Lagrange Multiplier Characterizations of Solution Sets of Constrained Nonsmooth Pseudolinear Optimization Problems

This paper deals with the minimization of a class of nonsmooth pseudolinear functions over a closed and convex set subject to linear inequality constraints. We establish several Lagrange multiplier characterizations of the solution set of the minimization problem by using the properties of locally Lipschitz pseudolinear functions. We also consider a constrained nonsmooth vector pseudolinear optimization problem and derive certain conditions, under which an efficient solution becomes a properly efficient solution. The results presented in this paper are more general than those existing in the literature.     

A Weak Maximum Principle for Optimal Control Problems with Nonsmooth Mixed Constraints

We derive a weak Maximum Principle for nonsmooth optimal control problem involving mixed constraints under some convexity assumptions. Notably we consider problems with possibly nonsmooth mixed constraints. A nonsmooth version of the positive linear independence of the gradients with respect to the control of the mixed constraints plays a key role in validation of our main result. The first author was support by FEDER and FCT-Portugal, grants POSC/EEA/SRI/61831/2004 and SFRH/BSAB/781/2008. G.N. Silva thanks the financial support of CNPq grant 200875/06-0 and FAPESP grant 07-5226-6.     

Necessary Optimality Conditions for Optimal Control Problems with Nonsmooth Mixed State and Control Constraints

In this paper we study an optimal control problem with nonsmooth mixed state and control constraints. In most of the existing results, the necessary optimality condition for optimal control problems with mixed state and control constraints are derived under the Mangasarian-Fromovitz condition and under the assumption that the state and control constraint functions are smooth. In this paper we derive necessary optimality conditions for problems with nonsmooth mixed state and control constraints under constraint qualifications based on pseudo-Lipschitz continuity and calmness of certain set-valued maps. The necessary conditions are stratified, in the sense that they are asserted on precisely the domain upon which the hypotheses (and the optimality) are assumed to hold. Moreover necessary optimality conditions with an Euler inclusion taking an explicit multiplier form are derived for certain cases.     

Lagrange Multipliers and mixed formulations for some inequality constrained variational inequalities and some nonsmooth unilateral problems

Abstract

This paper addresses a class of inequality constrained variational inequalities and nonsmooth unilateral variational problems. We present mixed formulations arising from Lagrange multipliers. First we treat in a reflexive Banach space setting the canonical case of a variational inequality that has as essential ingredients a bilinear form and a non-differentiable sublinear, hence convex functional and linear inequality constraints defined by a convex cone. We extend the famous Brezzi splitting theorem that originally covers saddle point problems with equality constraints, only, to these nonsmooth problems and obtain independent Lagrange multipliers in the subdifferential of the convex functional and in the ordering cone of the inequality constraints. For illustration of the theory we provide and investigate an example of a scalar nonsmooth boundary value problem that models frictional unilateral contact problems in linear elastostatics. Finally we discuss how this approach to mixed formulations can be further extended to variational problems with nonlinear operators and equilibrium problems, and moreover, to hemivariational inequalities.     

Comments on: Farkas’ Lemma: three decades of generalizations for mathematical optimization

In these comments on the excellent survey by Dinh and Jeyakumar, we briefly discuss some recently developed topics and results on applications of extended Farkas’ lemma(s) and related qualification conditions to problems of variational analysis and optimization, which are not fully reflected in the survey. They mainly concern: Lipschitzian stability of feasible solution maps for parameterized semi-infinite and infinite programs with linear and convex inequality constraints indexed by arbitrary sets; optimality conditions for nonsmooth problems involving such constraints; evaluating various subdifferentials of optimal value functions in DC and bilevel infinite programs with applications to Lipschitz continuity of value functions and optimality conditions; calculating and estimating normal cones to feasible solution sets for nonlinear smooth as well as nonsmooth semi-infinite, infinite, and conic programs with deriving necessary optimality conditions for them; calculating coderivatives of normal cone mappings for convex polyhedra in finite and infinite dimensions with applications to robust stability of parameterized variational inequalities. We also give some historical comments on the original Farkas’ papers.     

