An SQP-type algorithm for nonlinear second-order cone programs

We propose an SQP-type algorithm for solving nonlinear second-order cone programming (NSOCP) problems. At every iteration, the algorithm solves a convex SOCP subproblem in which the constraints involve linear approximations of the constraint functions in the original problem and the objective function is a convex quadratic function. Those subproblems can be transformed into linear SOCP problems, for which efficient interior point solvers are available. We establish global convergence and local quadratic convergence of the algorithm under appropriate assumptions. We report numerical results to examine the effectiveness of the algorithm. This work was supported in part by the Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.     

A nonmonotone smoothing Newton method for circular cone programming

The circular cone programming (CCP) problem is to minimize or maximize a linear function over the intersection of an affine space with the Cartesian product of circular cones. In this paper, we study nondegeneracy and strict complementarity for the CCP, and present a nonmonotone smoothing Newton method for solving the CCP. We reformulate the CCP as a second-order cone programming (SOCP) problem using the algebraic relation between the circular cone and the second-order cone. Then based on a one parametric class of smoothing functions for the SOCP, a smoothing Newton method is developed for the CCP by adopting a new nonmonotone line search scheme. Without restrictions regarding its starting point, our algorithm solves one linear system of equations approximately and performs one line search at each iteration. Under mild assumptions, our algorithm is shown to possess global and local quadratic convergence properties. Some preliminary numerical results illustrate that our nonmonotone smoothing Newton method is promising for solving the CCP.     

SMOOTHING NEWTON ALGORITHM FOR THE CIRCULAR CONE PROGRAMMING WITH A NONMONOTONE LINE SEARCH

In this paper, we present a nonmonotone smoothing Newton algorithm for solving the circular cone programming(CCP) problem in which a linear function is minimized or maximized over the intersection of an affine space with the circular cone. Based on the relationship between the circular cone and the second-order cone(SOC), we reformulate the CCP problem as the second-order cone problem(SOCP). By extending the nonmonotone line search for unconstrained optimization to the CCP, a nonmonotone smoothing Newton method is proposed for solving the CCP. Under suitable assumptions, the proposed algorithm is shown to be globally and locally quadratically convergent. Some preliminary numerical results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for solving the CCP.     

Global Convergence of a Robust Smoothing SQP Method for Semi-Infinite Programming

The semi-infinite programming (SIP) problem is a program with infinitely many constraints. It can be reformulated as a nonsmooth nonlinear programming problem with finite constraints by using an integral function. Due to the nondifferentiability of the integral function, gradient-based algorithms cannot be used to solve this nonsmooth nonlinear programming problem. To overcome this difficulty, we present a robust smoothing sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm for solving the nonsmooth nonlinear programming problem. At each iteration of the algorthm, we need to solve only a quadratic program that is always feasible and solvable. The global convergence of the algorithm is established under mild conditions. Numerical results are given. Communicated by F. Giannessi His work was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council His work was supported by the Australian Research Council.     

Semi-Infinite Programming and Applications to Minimax Problems

A minimisation problem with infinitely many constraints – semi-infinite programming problem (SIP) is considered. The problem is solved using a two stage procedure that searches for global maximum violation of the constraints. A version of the algorithm that searches for any violation of constraints is also considered, and the performance of the two algorithm is compared. An application to solving minimax problem (with and without coupled constraints) is given and a comparison with the algorithm for continuous minimax of Rustem and Howe (2001) is included. Finally, we consider an application to chemical engineering problems.     

Minimizing the sum of a linear and a linear fractional function applying conic quadratic representation: continuous and discrete problems

This paper tries to minimize the sum of a linear and a linear fractional function over a closed convex set defined by some linear and conic quadratic constraints. At first, we represent some necessary and sufficient conditions for the pseudoconvexity of the problem. For each of the conditions, under some reasonable assumptions, an appropriate second-order cone programming (SOCP) reformulation of the problem is stated and a new applicable solution procedure is proposed. Efficiency of the proposed reformulations is demonstrated by numerical experiments. Secondly, we limit our attention to binary variables and derive a sufficient condition for SOCP representability. Using the experimental results on random instances, we show that the proposed conic reformulation is more efficient in comparison with the well-known linearization technique and it produces more eligible cuts for the branch and bound algorithm.     

