A new long-step interior point algorithm for linear programming based on the algebraic equivalent transformation

In this paper, we investigate a new primal-dual long-step interior point algorithm for linear optimization. Based on the step size, interior point algorithms can be divided into two main groups, short-step, and long-step methods. In practice, long-step variants perform better, but usually, a better theoretical complexity can be achieved for the short-step methods. One of the exceptions is the large-update algorithm of Ai and Zhang. The new wide neighborhood and the main characteristics of the presented algorithm are based on their approach. In addition, we use the algebraic equivalent transformation technique of Darvay to determine new modified search directions for our method. We show that the new long-step algorithm is convergent and has the best known iteration complexity of short-step variants. We present our numerical results and compare the performance of our algorithm with two previously introduced Ai-Zhang type interior point algorithms on a set of linear programming test problems from the Netlib library.

     

Primal-dual algorithms for linear programming based on the logarithmic barrier method

In this paper, we deal with primal-dual interior point methods for solving the linear programming problem. We present a short-step and a long-step path-following primal-dual method and derive polynomial-time bounds for both methods. The iteration bounds are as usual in the existing literature, namely iterations for the short-step variant andO(nL) for the long-step variant. In the analysis of both variants, we use a new proximity measure, which is closely related to the Euclidean norm of the scaled search direction vectors. The analysis of the long-step method depends strongly on the fact that the usual search directions form a descent direction for the so-called primal-dual logarithmic barrier function.This work was supported by a research grant from Shell, by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Grant 611-304-028, by the Hungarian National Research Foundation Grant OTKA-2116, and by the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research Grant 12-26434.89.     

On a Commutative Class of Search Directions for Linear Programming over Symmetric Cones

The commutative class of search directions for semidefinite programming was first proposed by Monteiro and Zhang (Ref. 1). In this paper, we investigate the corresponding class of search directions for linear programming over symmetric cones, which is a class of convex optimization problems including linear programming, second-order cone programming, and semidefinite programming as special cases. Complexity results are established for short-step, semilong-step, and long-step algorithms. Then, we propose a subclass of the commutative class for which we can prove polynomial complexities of the interior-point method using semilong steps and long steps. This subclass still contains the Nesterov–Todd direction and the Helmberg–Rendl–Vanderbei–Wolkowicz/Kojima–Shindoh–Hara/Monteiro direction. An explicit formula to calculate any member of the class is also given.     

The long-step method of analytic centers for fractional problems

We develop a long-step surface-following version of the method of analytic centers for the fractional-linear problem min{t ₀ |t ₀ B(x) −A(x) εH, B(x) εK, x εG}, whereH is a closed convex domain,K is a convex cone contained in the recessive cone ofH, G is a convex domain andB(·),A(·) are affine mappings. Tracing a two-dimensional surface of analytic centers rather than the usual path of centers allows to skip the initial “centering” phase of the path-following scheme. The proposed long-step policy of tracing the surface fits the best known overall polynomial-time complexity bounds for the method and, at the same time, seems to be more attractive computationally than the short-step policy, which was previously the only one giving good complexity bounds. The research was partly supported by the Israeli-American Binational Science Foundation (BSF).     

Euclidean Jordan Algebras and Interior-point Algorithms

We provide an introduction to the theory of interior-point algorithms of optimization based on the theory of Euclidean Jordan algebras. A short-step path-following algorithm for the convex quadratic problem on the domain, obtained as the intersection of a symmetric cone with an affine subspace, is considered. Connections with the Linear monotone complementarity problem are discussed. Complexity estimates in terms of the rank of the corresponding Jordan algebra are obtained. Necessary results from the theory of Euclidean Jordan algebras are presented.     

Long-Step Interior-Point Algorithms for a Class of Variational Inequalities with Monotone Operators

This paper describes two interior-point algorithms for solving a class of monotone variational inequalities defined over the intersection of an affine set and a closed convex set. The first algorithm is a long-step path-following method, and the second is an extension of the first, incorporating weights in the gradient of the barrier function. Global convergence of the algorithms is proven under the assumptions of monotonicity and differentiability of the operator.     

Convergence analysis of the projective scaling algorithm based on a long-step homogeneous affine scaling algorithm

In this paper we give a new convergence analysis of a projective scaling algorithm. We consider a long-step affine scaling algorithm applied to a homogeneous linear programming problem obtained from the original linear programming problem. This algorithm takes a fixed fraction λ≤2/3 of the way towards the boundary of the nonnegative orthant at each iteration. The iteration sequence for the original problem is obtained by pulling back the homogeneous iterates onto the original feasible region with a conical projection, which generates the same search direction as the original projective scaling algorithm at each iterate. The recent convergence results for the long-step affine scaling algorithm by the authors are applied to this algorithm to obtain some convergence results on the projective scaling algorithm. Specifically, we will show (i) polynomiality of the algorithm with complexities of O(nL) and O(n ² L) iterations for λ<2/3 and λ=2/3, respectively; (ii) global covnergence of the algorithm when the optimal face is unbounded; (iii) convergence of the primal iterates to a relative interior point of the optimal face; (iv) convergence of the dual estimates to the analytic center of the dual optimal face; and (v) convergence of the reduction rate of the objective function value to 1−λ.     

