We describe improvements to Smith’s branch-and-bound (B&B) algorithm for the Euclidean Steiner problem in R^d. Nodes in the B&B tree correspond to full Steiner topologies associated with a subset of the terminal nodes, and branching is accomplished by “merging” a new terminal node with each edge in the current Steiner tree. For a given topology … Read more
This paper is devoted to the study of a resource-constrained scheduling problem which arises in relation to the operability of certain high availability real-time distributed systems. After a brief survey of the literature, we prove the NP-hardness of the problem and exhibit a few polynomial special cases. We then present a branch-and-bound algorithm for the … Read more
This paper addresses the general single-machine earliness-tardiness problem with distinct release dates, due dates, and unit costs. The aim of this research is to obtain an exact nonpreemptive solution in which machine idle time is allowed. In a hybrid approach, we formulate and then solve the problem using dynamic programming (DP) while incorporating techniques from … Read more
Our goal in this paper is to demonstrate that branch-and-bound algorithms for combinatorial optimization can be effectively implemented on a relatively new type of multiprocessor platform known as a computational grid. We will argue that to easily and effectively harness the power of computational grids for branch-and-bound algorithms, the master-worker paradigm should be used to … Read more
The Hartree-Fock method is well known in quantum chemistry, and widely used to obtain atomic and molecular eletronic wave functions, based on the minimization of a functional of the energy. This gives rise to a multi-extremal, nonconvex, polynomial optimization problem. We give a novel mathematical programming formulation of the problem, which we solve by using … Read more
This paper presents a branch-and-bound algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programming, which is based on solving semidefinite relaxations at each node of the enumeration tree. The method is motivated by a recent branch-and-cut approach for the box-constrained case that employs linear relaxations of the first-order KKT conditions. We discuss certain limitations of linear relaxations when handling … Read more
We study a single-machine sequencing problem with both release dates and deadlines to minimize the total weighted completion time. We propose a branch-and-bound algorithm for this problem. The algorithm exploits an effective lower bound and a dynamic programming dominance technique. As a byproduct of the lower bound, we have developed a new algorithm for the … Read more
Dynamic programming, branch-and-bound, and constraint programming are the standard solution principles for finding optimal solutions to machine scheduling problems. We propose a new hybrid optimization framework that integrates all three methodologies. The hybrid framework leads to powerful solution procedures. We demonstrate our approach through the optimal solution of the single-machine total weighted completion time scheduling … Read more
We present a practical approach to Anstreicher and Lee’s masked spectral bound for maximum-entropy sampling, and we describe favorable results that we have obtained with a Branch-&-Bound algorithm based on our approach. By representing masks in factored form, we are able to easily satisfy a semidefiniteness constraint. Moreover, this representation allows us to restrict the … Read more
We propose a branch-and-bound algorithm for solving nonconvex quadratically-constrained quadratic programs. The algorithm is novel in that branching is done by partitioning the feasible region into the Cartesian product of two-dimensional triangles and rectangles. Explicit formulae for the convex and concave envelopes of bilinear functions over triangles and rectangles are derived and shown to be … Read more