A new inexact alternating directions method for monotone variational inequalities

The alternating directions method (ADM) is an effective method for solving a class of variational inequalities (VI) when the proximal and penalty parameters in sub-VI problems are properly selected. In this paper, we propose a new ADM method which needs to solve two strongly monotone sub-VI problems in each iteration approximately and allows the parameters to vary from iteration to iteration. The convergence of the proposed ADM method is proved under quite mild assumptions and flexible parameter conditions. Received: January 4, 2000 / Accepted: October 2001?Published online February 14, 2002     

Stable monotone variational inequalities

Variational inequalities associated with monotone operators (possibly nonlinear and multivalued) and convex sets (possibly unbounded) are studied in reflexive Banach spaces. A variety of results are given which relate to a stability concept involving a natural parameter. These include characterizations useful as criteria for stable existence of solutions and also several characterizations of surjectivity. The monotone complementarity problem is covered as a special case, and the results are sharpened for linear monotone complementarity and for generalized linear programming.Sponsored by the United States Army under Contract No. DAAG29-80-C-0041 at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMS-8405179 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.     

A Douglas–Rachford splitting method for solving equilibrium problems

We propose a splitting method for solving equilibrium problems involving the sum of two bifunctions satisfying standard conditions. We prove that this problem is equivalent to find a zero of the sum of two appropriate maximally monotone operators under a suitable qualification condition. Our algorithm is a consequence of the Douglas–Rachford splitting applied to this auxiliary monotone inclusion. Connections between monotone inclusions and equilibrium problems are studied.     

A Modified Alternating Direction Method for Variational Inequality Problems

The alternating direction method is an attractive method for solving large-scale variational inequality problems whenever the subproblems can be solved efficiently. However, the subproblems are still variational inequality problems, which are as structurally difficult to solve as the original one. To overcome this disadvantage, in this paper we propose a new alternating direction method for solving a class of nonlinear monotone variational inequality problems. In each iteration the method just makes an orthogonal projection to a simple set and some function evaluations. We report some preliminary computational results to illustrate the efficiency of the method. Accepted 4 May 2001. Online publication 19 October, 2001.     

A UNIFIED FRAMEWORK FOR SOME INEXACT PROXIMAL POINT ALGORITHMS*

We present a unified framework for the design and convergence analysis of a class of algorithms based on approximate solution of proximal point subproblems. Our development further enhances the constructive approximation approach of the recently proposed hybrid projection–proximal and extragradient–proximal methods. Specifically, we introduce an even more flexible error tolerance criterion, as well as provide a unified view of these two algorithms. Our general method possesses global convergence and local (super)linear rate of convergence under standard assumptions, while using a constructive approximation criterion suitable for a number of specific implementations. For example, we show that close to a regular solution of a monotone system of semismooth equations, two Newton iterations are sufficient to solve the proximal subproblem within the required error tolerance. Such systems of equations arise naturally when reformulating the nonlinear complementarity problem.

     

A likelihood-MPEC approach to target classification

In this paper we develop a method for classifying an unknown data vector as belonging to one of several classes. This method is based on the statistical methods of maximum likehood and borrowed strength estimation. We develop an MPEC procedure (for Mathematical Program with Equilibrium Constraints) for the classification of a multi-dimensional observation, using a finite set of observed training data as the inputs to a bilevel optimization problem. We present a penalty interior point method for solving the resulting MPEC and report numerical results for a multispectral minefield classification application. Related approaches based on conventional maximum likehood estimation and a bivariate normal mixture model, as well as alternative surrogate classification objective functions, are described. Received: October 26, 1998 / Accepted: June 11, 2001?Published online March 24, 2003 RID="***" ID="***"The authors of this work were all partially supported by the Wright Patterson Air Force Base via Veda Contract F33615-94-D-1400. The first and third author were also supported by the National Science Foundation under grant DMS-9705220. RID="*" ID="*"The work of this author was based on research supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grant CCR-9624018. RID="**" ID="**"The work of this author was supported by the Office of Naval Research under grant N00014-95-1-0777.     

