A Globally Convergent Lagrangian Barrier Algorithm for Optimization with General Inequality Constraints and Simple Bounds

We consider the global and local convergence properties of a class of Lagrangian barrier methods for solving nonlinear programming problems. In such methods, simple bound constraints may be treated separately from more general constraints. The objective and general constraint functions are combined in a Lagrangian barrier function. A sequence of such functions are approximately minimized within the domain defined by the simple bounds. Global convergence of the sequence of generated iterates to a first-order stationary point for the original problem is established. Furthermore, possible numerical difficulties associated with barrier function methods are avoided as it is shown that a potentially troublesome penalty parameter is bounded away from zero. This paper is a companion to previous work of ours on augmented Lagrangian methods.

     

Neutron flow or collective degrees of freedom for near barrier heavy-ion fusion

Various models have been proposed in order to understand the near barrier heavy-ion fusion data. Amongst others the coupled channel approach of Dasso and Landowne and the neutron flow picture of Stelson are two of the mechanisms which describe well a large body of near barrier fusion data. From an analysis of¹⁶O induced fusion reaction around the barrier for various targets an attempt has been made to identify which out of the above two mechanisms is more appropriate to explain these data.     

The impact of a dielectric barrier discharge on the catalytic oxidation of methane over Ni-containing catalyst

Methane oxidation with air was studied over a Ni-containing catalyst in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) at temperatures above 625 K. The DBD increases the methane conversion and shifts the process towards partial oxidation. This effect is related to a catalyst heating by the discharge. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Internal rotation in enaminonitriles: Investigation by dynamic NMR spectroscopy and molecular modeling

Rotational isomerism in enaminonitriles was studied using dynamic NMR spectroscopy and molecular modeling. It was found that the barrier to rotation about C_vinyl-NH bond was higher for enaminonitriles derived from aliphatic amines than that of enaminonitriles derived from aromatic amines. It was also found that the rotational isomerism about the C_ar-C_vinyl bond also exists in enaminonitriles.     

Torsional analysis of 2-butynol

The microwave spectrum of 2-butynol, CH₃CCCH₂OH, has been investigated in the frequency range of 6-26.5 GHz. The spectra of the A and E torsional states were observed using Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy. Due to the presence of the cylindrically symmetric CC “spacer” between the methyl group and the rest of the molecule, the barrier to internal rotation, V₃, is only 7 cm⁻¹. One conformer of 2-butynol was observed and assigned. The spectrum was analyzed with the ρ-axis method using a very flexible Hamiltonian which gives a fit an order of magnitude better than that obtained with more standard code for internal rotation. The spectroscopic constants are: 23744.(18), 2093.429(1), 1966.358(1), and −400.34(2) MHz for A, B, C, and D_ab; 0.48(1) kHz, −30.3(4) kHz, and 4.5(5) MHz for Δ_J, Δ_JK, and Δ_K; and 0.1406(6), 6.93(9) cm⁻¹, −33.4(7) kHz, and 192.0(9) GHz for ρ, V₃, L_V, and F, respectively. The root mean squared error of the fit is 14 kHz. The angles between the internal rotor axis and principal axes are θ_a=12°, θ_b=78°, with θ_c held fixed at 90°.     

Maintaining closeness to the analytic center of a polytope by perturbing added hyperplanes

In this work we consider a regionR in ℝ ⁿ given by a finite number of linear inequalities and having nonempty interior. We assume a pointx ^o is given, which is close in certain norm to the analytic center ofR, and that a new linear inequality is added to those definingR. It is constructively shown how to obtain a perturbation of the right-hand side of this inequality such that the pointx ^o is still close, in the same norm, to the analytic center of this perturbed polytope. This fact plays a central role in interior point postoptimality techniques for linear programming involving methods of centers.     

Parametrizations of Kojima’s system and relations to penalty and barrier functions

We investigate two homotopies that perturb Kojima’s system for describing critical points of a nonlinear optimization problem in finite dimension. Each of them characterizes stationary points of a usual penalty and a new “barrier” function. The latter is a continuous deformation of the objective, symmetric to the penalty from a formal point of view. Stationary points of these functions appear as perturbed critical points and vice versa. This permits new interpretations of the related solution methods and allows estimates of the solutions by using implicit function theorems for Lipschitzian equations.     

声屏障和有源噪声控制声屏障

概述了声屏障降低噪声的原理和常用方法，提出了存在的不足，介绍了有源声屏障的降噪性能与发展动态，提出了进一步研究的设想。