Global Convergence of General Derivative-Free Trust-Region Algorithms to First and Second Order Critical Points

In this paper we prove global convergence for first and second-order stationarity points of a class of derivative-free trust-region methods for unconstrained optimization. These methods are based on the sequential minimization of linear or quadratic models built from evaluating the objective function at sample sets. The derivative-free models are required to satisfy Taylor-type bounds but, … Read more

Numerical Experience with a Recursive Trust-Region Method for Multilevel Nonlinear Optimization

We consider an implementation of the recursive multilevel trust-region algorithm proposed by Gratton, Sartenaer, Toint (2004), and provide significant numerical experience on multilevel test problems. A suitable choice of the algorithm’s parameters is identified on these problems, yielding a very satisfactory compromise between reliability and efficiency. The resulting default algorithm is then compared to alternative … Read more

Second-order convergence properties of trust-region methods using incomplete curvature information, with an application to multigrid optimization

Convergence properties of trust-region methods for unconstrained nonconvex optimization is considered in the case where information on the objective function’s local curvature is incomplete, in the sense that it may be restricted to a fixed set of “test directions” and may not be available at every iteration. It is shown that convergence to local “weak” … Read more

A Homogeneous Model for Mixed Complementarity Problems over Symmetric Cones

In this paper, we propose a homogeneous model for solving monotone mixed complementarity problems over symmetric cones, by extending the results in \cite{YOSHISE04} for standard form of the problems. We show that the extended model inherits the following desirable features: (a) A path exists, is bounded and has a trivial starting point without any regularity … Read more

Knitro: An Integrated Package for Nonlinear Optimization

This paper describes Knitro 5.0, a C-package for nonlinear optimization that combines complementary approaches to nonlinear optimization to achieve robust performance over a wide range of application requirements. The package is designed for solving large-scale, smooth nonlinear programming problems, and it is also effective for the following special cases: unconstrained optimization, nonlinear systems of equations, … Read more

Experimental Datasets from Chemical Thermodynamics

I have been working for quite awhile with the treatment of experimental results in chemical thermodynamics. I have tried to organize my archives and make them available for others. There are several experimental datasets in computer readable format and I hope that they can be used as useful benchmarks for data fitting and nonlinear optimization. … Read more

A generating set search method exploiting curvature and sparsity

Generating Set Search method are one of the few alternatives for optimising high fidelity functions with numerical noise. These methods are usually only efficient when the number of variables is relatively small. This paper presents a modification to an existing Generating Set Search method, which makes it aware of the sparsity structure of the Hessian. … Read more

Perturbation analysis of second order programming problems

We discuss first and second order optimality conditions for nonlinear second-order cone programming problems, and their relation with semidefinite programming problems. For doing this we extend in an abstract setting the notion of optimal partition. Then we state a characterization of strong regularity in terms of second order optimality conditions. Citation Research Report 5293 (August … Read more

Recursive Trust-Region Methods for Multilevel Nonlinear Optimization (Part I): Global Convergence and Complexity

A class of trust-region methods is presented for solving unconstrained nonlinear and possibly nonconvex discretized optimization problems, like those arising in systems governed by partial differential equations. The algorithms in this class make use of the discretization level as a mean of speeding up the computation of the step. This use is recursive, leading to … Read more

Optimality Measures for Performance Profiles

We examine the importance of optimality measures when benchmarking a set of solvers, and show that scaling requirements lead to a convergence test for nonlinearly constrained optimization solvers that uses a mixture of absolute and relative error measures. We demonstrate that this convergence test is well behaved at any point where the constraints satisfy the … Read more