New Self-Concordant Barrier for the Hypercube

We introduce a new barrier function to build new interior-point algorithms to solve optimization problems with bounded variables. First, we show that this function is a (3/2)n-self-concordant barrier for the unitary hypercube [0,1] ⁿ , assuring thus the polynomial property of related algorithms. Second, using the Hessian metric of that barrier, we present new explicit algorithms from the point of view of Riemannian geometry applications. Third, we prove that the central path defined by the new barrier to solve a certain class of linearly constrained convex problems maintains most of the properties of the central path defined by the usual logarithmic barrier. We present also a primal long-step path-following algorithm with similar complexity to the classical barrier. Finally, we introduce a new proximal-point Bregman type algorithm to solve linear problems in [0,1] ⁿ and prove its convergence. P.R. Oliveira was partially supported by CNPq/Brazil.     

Long-step strategies in interior-point primal-dual methods

In this paper we analyze from a unique point of view the behavior of path-following and primal-dual potential reduction methods on nonlinear conic problems. We demonstrate that most interior-point methods with efficiency estimate can be considered as different strategies of minimizing aconvex primal-dual potential function in an extended primal-dual space. Their efficiency estimate is a direct consequence of large local norm of the gradient of the potential function along a central path. It is shown that the neighborhood of this path is a region of the fastest decrease of the potential. Therefore the long-step path-following methods are, in a sense, the best potential-reduction strategies. We present three examples of such long-step strategies. We prove also an efficiency estimate for a pure primal-dual potential reduction method, which can be considered as an implementation of apenalty strategy based on a functional proximity measure. Using the convex primal dual potential, we prove efficiency estimates for Karmarkar-type and Dikin-type methods as applied to a homogeneous reformulation of the initial primal-dual problem.     

An interior-point method for multifractional programs with convex constraints

We present an interior-point method for a family of multi-fractional programs with convex constraints. The programs under consideration consist of minimizing the maximum of a finite number of linear fractions over some convex set. First, we present a simple shortstep algorithm for solving such multifractional programs, and we show that, under suitable assumptions, the convergence of the short-step algorithm is weakly polynomial in a sense specified below. Then, we describe a practical implementation of the proposed method, and we report results of numerical experiments with this algorithm. These results suggest that the proposed method is a viable alternative to the standard Dinkelbach-type algorithms for solving multifractional programs.The authors would like to thank Professor A. S. Nemirovsky for stimulating discussions via electronic mail. We are grateful to two anonymous referees for comments and suggestions that improved our paper.     

A Note on Mascarenhas' Counterexample about Global Convergence of the Affine Scaling Algorithm

Mascarenhas gave an instance of linear programming problems to show that the long-step affine scaling algorithm can fail to converge to an optimal solution with the step-size λ=0.999 . In this note, we give a simple and clear geometrical explanation for this phenomenon in terms of the Newton barrier flow induced by projecting the homogeneous affine scaling vector field conically onto a hyperplane where the objective function is constant. Based on this interpretation, we show that the algorithm can fail for "any" λ greater than about 0.91 (a more precise value is 0.91071), which is considerably shorter than λ = 0.95 and 0.99 recommended for efficient implementations. Accepted 17 February 1998     

Complexity analysis and numerical implementation of a short-step primal-dual algorithm for linear complementarity problems

In this paper we deal with the study of the polynomial complexity and numerical implementation for a short-step primal-dual interior point algorithm for monotone linear complementarity problems LCP. The analysis is based on a new class of search directions used by the author for convex quadratic programming (CQP) [M. Achache, A new primal-dual path-following method for convex quadratic programming, Computational and Applied Mathematics 25 (1) (2006) 97-110]. Here, we show that this algorithm enjoys the best theoretical polynomial complexity namely , iteration bound. For its numerical performances some strategies are used. Finally, we have tested this algorithm on some monotone linear complementarity problems.     

Polynomial convergence of primal-dual algorithms for the second-order cone program based on the MZ-family of directions

In this paper we study primal-dual path-following algorithms for the second-order cone programming (SOCP) based on a family of directions that is a natural extension of the Monteiro-Zhang (MZ) family for semidefinite programming. We show that the polynomial iteration-complexity bounds of two well-known algorithms for linear programming, namely the short-step path-following algorithm of Kojima et al. and Monteiro and Adler, and the predictor-corrector algorithm of Mizuno et al., carry over to the context of SOCP, that is they have an O( logε^-1) iteration-complexity to reduce the duality gap by a factor of ε, where n is the number of second-order cones. Since the MZ-type family studied in this paper includes an analogue of the Alizadeh, Haeberly and Overton pure Newton direction, we establish for the first time the polynomial convergence of primal-dual algorithms for SOCP based on this search direction. Received: June 5, 1998 / Accepted: September 8, 1999?Published online April 20, 2000     

Quadratic Convergence of a Long-Step Interior-Point Method for Nonlinear Monotone Variational Inequality Problems

This paper offers an analysis on a standard long-step primal-dual interior-point method for nonlinear monotone variational inequality problems. The method has polynomial-time complexity and its q-order of convergence is two. The results are proved under mild assumptions. In particular, new conditions on the invariance of the rank and range space of certain matrices are employed, rather than restrictive assumptions like nondegeneracy.     

