Minimizing the sum of a convex function and a specially structured nonconvex function

A lineraly constrained global optimization problem is studied, where the objective function is the saum of a convex function g(x)a nd a nonconvex function f(x) satisfying a rank two condition. Roughly speaking, the latter means that all the nonconvexity of f(x) is concentrated on a linear manifold of dimension 2. A solution method based on exploiting this special structure is prop     

Dual approaches to the minimization of strongly convex functionals with a simple structure under affine constraints

A strongly convex function of simple structure (for example, separable) is minimized under affine constraints. A dual problem is constructed and solved by applying a fast gradient method. The necessary properties of this method are established relying on which, under rather general conditions, the solution of the primal problem can be recovered with the same accuracy as the dual solution from the sequence generated by this method in the dual space of the problem. Although this approach seems natural, some previously unpublished rather subtle results necessary for its rigorous and complete theoretical substantiation in the required generality are presented.     

Global minimization of a generalized convex multiplicative function

This paper discusses an algorithm for generalized convex multiplicative programming problems, a special class of nonconvex minimization problems in which the objective function is expressed as a sum ofp products of two convex functions. It is shown that this problem can be reduced to a concave minimization problem with only 2p variables. An outer approximation algorithm is proposed for solving the resulting problem.     

Global optimization of a nonconvex single facility location problem by sequential unconstrained convex minimization

The problem of maximizing the sum of certain composite functions, where each term is the composition of a convex decreasing function, bounded from below, with a convex function having compact level sets arises in certain single facility location problems with gauge distance functions. We show that this problem is equivalent to a convex maximization problem over a compact convex set and develop a specialized polyhedral annexation procedure to find a global solution for the case when the inside function is a polyhedral norm. As the problem was solved recently only for local solutions, this paper offers an algorithm for finding a global solution. Implementation and testing are not treated in this short communication.An earlier version of this paper appeared in the proceedings of a conference on Recent Advances in Global Optimization, C. Floudas and P. Pardalos, eds., Princeton University Press, 1991.     

Maximization of A convex quadratic function under linear constraints

This paper addresses itself to the maximization of a convex quadratic function subject to linear constraints. We first prove the equivalence of this problem to the associated bilinear program. Next we apply the theory of bilinear programming developed in [9] to compute a local maximum and to generate a cutting plane which eliminates a region containing that local maximum. Then we develop an iterative procedure to improve a given cut by exploiting the symmetric structure of the bilinear program. This procedure either generates a point which is strictly better than the best local maximum found, or generates a cut which is deeper (usually much deeper) than Tui's cut. Finally the results of numerical experiments on small problems are reported.     

Subdifferential of the closed convex hull of a function and integration with nonconvex data in general normed spaces

In this paper we approach the study of the subdifferential of the closed convex hull of a function and the related integration problem without the usual assumption of epi-pointedness. The key tool is, as in Hiriart-Urruty et al. (2011) [7], the concept of ε-subdifferential. Some other assumptions which are standard in the literature are also removed.     

Characterizing global optimality for DC optimization problems under convex inequality constraints

Characterizations of global optimality are given for general difference convex (DC) optimization problems involving convex inequality constraints. These results are obtained in terms of -subdifferentials of the objective and constraint functions and do not require any regularity condition. An extension of Farkas' lemma is obtained for inequality systems involving convex functions and is used to establish necessary and sufficient optimality conditions. As applications, optimality conditions are also given for weakly convex programming problems, convex maximization problems and for fractional programming problems.This paper was presented at the Optimization Miniconference held at the University of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, on July 14, 1994.     

Equilibria of nonconvex valued maps under constraints

In the paper the notion of n-tangency for set-valued maps defined on a subset of a Banach space is considered. The existence of equilibria of upper semicontinuous map being n-tangent to a sleek retract with the nontrivial Euler characteristic is established.     

Convex minimization under Lipschitz constraints

We consider the problem of minimizing a convex functionf(x) under Lipschitz constraintsf _i (x)0,i=1,...,m. By transforming a system of Lipschitz constraintsf _i (x)0,i=l,...,m, into a single constraints of the formh(x)-x²0, withh(·) being a closed convex function, we convert the problem into a convex program with an additional reverse convex constraint. Under a regularity assumption, we apply Tuy's method for convex programs with an additional reverse convex constraint to solve the converted problem. By this way, we construct an algorithm which reduces the problem to a sequence of subproblems of minimizing a concave, quadratic, separable function over a polytope. Finally, we show how the algorithm can be used for the decomposition of Lipschitz optimization problems involving relatively few nonconvex variables.     

