A Reliable Affine Relaxation Method for Global Optimization

An automatic method for constructing linear relaxations of constrained global optimization problems is proposed. Such a construction is based on affine and interval arithmetics and uses operator overloading. These linear programs have exactly the same numbers of variables and of inequality constraints as the given problems. Each equality constraint is replaced by two inequalities. This … Read more

Simplified Copositive and Lagrangian Relaxations for Linearly Constrained Quadratic Optimization Problems in Continuous and Binary Variables

For a quadratic optimization problem (QOP) with linear equality constraints in continuous nonnegative variables and binary variables, we propose three relaxations in simplified forms with a parameter $\lambda$: Lagrangian, completely positive, and copositive relaxations. These relaxations are obtained by reducing the QOP to an equivalent QOP with a single quadratic equality constraint in nonnegative variables, … Read more

Maximizing expected utility over a knapsack constraint

The expected utility knapsack problem is to pick a set of items whose values are described by random variables so as to maximize the expected utility of the total value of the items picked while satisfying a constraint on the total weight of items picked. We consider the following solution approach for this problem: (i) … Read more

Variational Analysis of the Spectral Abscissa at a Matrix with a Nongeneric Multiple Eigenvalue

The spectral abscissa is a fundamental map from the set of complex matrices to the real numbers. Denoted $\alpha$ and defined as the maximum of the real parts of the eigenvalues of a matrix $X$, it has many applications in stability analysis of dynamical systems. The function $\alpha$ is nonconvex and is non-Lipschitz near matrices … Read more

Simulation Optimization for the Stochastic Economic Lot Scheduling Problem with Sequence-Dependent Setup Times

We consider the stochastic economic lot scheduling problem (SELSP) with lost sales and random demand, where switching between products is subject to sequence-dependent setup times. We propose a solution based on simulation optimization using an iterative two-step procedure which combines global policy search with local search heuristics for the traveling salesman sequencing subproblem. To optimize … Read more

On two relaxations of quadratically-constrained cardinality minimization

This paper considers a quadratically-constrained cardinality minimization problem with applications to digital filter design, subset selection for linear regression, and portfolio selection. Two relaxations are investigated: the continuous relaxation of a mixed integer formulation, and an optimized diagonal relaxation that exploits a simple special case of the problem. For the continuous relaxation, an absolute upper … Read more

Coordinate Search Algorithms in Multilevel Optimization

Many optimization problems of practical interest arise from the discretization of continuous problems. Classical examples can be found in calculus of variations, optimal control and image processing. In recent years a number of strategies have been proposed for the solution of such problems, broadly known as multilevel methods. Inspired by classical multigrid schemes for linear … Read more

A Globally Convergent Primal-Dual Active-Set Framework for Large-Scale Convex Quadratic Optimization

We present a primal-dual active-set framework for solving large-scale convex quadratic optimization problems (QPs). In contrast to classical active-set methods, our framework allows for multiple simultaneous changes in the active- set estimate, which often leads to rapid identification of the optimal active-set regardless of the initial estimate. The iterates of our framework are the active-set … Read more

Deriving robust and globalized robust solutions of uncertain linear programs with general convex uncertainty sets

We propose a new way to derive tractable robust counterparts of a linear program by using the theory of Beck and Ben-Tal (2009) on the duality between the robust (“pessimistic”) primal problem and its “optimistic” dual. First, we obtain a new {\it convex} reformulation of the dual problem of a robust linear program, and then … Read more