参数非光滑优化的微分稳定性

本文研究了含有向量参数的非光滑优化问题的极值函数或叫做边缘函数的连续性及某种意义下的微分性质。给出了目标函数及不等式约束为李普希兹函数,等式约束为连续可微函数,并且带有闭凸约束集C的非凸非光滑问题的最优值函数的几种方向导数的界,把[4],[1]中关于一个参数的单边扰动推广到向量参数的扰动,亦可认为是把[2]由光滑函数类推广到李普希兹函数类。     

Solvability of nonlinear variational-hemivariational inequalities

In this paper we study nonlinear elliptic differential equations driven by the p-Laplacian with unilateral constraints produced by the combined effects of a monotone term and of a nonmonotone term (variational-hemivariational inequality). Our approach is variational and uses the subdifferential theory of nonsmooth functions and the theory of accretive and monotone operators. Also using these ideas and a special choice of the monotone term, we prove the existence of a strictly positive smooth solution for a class of nonlinear equations with nonsmooth potential (hemivariational inequality).     

Barrier method in nonsmooth convex optimization without convex representation

In this article we want to demonstrate that under mild conditions the barrier method is an effective solution approach for convex optimization problems whose objective is nonsmooth and whose feasible set is described by smooth inequality constraints in which all the constraint functions need not be convex.     

A globally linearly convergent method for pointwise quadratically supportable convex–concave saddle point problems

We study the Proximal Alternating Predictor–Corrector (PAPC) algorithm introduced recently by Drori, Sabach and Teboulle [8] to solve nonsmooth structured convex–concave saddle point problems consisting of the sum of a smooth convex function, a finite collection of nonsmooth convex functions and bilinear terms. We introduce the notion of pointwise quadratic supportability, which is a relaxation of a standard strong convexity assumption and allows us to show that the primal sequence is R-linearly convergent to an optimal solution and the primal-dual sequence is globally Q-linearly convergent. We illustrate the proposed method on total variation denoising problems and on locally adaptive estimation in signal/image deconvolution and denoising with multiresolution statistical constraints.     

A verified inexact implicit Runge–Kutta method for nonsmooth ODEs

Structural pounding and oscillations have been extensively investigated by using ordinary differential equations (ODEs). In many applications, force functions are defined by piecewise continuously differentiable functions and the ODEs are nonsmooth. Implicit Runge–Kutta (IRK) methods for solving the nonsmooth ODEs are numerically stable, but involve systems of nonsmooth equations that cannot be solved exactly in practice. In this paper, we propose a verified inexact IRK method for nonsmooth ODEs which gives a global error bound for the inexact solution. We use the slanting Newton method to solve the systems of nonsmooth equations, and interval method to compute the set of matrices of slopes for the enclosure of solution of the systems. Numerical experiments show that the algorithm is efficient for verification of solution of systems of nonsmooth equations in the inexact IRK method. We report numerical results of nonsmooth ODEs arising from simulation of the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge, steel to steel impact experiment, and pounding between two adjacent structures in 27 ground motion records for 12 different earthquakes. This work is partly supported by a Grant-in-Aid from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and a scholarship from Egyptian Government.     

Convexificators and boundedness of the Kuhn–Tucker multipliers set

In this paper we consider a nonsmooth optimization problem with equality, inequality and set constraints. We propose new constraint qualifications and Kuhn–Tucker type necessary optimality conditions for this problem involving locally Lipschitz functions. The main tool of our approach is the notion of convexificators. We introduce a nonsmooth version of the Mangasarian–Fromovitz constraint qualification and show that this constraint qualification is necessary and sufficient for the Kuhn–Tucker multipliers set to be nonempty and bounded.     

Abstract convex approximations of nonsmooth functions

In the article we use abstract convexity theory in order to unify and generalize many different concepts of nonsmooth analysis. We introduce the concepts of abstract codifferentiability, abstract quasidifferentiability and abstract convex (concave) approximations of a nonsmooth function mapping a topological vector space to an order complete topological vector lattice. We study basic properties of these notions, construct elaborate calculus of abstract codifferentiable functions and discuss continuity of abstract codifferential. We demonstrate that many classical concepts of nonsmooth analysis, such as subdifferentiability and quasidifferentiability, are particular cases of the concepts of abstract codifferentiability and abstract quasidifferentiability. We also show that abstract convex and abstract concave approximations are a very convenient tool for the study of nonsmooth extremum problems. We use these approximations in order to obtain various necessary optimality conditions for nonsmooth nonconvex optimization problems with the abstract codifferentiable or abstract quasidifferentiable objective function and constraints. Then, we demonstrate how these conditions can be transformed into simpler and more constructive conditions in some particular cases.     

