A Regularization Newton Method for Solving Nonlinear Complementarity Problems

In this paper we construct a regularization Newton method for solving the nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP(F )) and analyze its convergence properties under the assumption that F is a P ₀ -function. We prove that every accumulation point of the sequence of iterates is a solution of NCP(F ) and that the sequence of iterates is bounded if the solution set of NCP(F ) is nonempty and bounded. Moreover, if F is a monotone and Lipschitz continuous function, we prove that the sequence of iterates is bounded if and only if the solution set of NCP(F ) is nonempty by setting , where is a parameter. If NCP(F) has a locally unique solution and satisfies a nonsingularity condition, then the convergence rate is superlinear (quadratic) without strict complementarity conditions. At each step, we only solve a linear system of equations. Numerical results are provided and further applications to other problems are discussed. Accepted 25 March 1998     

A new smoothing and regularization Newton method for <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis><Subscript>0</Subscript>-NCP

The nonlinear complementarity problem (denoted by NCP(F)) can be reformulated as the solution of a nonsmooth system of equations. In this paper, we propose a new smoothing and regularization Newton method for solving nonlinear complementarity problem with P ₀-function (P ₀-NCP). Without requiring strict complementarity assumption at the P ₀-NCP solution, the proposed algorithm is proved to be convergent globally and superlinearly under suitable assumptions. Furthermore, the algorithm has local quadratic convergence under mild conditions. Numerical experiments indicate that the proposed method is quite effective. In addition, in this paper, the regularization parameter ε in our algorithm is viewed as an independent variable, hence, our algorithm seems to be simpler and more easily implemented compared to many previous methods.     

Predictor-Corrector Smoothing Newton Method,Based on a New Smoothing Function,for Solving the Nonlinear Complementarity Problem with a P 0 Function

By smoothing a perturbed minimum function, we propose in this paper a new smoothing function. The existence and continuity of a smooth path for solving the nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP) with a P ₀ function are discussed. We investigate the boundedness of the iteration sequence generated by noninterior continuation/smoothing methods under the assumption that the solution set of the NCP is nonempty and bounded. Based on the new smoothing function, we present a predictor-corrector smoothing Newton algorithm for solving the NCP with a P ₀ function, which is shown to be globally linearly and locally superlinearly convergent under suitable assumptions. Some preliminary computational results are reported.     

Computation of generalized differentials in nonlinear complementarity problems

Let f and g be continuously differentiable functions on R ⁿ . The nonlinear complementarity problem NCP(f,g), 0≤f(x)⊥g(x)≥0, arises in many applications including discrete Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations and nonsmooth Dirichlet problems. A popular method to find a solution of the NCP(f,g) is the generalized Newton method which solves an equivalent system of nonsmooth equations F(x)=0 derived by an NCP function. In this paper, we present a sufficient and necessary condition for F to be Fréchet differentiable, when F is defined by the “min” NCP function, the Fischer-Burmeister NCP function or the penalized Fischer-Burmeister NCP function. Moreover, we give an explicit formula of an element in the Clarke generalized Jacobian of F defined by the “min” NCP function, and the B-differential of F defined by other two NCP functions. The explicit formulas for generalized differentials of F lead to sharper global error bounds for the NCP(f,g).     

Superlinear／Quadratic One-step Smoothing Newton Methodf or P0-NCP

We propose a one-step smoothing Newton method for solving the non-linear complementarity problem with P0-function (P0-NCP) based on the smoothing symmetric perturbed Fisher function(for short, denoted as the SSPF-function). The proposed algorithm has to solve only one linear system of equations and performs only one line search per iteration. Without requiring any strict complementarity assumption at the P0-NCP solution, we show that the proposed algorithm converges globally and superlinearly under mild conditions. Furthermore, the algorithm has local quadratic convergence under suitable conditions. The main feature of our global convergence results is that we do not assume a priori the existence of an accumulation point. Compared to the previous literatures, our algorithm has stronger convergence results under weaker conditions.     

A new logarithmic-quadratic proximal method for nonlinear complementarity problems

In this paper, we propose a new modified logarithmic-quadratic proximal (LQP) method for solving nonlinear complementarity problems (NCP). We suggest using a prediction-correction method to solve NCP. The predictor is obtained via solving the LQP system approximately under significantly relaxed accuracy criterion and the new iterate is computed by using a new step size α_k. Under suitable conditions, we prove that the new method is globally convergent. We report preliminary computational results to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method. This new method can be considered as a significant refinement of the previously known methods for solving nonlinear complementarity problems.     

