Separation of Mixing Inequalities in a Mixed Integer Programming Solver

This paper shows how valid inequalities based on the mixing set can be used in a mixed integer programming (MIP) solver. It discusses the relation of mixing inequalities to flow path and mixed integer rounding in- equalities and how currently used separation algorithms already generate cuts implicitly that can be seen as mixing cuts. Further … Read more

A Robust Branch-Cut-and-Price Algorithm for the Heterogeneous Fleet Vehicle Routing Problem

This paper presents a robust branch-cut-and-price algorithm for the Heterogeneous Fleet Vehicle Routing Problem (HFVRP), vehicles may have distinct capacities and costs. The columns in the formulation are associated to q-routes, a relaxation of capacitated elementary routes that makes the pricing problem solvable in pseudo-polynomial time. Powerful new families of cuts are also proposed, which … Read more

Robust Branch-Cut-and-Price Algorithms for Vehicle Routing Problems

This article presents techniques for constructing robust Branch-Cutand-Price algorithms on a number of Vehicle Routing Problem variants. The word “robust” stress the effort of controlling the worst-case complexity of the pricing subproblem, keeping it pseudo-polynomial. Besides summarizing older research on the topic, some promising new lines of investigation are also presented, specially the development of … Read more

Modelling Hop-Constrained and Diameter-Constrained Minimum Spanning Tree Problems as Steiner Tree Problems over Layered Graphs

The Hop-Constrained Minimum Spanning Tree Problem (HMSTP) is a NP-hard problem arising in the design of centralized telecommunication networks with quality of service constraints. We show that the HMSTP is equivalent to a Steiner Tree Problem (STP) in an adequate layered graph. We prove that the directed cut formulation for the STP defined in the … Read more

Computational testing of exact mixed knapsack separation for MIP problems

In this paper we study an exact separation algorithm for mixed knapsack sets with the aim of evaluating its effectiveness in a cutting plane algorithm for Mixed-Integer Programming. First proposed by Boyd in the 90’s, exact knapsack separation has recently found a renewed interest. In this paper we present a “lightweight” exact separation procedure for … Read more

Solving the problem of packing equal and unequal circles in a circular container

In this paper we propose a Monotonic Basin Hopping approach and its population-based variant Population Basin Hopping to solve the problem of packing equal and unequal circles within a circular container with minimum radius. Extensive computational experiments have been performed both to analyze the problem at hand, and to choose in an appropriate way the … Read more

An FPTAS for Minimizing the Product of Two Non-negative Linear Cost Functions

We consider a quadratic programming (QP) problem ($\Pi$) of the form $\min x^T C x$ subject to $Ax \ge b$ where $C\in {\mathbb R}^{n\mbox{\tiny\texttimes} n}_+, rank(C)=1$ and $A\in {\mathbb R}^{m\mbox{\tiny\texttimes} n}, b\in {\mathbb R}^m$. We present an FPTAS for this problem by reformulating the QP ($\Pi$) as a parametrized LP and “rounding” the optimal solution. … Read more

Lower bounds for approximate factorizations via semidefinite programming

The problem of approximately factoring a real or complex multivariate polynomial $f$ seeks minimal perturbations $\Delta f$ to the coefficients of the input polynomial $f$ so that the deformed polynomial $f + \Delta f$ has the desired factorization properties. Efficient algorithms exist that compute the nearest real or complex polynomials that has non-trivial factors. (see … Read more

On Newton(like) inequalities for multivariate homogeneous polynomials

Let $p(x_1,…,x_m) = \sum_{r_1 + \cdots + r_m = n} a_{r_1,…,r_m} \prod_{1 \leq i \leq m } x_i^{r_{i}}$ be a homogeneous polynomial of degree $n$ in $m$ variables. We call such polynomial {\bf H-Stable} if $p(z_1,…,z_m) \neq 0$ provided that the real parts $Re(z_i) > 0: 1 \leq i \leq m$. It can be assumed … Read more

Proximal Point Methods for Functions Involving Lojasiewicz, Quasiconvex and Convex Properties on Hadamard Manifolds

This paper extends the full convergence of the proximal point method with Riemannian, Semi-Bregman and Bregman distances to solve minimization problems on Hadamard manifolds. For the unconstrained problem, under the assumptions that the optimal set is nonempty and the objective function is continuous and either quasiconvex or satisfies a generalized Lojasiewicz property, we prove the … Read more