Necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints

In this paper we consider a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) formulated as a mathematical program with complementarity constraints. Various stationary conditions for MPECs exist in literature due to different reformulations. We give a simple proof to the M-stationary condition and show that it is sufficient for global or local optimality under some MPEC generalized convexity assumptions. Moreover, we propose new constraint qualifications for M-stationary conditions to hold. These new constraint qualifications include piecewise MFCQ, piecewise Slater condition, MPEC weak reverse convex constraint qualification, MPEC Arrow-Hurwicz-Uzawa constraint qualification, MPEC Zangwill constraint qualification, MPEC Kuhn-Tucker constraint qualification, and MPEC Abadie constraint qualification.     

New Constraint Qualifications and Optimality Conditions for Second Order Cone Programs

We introduce three new constraint qualifications for nonlinear second order cone programming problems that we call constant rank constraint qualification, relaxed constant rank constraint qualification and constant rank of the subspace component condition. Our development is inspired by the corresponding constraint qualifications for nonlinear programming problems. We provide proofs and examples that show the relations of the three new constraint qualifications with other known constraint qualifications. In particular, the new constraint qualifications neither imply nor are implied by Robinson’s constraint qualification, but they are stronger than Abadie’s constraint qualification. First order necessary optimality conditions are shown to hold under the three new constraint qualifications, whereas the second order necessary conditions hold for two of them, the constant rank constraint qualification and the relaxed constant rank constraint qualification.

     

On Constraint Qualifications in Nonsmooth Optimization

We introduce extensions of the Mangasarian-Fromovitz and Abadie constraint qualifications to nonsmooth optimization problems with feasibility given by means of lower-level sets. We do not assume directional differentiability, but only upper semicontinuity of the defining functions. By deriving and reviewing primal first-order optimality conditions for nonsmooth problems, we motivate the formulations of the constraint qualifications. Then, we study their interrelation, and we show how they are related to the Slater condition for nonsmooth convex problems, to nonsmooth reverse-convex problems, to the stability of parametric feasible set mappings, and to alternative theorems for the derivation of dual first-order optimality conditions.In the literature on general semi-infinite programming problems, a number of formally different extensions of the Mangasarian-Fromovitz constraint qualification have been introduced recently under different structural assumptions. We show that all these extensions are unified by the constraint qualification presented here.     

Second-order global optimality conditions for convex composite optimization

In recent years second-order sufficient conditions of an isolated local minimizer for convex composite optimization problems have been established. In this paper, second-order optimality conditions are obtained of aglobal minimizer for convex composite problems with a non-finite valued convex function and a twice strictly differentiable function by introducing a generalized representation condition. This result is applied to a minimization problem with a closed convex set constraint which is shown to satisfy the basic constraint qualification. In particular, second-order necessary and sufficient conditions of a solution for a variational inequality problem with convex composite inequality constraints are obtained. © 1998 The Mathematical Programming Society, Inc. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.     

Mathematical programs with vanishing constraints: optimality conditions and constraint qualifications

We consider a difficult class of optimization problems that we call a mathematical program with vanishing constraints. Problems of this kind arise in various applications including optimal topology design problems of mechanical structures. We show that some standard constraint qualifications like LICQ and MFCQ usually do not hold at a local minimum of our program, whereas the Abadie constraint qualification is sometimes satisfied. We also introduce a suitable modification of the standard Abadie constraint qualification as well as a corresponding optimality condition, and show that this modified constraint qualification holds under fairly mild assumptions. We also discuss the relation between our class of optimization problems with vanishing constraints and a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints.     

Abadie-Type Constraint Qualification for Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints

Mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) are nonlinear programs which do not satisfy any of the common constraint qualifications (CQ). In order to obtain first-order optimality conditions, constraint qualifications tailored to the MPECs have been developed and researched in the past. In this paper, we introduce a new Abadie-type constraint qualification for MPECs. We investigate sufficient conditions for this new CQ, discuss its relationship to several existing MPEC constraint qualifications, and introduce a new Slater-type constraint qualifications. Finally, we prove a new stationarity concept to be a necessary optimality condition under our new Abadie-type CQ.Communicated by Z. Q. Luo     

Nonlinear Lagrangian Theory for Nonconvex Optimization

The Lagrangian function in the conventional theory for solving constrained optimization problems is a linear combination of the cost and constraint functions. Typically, the optimality conditions based on linear Lagrangian theory are either necessary or sufficient, but not both unless the underlying cost and constraint functions are also convex.We propose a somewhat different approach for solving a nonconvex inequality constrained optimization problem based on a nonlinear Lagrangian function. This leads to optimality conditions which are both sufficient and necessary, without any convexity assumption. Subsequently, under appropriate assumptions, the optimality conditions derived from the new nonlinear Lagrangian approach are used to obtain an equivalent root-finding problem. By appropriately defining a dual optimization problem and an alternative dual problem, we show that zero duality gap will hold always regardless of convexity, contrary to the case of linear Lagrangian duality.     

