Infeasibility Detection and SQP Methods for Nonlinear Optimization

This paper addresses the need for nonlinear programming algorithms that provide fast local convergence guarantees regardless of whether a problem is feasible or infeasible. We present a sequential quadratic programming method derived from an exact penalty approach that adjusts the penalty parameter automatically, when appropriate, to emphasize feasibility over optimality. The superlinear convergence of such … Read more

Solving the Rectangular assignment problem and applications

The rectangular assignment problem is a generalization of the linear assignment problem (LAP): one wants to assign a number of persons to a smaller number of jobs, minimizing the total corresponding costs. Applications are, e.g., in the fields of object recognition and scheduling. Further, we show how it can be used to solve variants of … Read more

Comparison and robustification of Bayes and Black-Litterman models

For determining an optimal portfolio allocation, parameters representing the underlying market — characterized by expected asset returns and the covariance matrix — are needed. Traditionally, these point estimates for the parameters are obtained from historical data samples, but as experts often have strong opinions about (some of) these values, approaches to combine sample information and … Read more

Lattice-based Algorithms for Number Partitioning in the Hard Phase

The number partitioning problem (NPP) is to divide n numbers a_1,…,a_n into two disjoint subsets such that the difference between the two subset sums – the discrepancy, D, is minimized. In the balanced version of NPP (BalNPP), the subsets must have the same cardinality. With $a_j$s chosen uniformly from $[1,R]$, R > 2^n gives the … Read more

Duality-Based Algorithms for Total-Variation-Regularized Image Restoration

Image restoration models based on total variation (TV) have become popular since their introduction by Rudin, Osher, and Fatemi (ROF) in 1992. The dual formulation of this model has a quadratic objective with separable constraints, making projections onto the feasible set easy to compute. This paper proposes application of gradient projection (GP) algorithms to the … Read more

Modeling and Solving Location Routing and Scheduling Problems

This paper studies location routing and scheduling problems, a class of problems in which the decisions of facility location, vehicle routing, and route assignment are optimized simultaneously. For a version with capacity and time restrictions, two formulations are presented, one graph-based and one set-partitioning-based. For the set-partitioning-based formulation, valid inequalities are identified and their effectiveness … Read more

On LP Relaxations for the Pattern Minimization Problem

We discuss two formulations of the Pattern Minimization Problem: (1) introduced by Vanderbeck, and (2) obtained adding setup variables to the cutting stock formulation by Gilmore-Gomory. Let $z_i^{LP}(u)$ be the bound given by the linear relaxation of ($i$) under a given vector $u = (u_k)$ of parameters. We show that $z_2^{LP}(u}) \ge z_1^{LP}(u)$ and provide … Read more

Necessary conditions for local optimality in d.c. programming

Using $\eps$-subdifferential calculus for difference-of-convex (d.c.) programming, D\”ur proposed a condition sufficient for local optimality, and showed that this condition is not necessary in general. Here it is proved that whenever the convex part is strongly convex, this condition is also necessary. Strong convexity can always be ensured by changing the given d.c. decomposition slightly. … Read more

Exploiting special structure in semidefinite programming: a survey of theory and applications

Semidefinite Programming (SDP) may be seen as a generalization of Linear Programming (LP). In particular, one may extend interior point algorithms for LP to SDP, but it has proven much more difficult to exploit structure in the SDP data during computation. We survey three types of special structure in SDP data: 1) a common `chordal’ … Read more

A globally convergent primal-dual interior-point filter method for nonlinear programming: new filter optimality measures and computational results

In this paper we modify the original primal-dual interior-point filter method proposed in [18] for the solution of nonlinear programming problems. We introduce two new optimality filter entries based on the objective function, and thus better suited for the purposes of minimization, and propose conditions for using inexact Hessians. We show that the global convergence … Read more