

Some Applications of Polynomial Optimization in Operations Research and Real-Time Decision Making

We demonstrate applications of algebraic techniques that optimize and certify polynomial inequalities to problems of interest in the operations research and transportation engineering communities. Three problems are considered: (i) wireless coverage of targeted geographical regions with guaranteed signal quality and minimum transmission power, (ii) computing real-time certificates of collision avoidance for a simple model of … Read more

Preconditioning of a Generalized Forward-Backward Splitting and Application to Optimization on Graphs

We present a preconditioning of a generalized forward-backward splitting algorithm for finding a zero of a sum of maximally monotone operators \sum_{i=1}^n A_i + B with B cocoercive, involving only the computation of B and of the resolvent of each A_i separately. This allows in particular to minimize functionals of the form \sum_{i=1}^n g_i + … Read more

Quantum and classical coin-flipping protocols based on bit-commitment and their point games

We focus on a family of quantum coin-flipping protocols based on quantum bit-commitment. We discuss how the semidefinite programming formulations of cheating strategies can be reduced to optimizing a linear combination of fidelity functions over a polytope. These turn out to be much simpler semidefinite programs which can be modelled using second-order cone programming problems. … Read more

Linearly Convergent Away-Step Conditional Gradient for Non-strongly Convex Functions

We consider the problem of minimizing a function, which is the sum of a linear function and a composition of a strongly convex function with a linear transformation, over a compact polyhedral set. Jaggi and Lacoste-Julien [14] showed that the conditional gradient method with away steps employed on the aforementioned problem without the additional linear … Read more

Bridging the Gap Between Multigrid, Hierarchical, and Receding-Horizon Control

We analyze the structure of the Euler-Lagrange conditions of a lifted long-horizon optimal control problem. The analysis reveals that the conditions can be solved by using block Gauss-Seidel schemes and we prove that such schemes can be implemented by solving sequences of short-horizon problems. The analysis also reveals that a receding-horizon control scheme is equivalent … Read more

A Two-Level Approach to Large Mixed-Integer Programs with Application to Cogeneration in Energy-Efficient Buildings

We study a two-stage mixed-integer linear program (MILP) with more than 1 million binary variables in the second stage. We develop a two-level approach by constructing a semi-coarse model (coarsened with respect to variables) and a coarse model (coarsened with respect to both variables and constraints). We coarsen binary variables by selecting a small number … Read more