Sequential Lagrangian Conditions for Convex Programs with Applications to Semidefinite Programming

In this paper it is shown that, in the absence of any regularity condition, sequential Lagrangian optimality conditions as well as a sequential duality results hold for abstract convex programs. The significance of the results is that they yield the standard optimality and duality results for convex programs under a simple closed-cone condition that is much weaker than the well-known constraint qualifications. As an application, a sequential Lagrangian duality, saddle-point conditions, and stability results are derived for convex semidefinite programs.The authors are grateful to the referee and Professor Franco Giannessi for valuable comments and constructive suggestions which have contributed to the final preparation of the paper.     

Optimality conditions and finite convergence of Lasserre’s hierarchy

Lasserre’s hierarchy is a sequence of semidefinite relaxations for solving polynomial optimization problems globally. This paper studies the relationship between optimality conditions in nonlinear programming theory and finite convergence of Lasserre’s hierarchy. Our main results are: (i) Lasserre’s hierarchy has finite convergence when the constraint qualification, strict complementarity and second order sufficiency conditions hold at every global minimizer, under the standard archimedean condition; the proof uses a result of Marshall on boundary hessian conditions. (ii) These optimality conditions are all satisfied at every local minimizer if a finite set of polynomials, which are in the coefficients of input polynomials, do not vanish at the input data (i.e., they hold in a Zariski open set). This implies that, under archimedeanness, Lasserre’s hierarchy has finite convergence generically.     

A generalization of the Gronwall-Bellman lemma and its applications

In this study we present an important theorem of the alternative involving convex functions and convex cones. From this theorem we develop saddle value optimality criteria and stationary optimality criteria for convex programs. Under suitable constraint qualification we obtain a generalized form of the Kuhn-Tucker conditions. We also use the theorem of the alternative in developing an important duality theorem. No duality gaps are encountered under the constraint qualification imposed earlier and the dual problem always possesses a solution. Moreover, it is shown that all constraint qualifications assure that the primal problem is stable in the sense used by Gale and others. The notion of stability is closely tied up with the positivity of the lagrangian multiplier of the objective function.     

Duality Theorems for Separable Convex Programming Without Qualifications

In the research of mathematical programming, duality theorems are essential and important elements. Recently, Lagrange duality theorems for separable convex programming have been studied. Tseng proves that there is no duality gap in Lagrange duality for separable convex programming without any qualifications. In other words, although the infimum value of the primal problem equals to the supremum value of the Lagrange dual problem, Lagrange multiplier does not always exist. Jeyakumar and Li prove that Lagrange multiplier always exists without any qualifications for separable sublinear programming. Furthermore, Jeyakumar and Li introduce a necessary and sufficient constraint qualification for Lagrange duality theorem for separable convex programming. However, separable convex constraints do not always satisfy the constraint qualification, that is, Lagrange duality does not always hold for separable convex programming. In this paper, we study duality theorems for separable convex programming without any qualifications. We show that a separable convex inequality system always satisfies the closed cone constraint qualification for quasiconvex programming and investigate a Lagrange-type duality theorem for separable convex programming. In addition, we introduce a duality theorem and a necessary and sufficient optimality condition for a separable convex programming problem, whose constraints do not satisfy the Slater condition.     

Nonsmooth semi-infinite programming problems with mixed constraints

We consider a nonsmooth semi-infinite programming problem with a feasible set defined by inequality and equality constraints and a set constraint. First, we study some alternative theorems which involve linear and sublinear functions and a convex set and we propose several generalizations of them. Then, alternative theorems are applied to obtain, under different constraint qualifications, several necessary optimality conditions in the type of Fritz-John and Karush-Kuhn-Tucker.     

Generalized convexity in non-regular programming problems with inequality-type constraints

Convexity plays a very important role in optimization for establishing optimality conditions. Different works have shown that the convexity property can be replaced by a weaker notion, the invexity. In particular, for problems with inequality-type constraints, Martin defined a weaker notion of invexity, the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker-invexity (hereafter KKT-invexity), that is both necessary and sufficient to obtain Karush-Kuhn-Tucker-type optimality conditions. It is well known that for this result to hold the problem has to verify a constraint qualification, i.e., it must be regular or non-degenerate. In non-regular problems, the classical optimality conditions are totally inapplicable. Meaningful results were obtained for problems with inequality-type constraints by Izmailov. They are based on the 2-regularity condition of the constraints at a feasible point. In this work, we generalize Martin's result to non-regular problems by defining an analogous concept, the 2-KKT-invexity, and using the characterization of the tangent cone in the 2-regular case and the necessary optimality condition given by Izmailov.     