Cutting Sphere Algorithm

We present a generalization of the conventional cutting plane algorithm for the solution of nonconvex optimization problems with nonsmooth inequality constraints. The cuts are effected using spheres rather than hyperplanes.     

Optimality Conditions for Nonsmooth Equilibrium Problems via Hadamard Directional Derivative

In this paper, we consider a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) formulated as a mathematical program with complementarity constraints. We obtain necessary conditions of Fritz John (FJ) and Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) types for a nonsmooth (MPEC) problem in terms of the lower Hadamard directional derivative. In particular sufficient conditions for MPECs are given where the involved functions have pseudoconvex sublevel sets. The functions with pseudoconvex sublevel sets is a class of generalized convex functions that include quasiconvex functions.     

Existence of exact penalty for optimization problems with mixed constraints in Banach spaces

In this paper we use the penalty approach in order to study constrained minimization problems in a Banach space with nonsmooth nonconvex mixed constraints. A penalty function is said to have the exact penalty property [J.-B. Hiriart-Urruty, C. Lemarechal, Convex Analysis and Minimization Algorithms, Springer, Berlin, 1993] if there is a penalty coefficient for which a solution of an unconstrained penalized problem is a solution of the corresponding constrained problem. In this paper we establish sufficient conditions for the exact penalty property.     

A nonsmooth variant of the Mangasarian-Fromovitz constraint qualification

A unified view on constraint qualifications for nonsmooth equality and inequality constrained programs is presented. A fairly general constraint qualification for programs involving B-differential functions is given. Further specification to piecewise differentiable equality constraints and locally Lipschitz continuous inequality constraints yields a nonsmooth version of the Mangasarian-Fromovitz constraint qualification.This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG-Grant No. Pa 219/5-1.     

Necessary and sufficient conditions for Kuhn-Tucker type optimality and for weak duality of nonsmooth programming

In this paper, we are concerned with a nonsmooth programming problem with inequality constraints. We obtain an optimality condition for Kuhn-Tucker points to be minimizers. Later on, we present necessary and sufficient conditions for weak duality between the primal problem and its mixed type dual, which help us to extend some earlier work from the literature.     

Necessary Conditions in Nonsmooth Minimization via Lower and Upper Subgradients

The paper concerns first-order necessary optimality conditions for problems of minimizing nonsmooth functions under various constraints in infinite-dimensional spaces. Based on advanced tools of variational analysis and generalized differential calculus, we derive general results of two independent types called lower subdifferential and upper subdifferential optimality conditions. The former ones involve basic/limiting subgradients of cost functions, while the latter conditions are expressed via Fréchet/regular upper subgradients in fairly general settings. All the upper subdifferential and major lower subdifferential optimality conditions obtained in the paper are new even in finite dimensions. We give applications of general optimality conditions to mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints deriving new results for this important class of intrinsically nonsmooth optimization problems.     

Optimality and duality for nonsmooth multiobjective fractional programming with mixed constraints

We consider nonsmooth multiobjective fractional programming problems with inequality and equality constraints. We establish the necessary and sufficient optimality conditions under various generalized invexity assumptions. In addition, we formulate a mixed dual problem corresponding to primal problem, and discuss weak, strong and strict converse duality theorems. This research was partially supported by Project no. 850203 and Center of Excellence for Mathematics, University of Isfahan, Iran.     

两种微分形式下最优性条件的关系

本文考虑具有不等式约束条件不可微优化问题，假定目标函数和约束函数既是Lipschitz的也是拟可微的．证明了该问题拟微分形式下的FritzJohn点必是Clarke广义梯度形式下的FritzJohn点．另外，还给出了拟微分和Clarke广义梯度之间的关系．