Trust-region problems with linear inequality constraints: exact SDP relaxation,global optimality and robust optimization

The trust-region problem, which minimizes a nonconvex quadratic function over a ball, is a key subproblem in trust-region methods for solving nonlinear optimization problems. It enjoys many attractive properties such as an exact semi-definite linear programming relaxation (SDP-relaxation) and strong duality. Unfortunately, such properties do not, in general, hold for an extended trust-region problem having extra linear constraints. This paper shows that two useful and powerful features of the classical trust-region problem continue to hold for an extended trust-region problem with linear inequality constraints under a new dimension condition. First, we establish that the class of extended trust-region problems has an exact SDP-relaxation, which holds without the Slater constraint qualification. This is achieved by proving that a system of quadratic and affine functions involved in the model satisfies a range-convexity whenever the dimension condition is fulfilled. Second, we show that the dimension condition together with the Slater condition ensures that a set of combined first and second-order Lagrange multiplier conditions is necessary and sufficient for global optimality of the extended trust-region problem and consequently for strong duality. Through simple examples we also provide an insightful account of our development from SDP-relaxation to strong duality. Finally, we show that the dimension condition is easily satisfied for the extended trust-region model that arises from the reformulation of a robust least squares problem (LSP) as well as a robust second order cone programming model problem (SOCP) as an equivalent semi-definite linear programming problem. This leads us to conclude that, under mild assumptions, solving a robust LSP or SOCP under matrix-norm uncertainty or polyhedral uncertainty is equivalent to solving a semi-definite linear programming problem and so, their solutions can be validated in polynomial time.     

Smoothing Newton algorithm for the second-order cone programming with a nonmonotone line search

The smoothing-type algorithms, which are in general designed based on some monotone line search, have been successfully applied to solve the second-order cone programming (denoted by SOCP). In this paper, we propose a nonmonotone smoothing Newton algorithm for solving the SOCP. Under suitable assumptions, we show that the proposed algorithm is globally and locally quadratically convergent. To compare with the existing smoothing-type algorithms for the SOCP, our algorithm has the following special properties: (i) it is based on a new smoothing function of the vector-valued natural residual function; (ii) it uses a nonmonotone line search scheme which contains the usual monotone line search as a special case. Preliminary numerical results demonstrate that the smoothing-type algorithm using the nonmonotone line search is promising for solving the SOCP.     

Optimal rates of linear convergence of the averaged alternating modified reflections method for two subspaces

Numerical Algorithms - The main difficulty for solving semi-infinite programming (SIP) problem is precisely that it has infinitely many constraints. By using a maximum function, the SIP problem can...     

Two Classes of Merit Functions for Infinite-Dimensional Second Order Complimentary Problems

In this article, we extend two classes of merit functions for the second-order complementarity problem (SOCP) to infinite-dimensional SOCP. These two classes of merit functions include several popular merit functions, which are used in nonlinear complementarity problem, (NCP)/(SDCP) semidefinite complementarity problem, and SOCP, as special cases. We give conditions under which the infinite-dimensional SOCP has a unique solution and show that all these merit functions provide an error bound for infinite-dimensional SOCP and have bounded level sets. These results are very useful for designing solution methods for infinite-dimensional SOCP.     

Lipschitz continuity of the gradient of a one-parametric class of SOC merit functions

In this article, we show that a one-parametric class of SOC merit functions has a Lipschitz continuous gradient; and moreover, the Lipschitz constant is related to the parameter in this class of SOC merit functions. This fact will lay a building block when the merit function approach as well as the Newton-type method are employed for solving the second-order cone complementarity problem with this class of merit functions.     

The penalized Fischer-Burmeister SOC complementarity function

In this paper, we study the properties of the penalized Fischer-Burmeister (FB) second-order cone (SOC) complementarity function. We show that the function possesses similar desirable properties of the FB SOC complementarity function for local convergence; for example, with the function the second-order cone complementarity problem (SOCCP) can be reformulated as a (strongly) semismooth system of equations, and the corresponding nonsmooth Newton method has local quadratic convergence without strict complementarity of solutions. In addition, the penalized FB merit function has bounded level sets under a rather weak condition which can be satisfied by strictly feasible monotone SOCCPs or SOCCPs with the Cartesian R ₀₁-property, although it is not continuously differentiable. Numerical results are included to illustrate the theoretical considerations.     

A semismooth Newton method for SOCCPs based on a one-parametric class of SOC complementarity functions

In this paper, we present a detailed investigation for the properties of a one-parametric class of SOC complementarity functions, which include the globally Lipschitz continuity, strong semismoothness, and the characterization of their B-subdifferential. Moreover, for the merit functions induced by them for the second-order cone complementarity problem (SOCCP), we provide a condition for each stationary point to be a solution of the SOCCP and establish the boundedness of their level sets, by exploiting Cartesian P-properties. We also propose a semismooth Newton type method based on the reformulation of the nonsmooth system of equations involving the class of SOC complementarity functions. The global and superlinear convergence results are obtained, and among others, the superlinear convergence is established under strict complementarity. Preliminary numerical results are reported for DIMACS second-order cone programs, which confirm the favorable theoretical properties of the method.     