On nonconvex optimization with integral constraints

We consider the problem of minimizing f(y)dm with y dm=c,c fixed. The functionf is assumed to be continuous, but need not be convex. For this problem, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of solutions. We also give conditions under which uniqueness in a certain sense holds, and we show a relation which holds between the minimizers of two different problems and the corresponding values of the constraintsc.This research was supported by FINEP-Brazil, Grant Nos. 62.24-0416-00 and 4.2.82.0719-00.     

An optimal algorithm and superrelaxation for minimization of a quadratic function subject to separable convex constraints with applications

Given a set of entities associated with points in Euclidean space, minimum sum-of-squares clustering (MSSC) consists in partitioning this set into clusters such that the sum of squared distances from each point to the centroid of its cluster is minimized. A column generation algorithm for MSSC was given by du Merle et?al. in SIAM Journal Scientific Computing 21:1485–1505. The bottleneck of that algorithm is the resolution of the auxiliary problem of finding a column with negative reduced cost. We propose a new way to solve this auxiliary problem based on geometric arguments. This greatly improves the efficiency of the whole algorithm and leads to exact solution of instances with over 2,300 entities, i.e., more than 10 times as much as previously done.     

On a decomposition method for nonconvex global optimization

A rigorous foundation is presented for the decomposition method in nonconvex global optimization, including parametric optimization, partly convex, partly monotonic, and monotonic/linear optimization. Incidentally, some errors in the recent literature on this subject are pointed out and fixed.     

An efficient algorithm for globally minimizing a quadratic function under convex quadratic constraints

In this paper we investigate two approaches to minimizing a quadratic form subject to the intersection of finitely many ellipsoids. The first approach is the d.c. (difference of convex functions) optimization algorithm (abbr. DCA) whose main tools are the proximal point algorithm and/or the projection subgradient method in convex minimization. The second is a branch-and-bound scheme using Lagrangian duality for bounding and ellipsoidal bisection in branching. The DCA was first introduced by Pham Dinh in 1986 for a general d.c. program and later developed by our various work is a local method but, from a good starting point, it provides often a global solution. This motivates us to combine the DCA and our branch and bound algorithm in order to obtain a good initial point for the DCA and to prove the globality of the DCA. In both approaches we attempt to use the ellipsoidal constrained quadratic programs as the main subproblems. The idea is based upon the fact that these programs can be efficiently solved by some available (polynomial and nonpolynomial time) algorithms, among them the DCA with restarting procedure recently proposed by Pham Dinh and Le Thi has been shown to be the most robust and fast for large-scale problems. Several numerical experiments with dimension up to 200 are given which show the effectiveness and the robustness of the DCA and the combined DCA-branch-and-bound algorithm. Received: April 22, 1999 / Accepted: November 30, 1999?Published online February 23, 2000     

Sufficient global optimality conditions for weakly convex minimization problems

In this paper, we present sufficient global optimality conditions for weakly convex minimization problems using abstract convex analysis theory. By introducing (L,X)-subdifferentials of weakly convex functions using a class of quadratic functions, we first obtain some sufficient conditions for global optimization problems with weakly convex objective functions and weakly convex inequality and equality constraints. Some sufficient optimality conditions for problems with additional box constraints and bivalent constraints are then derived.      

A minimization method for the sum of a convex function and a continuously differentiable function

This paper presents a method for finding the minimum for a class of nonconvex and nondifferentiable functions consisting of the sum of a convex function and a continuously differentiable function. The algorithm is a descent method which generates successive search directions by solving successive convex subproblems. The algorithm is shown to converge to a critical point.The authors wish to express their appreciation to the referees for their careful review and helpful comments.     

Packing under convex quadratic constraints

Mathematical Programming - We consider a general class of binary packing problems with a convex quadratic knapsack constraint. We prove that these problems are $$mathsf {APX}$$ -hard to...     

On convergence properties of a least-distance programming procedure for minimization problems under linear constraints

In Ref. 1, Bazaraa and Goode provided an algorithm for solving a nonlinear programming problem with linear constraints. In this paper, we show that this algorithm possesses good convergence properties.This paper was written under the guidance of Associate Professor C. Y. Wang. The author takes great pleasure in thanking him.     

Numerical quadratic energy minimization bound to convex constraints in thin-film micromagnetics

We analyze the reduced model for thin-film devices in stationary micromagnetics proposed in DeSimone et?al. (R Soc Lond Proc Ser A Math Phys Eng Sci 457(2016):2983?C2991, 2001). We introduce an appropriate functional analytic framework and prove well-posedness of the model in that setting. The scheme for the numerical approximation of solutions consists of two ingredients: The energy space is discretized in a conforming way using Raviart?CThomas finite elements; the non-linear but convex side constraint is treated with a penalty method. This strategy yields a convergent sequence of approximations as discretization and penalty parameter vanish. The proof generalizes to a large class of minimization problems and is of interest beyond the scope of thin-film micromagnetics.