A discrete filled function algorithm for approximate global solutions of max-cut problems

A discrete filled function algorithm is proposed for approximate global solutions of max-cut problems. A new discrete filled function is defined for max-cut problems and the properties of the filled function are studied. Unlike general filled function methods, using the characteristic of max-cut problems, the parameters in proposed filled function need not be adjusted. This greatly increases the efficiency of the filled function method. By combining a procedure that randomly generates initial points for minimization of the filled function, the proposed algorithm can greatly reduce the calculation cost and be applied to large scale max-cut problems. Numerical results on different sizes and densities test problems indicate that the proposed algorithm is efficient and stable to get approximate global solutions of max-cut problems.     

A discrete filled function algorithm embedded with continuous approximation for solving max-cut problems

In this paper, a discrete filled function algorithm embedded with continuous approximation is proposed to solve max-cut problems. A new discrete filled function is defined for max-cut problems, and properties of the function are studied. In the process of finding an approximation to the global solution of a max-cut problem, a continuation optimization algorithm is employed to find local solutions of a continuous relaxation of the max-cut problem, and then global searches are performed by minimizing the proposed filled function. Unlike general filled function methods, characteristics of max-cut problems are used. The parameters in the proposed filled function need not to be adjusted and are exactly the same for all max-cut problems that greatly increases the efficiency of the filled function method. Numerical results and comparisons on some well known max-cut test problems show that the proposed algorithm is efficient to get approximate global solutions of max-cut problems.     

AN EFFECTIVE CONTINUOUS ALGORITHM FOR APPROXIMATE SOLUTIONS OF LARGE SCALE MAX-CUT PROBLEMS

An effective continuous algorithm is proposed to find approximate solutions of NP-hardmax-cut problems.The algorithm relaxes the max-cut problem into a continuous nonlinearprogramming problem by replacing n discrete constraints in the original problem with onesingle continuous constraint.A feasible direction method is designed to solve the resultingnonlinear programming problem.The method employs only the gradient evaluations ofthe objective function,and no any matrix calculations and no line searches are required.This greatly reduces the calculation cost of the method,and is suitable for the solutionof large size max-cut problems.The convergence properties of the proposed method toKKT points of the nonlinear programming are analyzed.If the solution obtained by theproposed method is a global solution of the nonlinear programming problem,the solutionwill provide an upper bound on the max-cut value.Then an approximate solution to themax-cut problem is generated from the solution of the nonlinear programming and providesa lower bound on the max-cut value.Numerical experiments and comparisons on somemax-cut test problems(small and large size)show that the proposed algorithm is efficientto get the exact solutions for all small test problems and well satisfied solutions for mostof the large size test problems with less calculation costs.     

A discrete dynamic convexized method for the max-cut problem

The max-cut problem is a classical NP-hard problem in graph theory. In this paper, we adopt a local search method, called MCFM, which is a simple modification of the Fiduccia-Mattheyses heuristic method in Fiduccia and Mattheyses (Proc. ACM/IEEE DAC, pp. 175?C181, 1982) for the circuit partitioning problem in very large scale integration of circuits and systems. The method uses much less computational cost than general local search methods. Then, an auxiliary function is presented which has the same global maximizers as the max-cut problem. We show that maximization of the function using MCFM can escape successfully from previously converged discrete local maximizers by taking increasing values of a parameter. An algorithm is proposed for the max-cut problem, by maximizing the auxiliary function using MCFM from random initial solutions. Computational experiments were conducted on three sets of standard test instances from the literature. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is effective for the three sets of standard test instances.     

非线性整数规划的一个新的无参数填充函数算法

离散填充函数是一种用于求解多极值优化问题最优解的一种行之有效的方法.已被证明对于求解大规模离散优化问题是有效的.本文基于改进的离散填充函数定义,构造了一个新的无参数填充函数,并在理论上给出了证明,提出了一个新的填充函数算法.该填充函数无需调节参数,而且只需极小化一次目标函数.数值结果表明,该算法是高效的、可行的.     

