We develop a framework for a class of derivative-free algorithms for the least-squares minimization problem. These algorithms are based on polynomial interpolation models and are designed to take advantages of the problem structure. Under suitable conditions, we establish the global convergence and local quadratic convergence properties of these algorithms. Promising numerical results indicate the algorithm … Read more
We present a nearly-exact method for the large scale trust region subproblem (TRS) based on the properties of the minimal-memory BFGS method. Our study in concentrated in the case where the initial BFGS matrix can be any scaled identity matrix. The proposed method is a variant of the Mor\'{e}-Sorensen method that exploits the eigenstructure of … Read more
The solution of trust-region and regularisation subproblems which arise in unconstrained optimization is considered. Building on the pioneering work of Gay, More’ and Sorensen, methods which obtain the solution of a sequence of parametrized linear systems by factorization are used. Enhancements using high-order polynomial approximation and inverse iteration ensure that the resulting method is both … Read more
We present a line-search algorithm for large-scale continuous optimization. The algorithm is matrix-free in that it does not require the factorization of derivative matrices. Instead, it uses iterative linear system solvers. Inexact step computations are supported in order to save computational expense during each iteration. The algorithm is an interior-point approach derived from an inexact … Read more
We present a new derivative-free algorithm, ORBIT, for unconstrained local optimization of computationally expensive functions. A trust-region framework using interpolating Radial Basis Function (RBF) models is employed. The RBF models considered often allow ORBIT to interpolate nonlinear functions using fewer function evaluations than the polynomial models considered by present techniques. Approximation guarantees are obtained by … Read more
We present a line search algorithm for large-scale constrained optimization that is robust and efficient even for problems with (nearly) rank-deficient Jacobian matrices. The method is matrix-free (i.e., it does not require explicit storage or factorizations of derivative matrices), allows for inexact step computations, and is applicable for nonconvex problems. The main components of the … Read more
In numerical optimization, line-search and trust-region methods are two important classes of descent schemes, with well-understood global convergence properties. Here we consider “accelerated” versions of these methods, where the conventional iterate is allowed to be replaced by any point that produces at least as much decrease in the cost function as a fixed fraction of … Read more
We consider methods for large-scale unconstrained minimization based on finding an approximate minimizer of a quadratic function subject to a two-norm trust-region constraint. The Steihaug-Toint method uses the conjugate-gradient (CG) algorithm to minimize the quadratic over a sequence of expanding subspaces until the iterates either converge to an interior point or cross the constraint boundary. … Read more
We consider methods for regularising the least-squares solution of the linear system Ax = b. In particular, we propose iterative methods for solving large problems in which a trust-region bound ||x||
We consider a class of stochastic programming models where the uncertainty is classically represented using parametric distributions families. The parameters are then usually estimated together with the optimal value of the problem. However, misspecification of the underlying random variables often leads to irrealistic results when little is known about their true distributions. We propose to … Read more