Exact duality in semidefinite programming based on elementary reformulations

In semidefinite programming (SDP), unlike in linear programming, Farkas’ lemma may fail to prove infeasibility. Here we obtain an exact, short certificate of infeasibility in SDP by an elementary approach: we reformulate any equality constrained semidefinite system using only elementary row operations, and rotations. When the system is infeasible, the infeasibility of the reformulated system … Read more

How to Convexify the Intersection of a Second Order Cone and a Nonconvex Quadratic

A recent series of papers has examined the extension of disjunctive-programming techniques to mixed-integer second-order-cone programming. For example, it has been shown—by several authors using different techniques—that the convex hull of the intersection of an ellipsoid, $\E$, and a split disjunction, $(l – x_j)(x_j – u) \le 0$ with $l < u$, equals the intersection ... Read more

Robust newsvendor problem with autoregressive demand

This paper explores the classic single-item newsvendor problem under a novel setting which combines temporal dependence and tractable robust optimization. First, the demand is modeled as a time series which follows an autoregressive process AR(p), p>= 1. Second, a robust approach to maximize the worst-case revenue is proposed: a robust distribution-free autoregressive forecasting method, which … Read more

An inertial Tseng’s type proximal algorithm for nonsmooth and nonconvex optimization problems

We investigate the convergence of a forward-backward-forward proximal-type algorithm with inertial and memory effects when minimizing the sum of a nonsmooth function with a smooth one in the absence of convexity. The convergence is obtained provided an appropriate regularization of the objective satisfies the Kurdyka-\L{}ojasiewicz inequality, which is for instance fulfilled for semi-algebraic functions. ArticleDownload … Read more

Gradient Sliding for Composite Optimization

We consider in this paper a class of composite optimization problems whose objective function is given by the summation of a general smooth and nonsmooth component, together with a relatively simple nonsmooth term. We present a new class of first-order methods, namely the gradient sliding algorithms, which can skip the computation of the gradient for … Read more

An Efficient Gauss-Newton Algorithm for Symmetric Low-Rank Product Matrix Approximations

We derive and study a Gauss-Newton method for computing a symmetric low-rank product that is the closest to a given symmetric matrix in Frobenius norm. Our Gauss-Newton method, which has a particularly simple form, shares the same order of iteration-complexity as a gradient method when the size of desired eigenspace is small, but can be … Read more

A Quasi-Newton Algorithm for Nonconvex, Nonsmooth Optimization with Global Convergence Guarantees

A line search algorithm for minimizing nonconvex and/or nonsmooth objective functions is presented. The algorithm is a hybrid between a standard Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (BFGS) and an adaptive gradient sampling (GS) method. The BFGS strategy is employed because it typically yields fast convergence to the vicinity of a stationary point, and together with the adaptive GS strategy … Read more

A Cut-and-Branch Algorithm for the Quadratic Knapsack Problem

The Quadratic Knapsack Problem (QKP) is a well-known NP-hard combinatorial optimisation problem, with many practical applications. We present a ‘cut-and-branch’ algorithm for the QKP, in which a cutting-plane phase is followed by a branch-and-bound phase. The cutting-plane phase is more sophisticated than the existing ones in the literature, incorporating several classes of cutting planes, two … Read more

Solving a Huff-like Stackelberg problem on networks

This work deals with a Huff-like Stackelberg problem, where the leader facility wants to decide its location so that its profit is maximal after the competitor (the follower) also built its facility. It is assumed that the follower makes a rational decision, maximizing their profit. The inelastic demand is aggregated into the vertices of a … Read more

Linear equalities in blackbox optimization

The Mesh Adaptive Direct Search (Mads) algorithm is designed for blackbox optimization problems subject to general inequality constraints. Currently, Mads does not support equalities, neither in theory nor in practice. The present work proposes extensions to treat problems with linear equalities whose expression is known. The main idea consists in reformulating the optimization problem into … Read more