A Continuation Algorithm for Max-Cut Problem

A continuation algorithm for the solution of max-cut problems is proposed in this paper. Unlike the available semi-definite relaxation, a max-cut problem is converted into a continuous nonlinear programming by employing NCP functions, and the resulting nonlinear programming problem is then solved by using the augmented Lagrange penalty function method. The convergence property of the proposed algorithm is studied. Numerical experiments and comparisons with the Geomeans and Williamson randomized algorithm made on some max-cut test problems show that the algorithm generates satisfactory solutions for all the test problems with much less computation costs.     

求解最大割问题的半定规划松驰的序列线性规划方法

本文基于最大割问题的半定规划松弛,利用矩阵分解的方法给出了与半定规划松弛等价的非线性规划模型,提出一种序列线性规划方法求解该模型.并在适当的条件下,证明了算法的全局收敛性.数值实验表明:序列线性规划方法在时间上要优于半定规划的内点算法.所以序列线性规划方法能更有效地求解大规模的最大割问题的半定规划松弛.     

A critical review of discrete filled function methods in solving nonlinear discrete optimization problems

Many real life problems can be modeled as nonlinear discrete optimization problems. Such problems often have multiple local minima and thus require global optimization methods. Due to high complexity of these problems, heuristic based global optimization techniques are usually required when solving large scale discrete optimization or mixed discrete optimization problems. One of the more recent global optimization tools is known as the discrete filled function method. Nine variations of the discrete filled function method in literature are identified and a review on theoretical properties of each method is given. Some of the most promising filled functions are tested on various benchmark problems. Numerical results are given for comparison.     

An augmented Lagrangian method for binary quadratic programming based on a class of continuous functions

In this paper, an augmented Lagrangian method is proposed for binary quadratic programming (BQP) problems based on a class of continuous functions. The binary constraints are converted into a class of continuous functions. The approach reformulates the BQP problem as an equivalent augmented Lagrangian function, and then seeks its minimizer via an augmented Lagrangian method, in which the subproblem is solved by Barzilai–Borwein type method. Numerical results are reported for max-cut problem. The results indicate that the augmented Lagrangian approach is promising for large scale binary quadratic programming by the quality of the near optimal values and the low computational time.     

整数规划的一类填充函数算法

填充函数算法是求解连续总体优化问题的一类有效算法。本文改造[1]的填充函数算法使之适于直接求解整数规划问题。首先,给出整数规划问题的离散局部极小解的定义,并设计找离散局部极小解的领域搜索算法。其次,构造整数规划问题的填充函数算法。该方法通过寻找填充函数的离散局部极小解以期找到整数规划问题的比当前离散局部极小解好的解。本文的算法是直接法,数值试验表明算法是有效的。     

一个新的填充函数

填充函数法是一种解无约束全局极小化问题的方法.这种方法的关键是构造填充函数,在已发表的文献中已经介绍了几种填充函数.在此介绍只含一个参数的填充函数,并且根据此填充函数提出了一种填充函数算法.给出了用这种填充函数法解几个测试问题的计算结果.     

An efficient algorithm for large scale global optimization of continuous functions

A fast descent algorithm, resorting to a “stretching” function technique and built on one hybrid method (GRSA) which combines simulated annealing (SA) algorithm and gradient based methods for large scale global optimizations, is proposed. Unlike the previously proposed method in which the original objective functions remain unchanged during the whole course of optimization, the new method firstly constructs an auxiliary function on one local minimizer obtained by gradient based methods and then SA is executed on this constructed auxiliary function instead of on the original objective function in order that we can improve the jumping ability of SA algorithm to escape from the currently discovered local minimum to a better one from which the gradient based methods restart a new local search. The above procedure is repeated until a global minimum is detected. In addition, corresponding to the adopted “stretching” technique, a new next trial point generating scheme is designed. It is verified by simulation especially on large scale problems that the convergence speed is greatly accelerated, which is its main difference from many other reported methods that mostly cope with functions with less than 50 variables and does not apply to large scale optimization problems. Furthermore, the new algorithm functions as a global optimization procedure with a high success probability and high solution precision.     

一个新的非线性整数规划问题的单参数填充函数算法

非线性整数规划问题是一类复杂的优化问题,填充函数算法是求解整数规划问题的一类有效方法.构造一个新的单参数填充函数,分析并证明了其填充性质;然后,基于该填充函数并结合离散最速下降法提出了一种新的填充函数算法;最后,采用新算法对6个测试函数进行数值实验,结果表明该算法具有良好的计算效果,是有效可行的.     

