Strong duality in Lasserre’s hierarchy for polynomial optimization

A polynomial optimization problem (POP) consists of minimizing a multivariate real polynomial on a semi-algebraic set $K$ described by polynomial inequalities and equations. In its full generality it is a non-convex, multi-extremal, difficult global optimization problem. More than an decade ago, J.~B.~Lasserre proposed to solve POPs by a hierarchy of convex semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations … Read more

An Optimization Approach to the Design of Multi-Size Heliostat fields

In this paper, the problem of optimizing the heliostats field configuration of a Solar Power Tower system with heliostats of different sizes is addressed. Maximizing the efficiency of the plant, i.e., optimizing the energy generated per unit cost, leads to a difficult high dimensional optimization problem (of variable dimension) with an objective function hard to … 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

A proximal multiplier method for separable convex minimization

In this paper, we propose an inexact proximal multiplier method using proximal distances for solving convex minimization problems with a separable structure. The proposed method unified the work of Chen and Teboulle (PCPM method), Kyono and Fukushima (NPCPMM) and Auslender and Teboulle (EPDM) and extends the convergence properties for a class of phi-divergence distances. We … Read more

On the effects of combining objectives in multi-objective optimization

In multi-objective optimization, one considers optimization problems with more than one objective function, and in general these objectives conflict each other. As the solution set of a multiobjective problem is often rather large and contains points of no interest to the decision-maker, strategies are sought that reduce the size of the solution set. One such … Read more

Calmness of linear programs under perturbations of all data: characterization and modulus

This paper provides operative point-based formulas (only involving the nominal data, and not data in a neighborhood) for computing or estimating the calmness modulus of the optimal set (argmin) mapping in linear optimization under uniqueness of nominal optimal solutions. Our analysis is developed in two different parametric settings. First, in the framework of canonical perturbations … Read more

Robust Growth-Optimal Portfolios

The growth-optimal portfolio is designed to have maximum expected log-return over the next rebalancing period. Thus, it can be computed with relative ease by solving a static optimization problem. The growth-optimal portfolio has sparked fascination among finance professionals and researchers because it can be shown to outperform any other portfolio with probability 1 in the … Read more

A new mixed integer linear programming formulation for one problem of exploration of online social networks

Enormous global popularity of online social network sites has initiated numerous studies and methods investigating different aspects of their use, so some concepts from network-based studies in optimization theory can be used for research into online networks. In Gaji\’c (2014) are given a several new mixed integer linear programming formulations for first and second problem … Read more

Computationally tractable counterparts of distributionally robust constraints on risk measures

In optimization problems appearing in fields such as economics, finance, or engineering, it is often important that a risk measure of a decision-dependent random variable stays below a prescribed level. At the same time, the underlying probability distribution determining the risk measure’s value is typically known only up to a certain degree and the constraint … Read more

The constant objective value property for combinatorial optimization problems

Given a combinatorial optimization problem, we aim at characterizing the set of all instances for which every feasible solution has the same objective value. Our central result deals with multi-dimensional assignment problems. We show that for the axial and for the planar $d$-dimensional assignment problem instances with constant objective value property are characterized by sum-decomposable … Read more