We investigate the optimal piecewise linear interpolation of the bivariate product xy over rectangular domains. More precisely, our aim is to minimize the number of simplices in the triangulation underlying the interpolation, while respecting a prescribed approximation error. First, we show how to construct optimal triangulations consisting of up to five simplices. Using these as … Read more
Bilinear terms naturally appear in many optimization problems. Their inherent nonconvexity typically makes them challenging to solve. One approach to tackle this difficulty is to use bivariate piecewise linear approximations for each variable product, which can be represented via mixed-integer linear programming (MIP) formulations. Alternatively, one can reformulate the variable products as a sum of … Read more
A direct search method for the class of problems considered by Lewis and Torczon [\textit{SIAM J. Optim.}, 12 (2002), pp. 1075-1089] is developed. Instead of using an augmented Lagrangian method, a simplicial approximation method to the feasible set is implicitly employed. This allows the points our algorithm considers to conveniently remain within an \textit{a priori} … Read more