Optimality conditions for minimizers at infinity in polynomial programming

In this paper we study necessary optimality conditions for the optimization problem $$\textrm{infimum}f_0(x) \quad \textrm{ subject to } \quad x \in S,$$ where $f_0 \colon \mathbb{R}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ is a polynomial function and $S \subset \mathbb{R}^n$ is a set defined by polynomial inequalities. Assume that the problem is bounded below and has the Mangasarian–Fromovitz property … Read more

An Enhanced Spatial Branch-and-Bound Method in Global Optimization with Nonconvex Constraints

We discuss some difficulties in determining valid upper bounds in spatial branch-and-bound methods for global minimization in the presence of nonconvex constraints. In fact, two examples illustrate that standard techniques for the construction of upper bounds may fail in this setting. Instead, we propose to perturb infeasible iterates along Mangasarian-Fromovitz directions to feasible points whose … Read more

Identifying Activity

Identification of active constraints in constrained optimization is of interest from both practical and theoretical viewpoints, as it holds the promise of reducing an inequality-constrained problem to an equality-constrained problem, in a neighborhood of a solution. We study this issue in the more general setting of composite nonsmooth minimization, in which the objective is a … Read more

Transposition theorems and qualification-free optimality conditions

New theorems of the alternative for polynomial constraints (based on the Positivstellensatz from real algebraic geometry) and for linear constraints (generalizing the transposition theorems of Motzkin and Tucker) are proved. Based on these, two Karush-John optimality conditions — holding without any constraint qualification — are proved for single- or multi-objective constrained optimization problems. The first … Read more