A new discrete filled function algorithm for discrete global optimization

A definition of the discrete filled function is given in this paper. Based on the definition, a discrete filled function is proposed. Theoretical properties of the proposed discrete filled function are investigated, and an algorithm for discrete global optimization is developed from the new discrete filled function. The implementation of the algorithms on several test problems is reported with satisfactory numerical results.     

EXPEDIS: An exact penalty method over discrete sets

We address the problem of minimizing a quadratic function subject to linear constraints over binary variables. We introduce the exact solution method called EXPEDIS  where the constrained problem is transformed into a max-cut instance, and then the whole machinery available for max-cut can be used to solve the transformed problem. We derive the theory in order to find a transformation in the spirit of an exact penalty method; however, we are only interested in exactness over the set of binary variables. In order to compute the maximum cut we use the solver BiqMac. Numerical results show that this algorithm can be successfully applied on various classes of problems.     

求解带箱式约束全局优化问题的滤子填充函数方法

提出一个基于滤子技术的填充函数算法, 用于求解带箱式约束的非凸全局优化问题. 填充函数算法是求解全局优化问题的有效方法之一, 而滤子技术以其良好的数值效果广泛应用于局部优化算法中. 为优化填充函数方法, 应用滤子来监控迭代过程. 首先给出一个新的填充函数并讨论了其特性, 在此基础上提出了理论算法及算法性质. 最后列出数值实验结果以说明算法的有效性.     

一个新的填充函数及其在数据拟合问题中的应用

填充函数法是求解全局优化问题的有效方法之一,针对无约束优化问题,提出一个新的连续可微的无参数填充函数,证明其相关性质并给出相应的算法,数值实验结果表明该算法是有效可行的。同时用此填充函数对切削温度实验数据这一拟合实例进行求解,与已有的最小二乘法和遗传算法的求解结果相比较,拟合效果较好。     

A convergent decomposition algorithm for support vector machines

In this work we consider nonlinear minimization problems with a single linear equality constraint and box constraints. In particular we are interested in solving problems where the number of variables is so huge that traditional optimization methods cannot be directly applied. Many interesting real world problems lead to the solution of large scale constrained problems with this structure. For example, the special subclass of problems with convex quadratic objective function plays a fundamental role in the training of Support Vector Machine, which is a technique for machine learning problems. For this particular subclass of convex quadratic problem, some convergent decomposition methods, based on the solution of a sequence of smaller subproblems, have been proposed. In this paper we define a new globally convergent decomposition algorithm that differs from the previous methods in the rule for the choice of the subproblem variables and in the presence of a proximal point modification in the objective function of the subproblems. In particular, the new rule for sequentially selecting the subproblems appears to be suited to tackle large scale problems, while the introduction of the proximal point term allows us to ensure the global convergence of the algorithm for the general case of nonconvex objective function. Furthermore, we report some preliminary numerical results on support vector classification problems with up to 100 thousands variables.     

A modified VNS metaheuristic for max-bisection problems

Variable neighborhood search (VNS) metaheuristic as presented in Festa et al. [Randomized heuristics for the MAX-CUT problem, Optim. Methods Software 17 (2002) 1033–1058] can obtain high quality solution for max-cut problems. Therefore, it is worthwhile that VNS metaheuristic is extended to solve max-bisection problems. Unfortunately, comparing with max-cut problems, max-bisection problems have more complicated feasible region via the linear constraint e^Tx=0. It is hard to directly apply the typical VNS metaheuristic to deal with max-bisection problems. In this paper, we skillfully combine the constraint e^Tx=0 with the objective function, obtain a new optimization problem which is equivalent to the max-bisection problem, and then adopt a distinct greedy local search technique to the resulted problem. A modified VNS metaheuristic based on the greedy local search technique is applied to solve max-bisection problems. Numerical results indicate that the proposed method is efficient and can obtain high equality solution for max-bisection problems.     

Finding discrete global minima with a filled function for integer programming

The filled function method is an approach to find the global minimum of multidimensional functions. This paper proposes a new definition of the filled function for integer programming problem. A filled function which satisfies this definition is presented. Furthermore, we discuss the properties of the filled function and design a new filled function algorithm. Numerical experiments on several test problems with up to 50 integer variables have demonstrated the applicability and efficiency of the proposed method.