Smoothing Levenberg–Marquardt method for general nonlinear complementarity problems under local error bound

By using the F–B function and smoothing technique to convert the nonlinear complementarity problems to smoothing nonlinear systems, and introducing perturbation parameter μ_k into the smoothing Newton equation, we present a new smoothing Levenberg–Marquardt method for general nonlinear complementarity problems. For general mapping F, not necessarily a P₀ function, the algorithm has global convergence. Each accumulation point of the iterative sequence is at least a stationary point of the problem. Under the local error bound condition, which is much weaker than nonsingularity assumption or the strictly complementarity condition, we get the local superlinear convergence. Under some proper condition, quadratic convergence is also obtained.     

A Null Space Approach for Solving Nonlinear Complementarity Problems

In this work, null space techniques are employed to tackle nonlinear complementarity problems （NCPs）. NCP conditions are transform into a nonlinear programming problem, which is handled by null space algorithms, The NCP conditions are divided into two groups, Some equalities and inequalities in an NCP are treated as constraints, While other equalities and inequalities in an NCP are to be regarded as objective function. Two groups are all updated in every step. Null space approaches are extended to nonlinear complementarity problems. Two different solvers are employed for all NCP in an algorithm.     

Smoothing Trust Region Methods for Nonlinear Complementarity Problems with P 0-Functions

By using the Fischer–Burmeister function to reformulate the nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP) as a system of semismooth equations and using Kanzow’s smooth approximation function to construct the smooth operator, we propose a smoothing trust region algorithm for solving the NCP with P ₀ functions. We prove that every accumulation point of the sequence generated by the algorithm is a solution of the NCP. Under a nonsingularity condition, local Q-superlinear/Q-quadratic convergence of the algorithm is established without the strict complementarity condition. This work was partially supported by the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 10171030).     

Smoothing Newton method for NCP with the identification of degenerate indices

We present a new smoothing Newton method for nonlinear complementarity problems (NCP(F)) by using an NCP function to reformulate the problem to its equivalent form. Compared with most current smoothing methods, our method contains an estimating technique based on the active-set strategy. This technique focuses on the identification of the degenerate set for a solution x^∗ of the NCP(F). The proposed method has the global convergence, each accumulation point is a solution of the problem. The introduction of the active-set strategy effectively reduces the scale of the problem. Under some regularity assumption, the degenerate set can be identified correctly near the solution and local superlinear convergence is obtained as well.     

An accelerated Newton method for equations with semismooth Jacobians and nonlinear complementarity problems

We discuss local convergence of Newton’s method to a singular solution x ^* of the nonlinear equations F(x) =  0, for $F:{\mathbb{R}}^n \rightarrow {\mathbb{R}}^n$ . It is shown that an existing proof of Griewank, concerning linear convergence to a singular solution x ^* from a starlike domain around x ^* for F twice Lipschitz continuously differentiable and x ^* satisfying a particular regularity condition, can be adapted to the case in which F′ is only strongly semismooth at the solution. Further, Newton’s method can be accelerated to produce fast linear convergence to a singular solution by overrelaxing every second Newton step. These results are applied to a nonlinear-equations reformulation of the nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP) whose derivative is strongly semismooth when the function f arising in the NCP is sufficiently smooth. Conditions on f are derived that ensure that the appropriate regularity conditions are satisfied for the nonlinear-equations reformulation of the NCP at x ^*.     

A regularization semismooth Newton method based on the generalized Fischer–Burmeister function for -NCPs

We consider a regularization method for nonlinear complementarity problems with F being a P₀-function which replaces the original problem with a sequence of the regularized complementarity problems. In this paper, this sequence of regularized complementarity problems are solved approximately by applying the generalized Newton method for an equivalent augmented system of equations, constructed by the generalized Fischer–Burmeister (FB) NCP-functions φ_p with p>1. We test the performance of the regularization semismooth Newton method based on the family of NCP-functions through solving all test problems from MCPLIB. Numerical experiments indicate that the method associated with a smaller p, for example p[1.1,2], usually has better numerical performance, and the generalized FB functions φ_p with p[1.1,2) can be used as the substitutions for the FB function φ₂.     