High Order Long-Step Methods for Solving Linear Complementarity Problems

The paper is concerned with methods for solving linear complementarity problems (LCP) that are monotone or at least sufficient in the sense of Cottle, Pang and Venkateswaran (1989). A basic concept of interior-point-methods is the concept of (perhaps weighted) feasible or infeasible interior-point paths. They converge to a solution of the LCP if a natural path parameter, usually the current duality gap, tends to 0.After reviewing some basic analyticity properties of these paths it is shown how these properties can be used to devise also long-step path-following methods (and not only predictor–corrector type methods) for which the duality gap converges Q-superlinearly to 0 with an arbitrarily high order.     

A path-following cutting plane method for some monotone variational inequalities ∗

The paper considers two cases of variational inequality problems. The first case involves an affine monotone operator over a convex set defined by a separation oracle. Aninterior-point algorithm that mixes an interior cutting plane method and a short-step path-following method will be presented. Its complexity will be established. The second case is an extension of the first and involves a nonlinear monotone operator defined over the same type of convex set. The algorithm for the latter case is different from the former one only in the path-following stage     

A quadratically convergent polynomial long-step algorithm for A class of nonlinear monotone complementarity problems *

Several interior point algorithms have been proposed for solving nonlinear monotone complementarity problems. Some of them have polynomial worst-case complexity but have to confine to short steps, whereas some of the others can take long steps but no polynomial complexity is proven. This paper presents an algorithm which is both long-step and polynomial. In addition, the sequence generated by the algorithm, as well as the corresponding complementarity gap, converges quadratically. The proof of the polynomial complexity requires that the monotone mapping satisfies a scaled Lipschitz condition, while the quadratic rate of convergence is derived under the assumptions that the problem has a strictly complementary solution and that the Jacobian of the mapping satisfies certain regularity conditions     

Long-step primal-dual target-following algorithms for linear programming

In this paper we propose a long-step target-following methodology for linear programming. This is a general framework, that enables us to analyze various long-step primal-dual algorithms in the literature in a short and uniform way. Among these are long-step central and weighted path-following methods and algorithms to compute a central point or a weighted center. Moreover, we use it to analyze a method with the property that starting from an initial noncentral point, generates iterates that simultaneously get closer to optimality and closer to centrality.This work is completed with the support of a research grant from SHELL.The first author is supported by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), grant 611-304-028.The fourth author is supported by the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research, grant 12-34002.92.     

A unified analysis for a class of long-step primal-dual path-following interior-point algorithms for semidefinite programming

We present a unified analysis for a class of long-step primal-dual path-following algorithms for semidefinite programming whose search directions are obtained through linearization of the symmetrized equation of the central pathH _P (XS) [PXSP ^–1 + (PXSP ^–1) ^T ]/2 = I, introduced by Zhang. At an iterate (X,S), we choose a scaling matrixP from the class of nonsingular matricesP such thatPXSP ^–1 is symmetric. This class of matrices includes the three well-known choices, namely:P = S ^1/2 andP = X ^–1/2 proposed by Monteiro, and the matrixP corresponding to the Nesterov—Todd direction. We show that within the class of algorithms studied in this paper, the one based on the Nesterov—Todd direction has the lowest possible iteration-complexity bound that can provably be derived from our analysis. More specifically, its iteration-complexity bound is of the same order as that of the corresponding long-step primal-dual path-following algorithm for linear programming introduced by Kojima, Mizuno and Yoshise. © 1998 The Mathematical Programming Society, Inc. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.Corresponding author.This author's research is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grants INT-9600343 and CCR-9700448 and the Office of Naval Research under grant N00014-94-1-0340.This author's research was supported in part by DOE DE-FG02-93ER25171-A001.     

Convergence and polynomiality of primal-dual interior-point algorithms for linear programming with selective addition of inequalities

This paper presents the convergence proof and complexity analysis of an interior-point framework that solves linear programming problems by dynamically selecting and adding relevant inequalities. First, we formulate a new primal–dual interior-point algorithm for solving linear programmes in non-standard form with equality and inequality constraints. The algorithm uses a primal–dual path-following predictor–corrector short-step interior-point method that starts with a reduced problem without any inequalities and selectively adds a given inequality only if it becomes active on the way to optimality. Second, we prove convergence of this algorithm to an optimal solution at which all inequalities are satisfied regardless of whether they have been added by the algorithm or not. We thus provide a theoretical foundation for similar schemes already used in practice. We also establish conditions under which the complexity of such algorithm is polynomial in the problem dimension and address remaining limitations without these conditions for possible further research.