Multiobjective optimization problem with variational inequality constraints

 We study a general multiobjective optimization problem with variational inequality, equality, inequality and abstract constraints. Fritz John type necessary optimality conditions involving Mordukhovich coderivatives are derived. They lead to Kuhn-Tucker type necessary optimality conditions under additional constraint qualifications including the calmness condition, the error bound constraint qualification, the no nonzero abnormal multiplier constraint qualification, the generalized Mangasarian-Fromovitz constraint qualification, the strong regularity constraint qualification and the linear constraint qualification. We then apply these results to the multiobjective optimization problem with complementarity constraints and the multiobjective bilevel programming problem. Received: November 2000 / Accepted: October 2001 Published online: December 19, 2002 Key Words. Multiobjective optimization – Variational inequality – Complementarity constraint – Constraint qualification – Bilevel programming problem – Preference – Utility function – Subdifferential calculus – Variational principle Research of this paper was supported by NSERC and a University of Victoria Internal Research Grant Research was supported by the National Science Foundation under grants DMS-9704203 and DMS-0102496 Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): Sub49K24, 90C29     

Convex composite non–Lipschitz programming

In this paper necessary, and sufficient optimality conditions are established without Lipschitz continuity for convex composite continuous optimization model problems subject to inequality constraints. Necessary conditions for the special case of the optimization model involving max-min constraints, which frequently arise in many engineering applications, are also given. Optimality conditions in the presence of Lipschitz continuity are routinely obtained using chain rule formulas of the Clarke generalized Jacobian which is a bounded set of matrices. However, the lack of derivative of a continuous map in the absence of Lipschitz continuity is often replaced by a locally unbounded generalized Jacobian map for which the standard form of the chain rule formulas fails to hold. In this paper we overcome this situation by constructing approximate Jacobians for the convex composite function involved in the model problem using ε-perturbations of the subdifferential of the convex function and the flexible generalized calculus of unbounded approximate Jacobians. Examples are discussed to illustrate the nature of the optimality conditions. Received: February 2001 / Accepted: September 2001?Published online February 14, 2002     

Second-Order Optimality Conditions for Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints

We study second-order optimality conditions for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints (MPEC). Firstly, we improve some second-order optimality conditions for standard nonlinear programming problems using some newly discovered constraint qualifications in the literature, and apply them to MPEC. Then, we introduce some MPEC variants of these new constraint qualifications, which are all weaker than the MPEC linear independence constraint qualification, and derive several second-order optimality conditions for MPEC under the new MPEC constraint qualifications. Finally, we discuss the isolatedness of local minimizers for MPEC under very weak conditions.     

A Practical Optimality Condition Without Constraint Qualifications for Nonlinear Programming

A new optimality condition for minimization with general constraints is introduced. Unlike the KKT conditions, the new condition is satisfied by local minimizers of nonlinear programming problems, independently of constraint qualifications. The new condition is strictly stronger than and implies the Fritz–John optimality conditions. Sufficiency for convex programming is proved.     

Global minimization of difference of quadratic and convex functions over box or binary constraints

In this paper, we present necessary as well as sufficient conditions for a given feasible point to be a global minimizer of the difference of quadratic and convex functions subject to bounds on the variables. We show that the necessary conditions become necessary and sufficient for global minimizers in the case of a weighted sum of squares minimization problems. We obtain sufficient conditions for global optimality by first constructing quadratic underestimators and then by characterizing global minimizers of the underestimators. We also derive global optimality conditions for the minimization of the difference of quadratic and convex functions over binary constraints. We discuss several numerical examples to illustrate the significance of the optimality conditions. The authors are grateful to the referees for their helpful comments and valuable suggestions which have contributed to the final preparation of the paper.     

Finite-dimensional optimality conditions: B-gradients

The B-gradients are a convex set of generalized gradients contained in Clarke's generalized gradients. These gradients retain many of the nice properties of Clarke's generalized gradients. In this paper, necessary conditions for optimality in finite-dimensional perturbed optimization problems are given. A calmness condition is used for a constraint qualification.     

First Order Optimality Conditions for Generalized Semi-Infinite Programming Problems

We study first-order optimality conditions for the class of generalized semi-infinite programming problems (GSIPs). We extend various well-known constraint qualifications for finite programming problems to GSIPs and analyze the extent to which a corresponding Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) condition depends on these extensions. It is shown that in general the KKT condition for GSIPs takes a weaker form unless a certain constraint qualification is satisfied. In the completely convex case where the objective of the lower-level problem is concave and the constraint functions are quasiconvex, we show that the KKT condition takes a sharper form. The authors thank the anonymous referees for careful reading of the paper and helpful suggestions. The research of the first author was partially supported by NSERC.