Proximal bundle methods in depth: a unified analysis for inexact oracles

The last few years have seen the advent ofa new generation of bundle methods, capable to handle inexact oracles, polluted by “noise”. Proving convergence of a bundle method is never simple and coping with inexact oracles substantially increases the technicalities. Besides, several variants exist to deal with noise, each one needing an ad hoc proof … Read more

Distributionally Robust Convex Optimization

Distributionally robust optimization is a paradigm for decision-making under uncertainty where the uncertain problem data is governed by a probability distribution that is itself subject to uncertainty. The distribution is then assumed to belong to an ambiguity set comprising all distributions that are compatible with the decision maker’s prior information. In this paper, we propose … Read more

Sparse Recovery on Euclidean Jordan Algebras

We consider the sparse recovery problem on Euclidean Jordan algebra (SREJA), which includes sparse signal recovery and low-rank symmetric matrix recovery as special cases. We introduce the restricted isometry property, null space property (NSP), and $s$-goodness for linear transformations in $s$-sparse element recovery on Euclidean Jordan algebra (SREJA), all of which provide sufficient conditions for … Read more

Shipping Data Generation for the Hunter Valley Coal Chain

Strategic capacity planning is a core activity for the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator as demand for coal is expected to double in the next decade. Optimization and simulation models are used to suggest and evaluate infrastructure expansions and operating policy changes. These models require input data in the form of shipping stems, which are … Read more

Quadratic Outer Approximation for Convex Integer Programming

We present a quadratic outer approximation scheme for solving general convex integer programs, where suitable quadratic approximations are used to underestimate the objective function instead of classical linear approximations. As a resulting surrogate problem we consider the problem of minimizing a function given as the maximum of finitely many convex quadratic functions having the same … Read more

Robust Optimization under Multi-band Uncertainty – Part I: Theory

The classical single-band uncertainty model introduced by Bertsimas and Sim has represented a breakthrough in the development of tractable robust counterparts of Linear Programs. However, adopting a single deviation band may be too limitative in practice: in many real-world problems, observed deviations indeed present asymmetric distributions over asymmetric ranges, so that getting a higher modeling … Read more

Generating moment matching scenarios using optimization techniques

An optimization based method is proposed to generate moment matching scenarios for numerical integration and its use in stochastic programming. The main advantage of the method is its flexibility: it can generate scenarios matching any prescribed set of moments of the underlying distribution rather than matching all moments up to a certain order, and the … Read more

Variable Metric Forward-Backward algorithm for minimizing the sum of a differentiable function and a convex function

We consider the minimization of a function $G$ defined on $R^N$, which is the sum of a (non necessarily convex) differentiable function and a (non necessarily differentiable) convex function. Moreover, we assume that $G$ satisfies the Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz property. Such a problem can be solved with the Forward-Backward algorithm. However, the latter algorithm may suffer from … Read more

AN EFFICIENT ALGORITHM FOR SECOND-ORDER CONE LINEAR COMPLEMENTARITY PROBLEMS

Recently, the globally uniquely solvable (GUS) property of the linear transformation $M\in R^{n\times n}$ in the second-order cone linear complementarity problem (SOCLCP) receives much attention and has been studied substantially. Yang and Yuan [30] contributed a new characterization of the GUS property of the linear transformation, which is formulated by basic linear-algebra-related properties. In this … Read more