On the resolution of monotone complementarity problems

A reformulation of the nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP) as an unconstrained minimization problem is considered. It is shown that any stationary point of the unconstrained objective function is a solution of NCP if the mapping F involved in NCP is continuously differentiable and monotone, and that the level sets are bounded if F is continuous and strongly monotone. A descent algorithm is described which uses only function values of F. Some numerical results are given.     

A new hybrid method for nonlinear complementarity problems

In this paper, a new hybrid method is proposed for solving nonlinear complementarity problems (NCP) with P ₀ function. In the new method, we combine a smoothing nonmonotone trust region method based on a conic model and line search techniques. We reformulate the NCP as a system of semismooth equations using the Fischer-Burmeister function. Using Kanzow’s smooth approximation function to construct the smooth operator, we propose a smoothing nonmonotone trust region algorithm of a conic model for solving the NCP with P ₀ functions. This is different from the classical trust region methods, in that when a trial step is not accepted, the method does not resolve the trust region subproblem but generates an iterative point whose steplength is defined by a line search. We prove that every accumulation point of the sequence generated by the algorithm is a solution of the NCP. Under a nonsingularity condition, the superlinear convergence of the algorithm is established without a strict complementarity condition.     

Smoothing inexact Newton methods for NCP with various nonmonotone techniques

Various iterative methods for solving nonlinear complementarity problems (NCP) are developed in recent years. In this paper we propose Jacobian smoothing inexact Newton methods for NCP with different nonmonotone strategies. The methods are based on semismooth equation reformulation of NCP by Fischer-Burmeister function. Nonmonotone line-search techniques are used for globalization procedure. Numerical performance of algorithms are compared. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A new look at smoothing Newton methods for nonlinear complementarity problems and box constrained variational inequalities

In this paper we take a new look at smoothing Newton methods for solving the nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP) and the box constrained variational inequalities (BVI). Instead of using an infinite sequence of smoothing approximation functions, we use a single smoothing approximation function and Robinson’s normal equation to reformulate NCP and BVI as an equivalent nonsmooth equation H(u,x)=0, where H:ℜ ²ⁿ →ℜ ²ⁿ , u∈ℜ ⁿ is a parameter variable and x∈ℜ ⁿ is the original variable. The central idea of our smoothing Newton methods is that we construct a sequence {z ^k =(u ^k ,x ^k )} such that the mapping H(·) is continuously differentiable at each z ^k and may be non-differentiable at the limiting point of {z ^k }. We prove that three most often used Gabriel-Moré smoothing functions can generate strongly semismooth functions, which play a fundamental role in establishing superlinear and quadratic convergence of our new smoothing Newton methods. We do not require any function value of F or its derivative value outside the feasible region while at each step we only solve a linear system of equations and if we choose a certain smoothing function only a reduced form needs to be solved. Preliminary numerical results show that the proposed methods for particularly chosen smoothing functions are very promising. Received June 23, 1997 / Revised version received July 29, 1999?Published online December 15, 1999     

One-step smoothing Newton method for solving the mixed complementarity problem with a function

The mixed complementarity problem (denote by MCP(F)) can be reformulated as the solution of a smooth system of equations. In the paper, based on a perturbed mid function, we propose a new smoothing function, which has an important property, not satisfied by many other smoothing function. The existence and continuity of a smooth path for solving the mixed complementarity problem with a P₀ function are discussed. Then we presented a one-step smoothing Newton algorithm to solve the MCP with a P₀ function. The global convergence of the proposed algorithm is verified under mild conditions. And by using the smooth and semismooth technique, the rate of convergence of the method is proved under some suitable assumptions.     

A smoothing inexact Newton method for nonlinear complementarity problems

In this article, we propose a new smoothing inexact Newton algorithm for solving nonlinear complementarity problems (NCP) base on the smoothed Fischer-Burmeister function. In each iteration, the corresponding linear system is solved only approximately. The global convergence and local superlinear convergence are established without strict complementarity assumption at the NCP solution. Preliminary numerical results indicate that the method is effective for large-scale NCP.     

A new class of smoothing functions and a smoothing Newton method for complementarity problems

In this paper, we introduce a new class of smoothing functions, which include some popular smoothing complementarity functions. We show that the new smoothing functions possess a system of favorite properties. The existence and continuity of a smooth path for solving the nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP) with a P ₀ function are discussed. The Jacobian consistency of this class of smoothing functions is analyzed. Based on the new smoothing functions, we investigate a smoothing Newton algorithm for the NCP and discuss its global and local superlinear convergence. Some preliminary numerical results are reported.