Using Simplex Gradients of Nonsmooth Functions in Direct Search Methods

It has been shown recently that the efficiency of direct search methods that use opportunistic polling in positive spanning directions can be improved significantly by reordering the poll directions according to descent indicators built from simplex gradients. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we analyze the properties of simplex gradients of nonsmooth functions … Read more

Stationarity and Regularity of Real-Valued Functions

Different stationarity and regularity concepts for extended real-valued functions on metric spaces are considered in the paper. The properties are characterized in terms of certain local constants. A classification scheme for stationarity/regularity constants and corresponding concepts is proposed. The relations between different constants are established. CitationUniversity of Ballarat, School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences, … Read more

About Regularity of Collections of Sets

The paper continues investigations of stationarity and regularity properties of set systems in normed spaces started in the previous paper of the author. It contains a summary of different characterizations (both primal and dual) of regularity and a list of sufficient conditions for a set system to be regular. CitationUniversity of Ballarat, School of Information … Read more

Analysis of a Belgian Chocolate Stabilization Problem

We give a detailed numerical and theoretical analysis of a stabilization problem posed by V. Blondel in 1994. Our approach illustrates the effectiveness of a new gradient sampling algorithm for finding local optimizers of nonsmooth, nonconvex optimization problems arising in control, as well as the power of nonsmooth analysis for understanding variational problems involving polynomial … Read more

Variational Analysis of Functions of the Roots of Polynomials

The Gauss-Lucas Theorem on the roots of polynomials nicely simplifies calculating the subderivative and regular subdifferential of the abscissa mapping on polynomials (the maximum of the real parts of the roots). This paper extends this approach to more general functions of the roots. By combining the Gauss-Lucas methodology with an analysis of the splitting behavior … Read more

Stationarity and Regularity of Set Systems

Extremality, stationarity and regularity notions for a system of closed sets in a normed linear space are investigated. The equivalence of different abstract “extremal” settings in terms of set systems and multifunctions is proved. The dual necessary and sufficient conditions of weak stationarity (the Extended extremal principle) are presented for the case of an Asplund … Read more

Weak Stationarity: Eliminating the Gap between Necessary and Sufficient Conditions

Starting from known necessary extremality conditions in terms of strict subdifferentials and normals the notion of weak stationarity is introduced. It is defined in terms of initial space elements. The necessary conditions become necessary and sufficient (for stationarity). CitationSchool of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences, Centre of Information and Applied Optimization, University of Ballarat, POB … Read more

The mathematics of eigenvalue optimization

Optimization problems involving the eigenvalues of symmetric and nonsymmetric matrices present a fascinating mathematical challenge. Such problems arise often in theory and practice, particularly in engineering design, and are amenable to a rich blend of classical mathematical techniques and contemporary optimization theory. This essay presents a personal choice of some central mathematical ideas, outlined for … Read more

Nonsmooth Equation Method for Nonlinear Nonconvex Optimization

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for solving nonlinear nonconvex programming problems, which is based on the nonsmooth equation approach. This Algorithm was implemented in the interactive system for universal functional optimization UFO. Results of numerical experiments are reported. CitationReport V844, Institute of Computer Science, AV CR, Pod Vodarenskou Vezi 2, 18207 Praha 8, … Read more

Robust regularization

Given a real function on a Euclidean space, we consider its “robust regularization”: the value of this new function at any given point is the maximum value of the original function in a fixed neighbourhood of the point in question. This construction allows us to impose constraints in an optimization problem *robustly*, safeguarding a constraint … Read more