A Newton’s method for perturbed second-order cone programs

We develop optimality conditions for the second-order cone program. Our optimality conditions are well-defined and smooth everywhere. We then reformulate the optimality conditions into several systems of equations. Starting from a solution to the original problem, the sequence generated by Newton’s method converges Q-quadratically to a solution of the perturbed problem under some assumptions. We globalize the algorithm by (1) extending the gradient descent method for differentiable optimization to minimizing continuous functions that are almost everywhere differentiable; (2) finding a directional derivative of the equations. Numerical examples confirm that our algorithm is good for “warm starting” second-order cone programs—in some cases, the solution of a perturbed instance is hit in two iterations. In the progress of our algorithm development, we also generalize the nonlinear complementarity function approach for two variables to several variables.     

AN INFEASIBLE-INTERIOR-POINT PREDICTOR-CORRECTOR ALGORITHM FOR THE SECOND-ORDER CONE PROGRAM

A globally convergent infeasible-interior-point predictor-corrector algorithm is presented for the second-order cone programming （SOCP） by using the Alizadeh- Haeberly-Overton （AHO） search direction. This algorithm does not require the feasibility of the initial points and iteration points. Under suitable assumptions, it is shown that the algorithm can find an -approximate solution of an SOCP in at most O（√n ln（ε0/ε）） iterations. The iteration-complexity bound of our algorithm is almost the same as the best known bound of feasible interior point algorithms for the SOCP.     

Convex relaxations and MIQCQP reformulations for a class of cardinality-constrained portfolio selection problems

In this paper we investigate a class of cardinality-constrained portfolio selection problems. We construct convex relaxations for this class of optimization problems via a new Lagrangian decomposition scheme. We show that the dual problem can be reduced to a second-order cone program problem which is tighter than the continuous relaxation of the standard mixed integer quadratically constrained quadratic program (MIQCQP) reformulation. We then propose a new MIQCQP reformulation which is more efficient than the standard MIQCQP reformulation in terms of the tightness of the continuous relaxations. Computational results are reported to demonstrate the tightness of the SOCP relaxation and the effectiveness of the new MIQCQP reformulation.     

Properties of equation reformulation of the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker condition for nonlinear second order cone optimization problems

We give an equation reformulation of the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) condition for the second order cone optimization problem. The equation is strongly semismooth and its Clarke subdifferential at the KKT point is proved to be nonsingular under the constraint nondegeneracy condition and a strong second order sufficient optimality condition. This property is used in an implicit function theorem of semismooth functions to analyze the convergence properties of a local sequential quadratic programming type (for short, SQP-type) method by Kato and Fukushima (Optim Lett 1:129–144, 2007). Moreover, we prove that, a local solution x* to the second order cone optimization problem is a strict minimizer of the Han penalty merit function when the constraint nondegeneracy condition and the strong second order optimality condition are satisfied at x*.     

Analysis of a non-interior continuation method for second-order cone programming

Based on the Chen-Harker-Kanzow-Smale (CHKS) smoothing function, a non-interior continuation method is presented for solving the second-order cone programming (SOCP). Our algorithm reformulates the SOCP as a nonlinear system of equations and then applies Newton’s method to the perturbation of this system. The proposed algorithm does not have restrictions regarding its starting point and solves at most one linear system of equations at each iteration. Under suitable assumptions, the algorithm is shown to be globally and locally quadratically convergent. Some numerical results are also included which indicate that our algorithm is promising and comparable to interior-point methods.     

Strong Semismoothness of Projection onto Slices of Second-Order Cone

Second-order cone (SOC) is a typical subclass of nonpolyhedral symmetric cones and plays a fundamental role in the second-order cone programming. It is already proven that the metric projection mapping onto SOC is strongly semismooth everywhere. However, whether such property holds for each slice of SOC has not been known yet. In this paper, by virtue of a new property of projection onto the closed and convex set with sufficiently smooth boundary, and some new results about projection onto axis-weighted SOC, we give an affirmative answer to this problem. Meanwhile, we also show Clarke’s generalized Jacobian and the directional derivative for the projection mapping onto a slice of SOC.     

An envelope-like effect of infinitely many inequality constraints on second-order necessary conditions for minimization problems

A group of curves generates a new curve which is called an envelope. When one deals with a minimization problem with infinitely many inequality constraints, one must encounter an envelopelike effect caused by the constraints. In this paper we present second-order necessary conditions, which involve a new term besides the second derivative of the Lagrange function.We apply our results to minimizing problems of sup-type functions. One will observe in examples that the new term given in this paper explains well the behavior of the second directional derivative of the sup-type function.