Linear bilevel programs with multiple objectives at the upper level

Bilevel programming has been proposed for dealing with decision processes involving two decision makers with a hierarchical structure. They are characterized by the existence of two optimization problems in which the constraint region of the upper level problem is implicitly determined by the lower level optimization problem. Focus of the paper is on general bilevel optimization problems with multiple objectives at the upper level of decision making. When all objective functions are linear and constraints at both levels define polyhedra, it is proved that the set of efficient solutions is non-empty. Taking into account the properties of the feasible region of the bilevel problem, some methods of computing efficient solutions are given based on both weighted sum scalarization and scalarization techniques. All the methods result in solving linear bilevel problems with a single objective function at each level.     

Non-Interior Continuation Method for Solving the Monotone Semidefinite Complementarity Problem

Recently, Chen and Tseng extended non-interior continuation/ smooth- ing methods for solving linear/ nonlinear complementarity problems to semidefinite complementarity problems (SDCP). In this paper we propose a non-interior continuation method for solving the monotone SDCP based on the smoothed Fischer—Burmeister function, which is shown to be globally linearly and locally quadratically convergent under suitable assumptions. Our algorithm needs at most to solve a linear system of equations at each iteration. In addition, in our analysis on global linear convergence of the algorithm, we need not use the assumption that the Fréchet derivative of the function involved in the SDCP is Lipschitz continuous. For non-interior continuation/ smoothing methods for solving the nonlinear complementarity problem, such an assumption has been used widely in the literature in order to achieve global linear convergence results of the algorithms.     

Non-Interior Continuation Method for Solving the Monotone Semidefinite Complementarity Problem

Recently, Chen and Tseng extended non-interior continuation/ smooth- ing methods for solving linear/ nonlinear complementarity problems to semidefinite complementarity problems (SDCP). In this paper we propose a non-interior continuation method for solving the monotone SDCP based on the smoothed Fischer—Burmeister function, which is shown to be globally linearly and locally quadratically convergent under suitable assumptions. Our algorithm needs at most to solve a linear system of equations at each iteration. In addition, in our analysis on global linear convergence of the algorithm, we need not use the assumption that the Fréchet derivative of the function involved in the SDCP is Lipschitz continuous. For non-interior continuation/ smoothing methods for solving the nonlinear complementarity problem, such an assumption has been used widely in the literature in order to achieve global linear convergence results of the algorithms.     

Finite termination of a Newton-type algorithm for a class of affine variational inequality problems

Many optimization problems can be reformulated as a system of equations. One may use the generalized Newton method or the smoothing Newton method to solve the reformulated equations so that a solution of the original problem can be found. Such methods have been powerful tools to solve many optimization problems in the literature. In this paper, we propose a Newton-type algorithm for solving a class of monotone affine variational inequality problems (AVIPs for short). In the proposed algorithm, the techniques based on both the generalized Newton method and the smoothing Newton method are used. In particular, we show that the algorithm can find an exact solution of the AVIP in a finite number of iterations under an assumption that the solution set of the AVIP is nonempty. Preliminary numerical results are reported.     

Two properties of condition numbers for convex programs via implicitly defined barrier functions

We study two issues on condition numbers for convex programs: one has to do with the growth of the condition numbers of the linear equations arising in interior-point algorithms; the other deals with solving conic systems and estimating their distance to infeasibility.?These two issues share a common ground: the key tool for their development is a simple, novel perspective based on implicitly-defined barrier functions. This tool has potential use in optimization beyond the context of condition numbers. Received: October 2000 / Accepted: October 2001?Published online March 27, 2002     

Two class of synchronous matrix multisplitting schemes for solving linear complementarity problems

Many problems in the areas of scientific computing and engineering applications can lead to the solution of the linear complementarity problem LCP (M,q). It is well known that the matrix multisplitting methods have been found very useful for solving LCP (M,q). In this article, by applying the generalized accelerated overrelaxation (GAOR) and the symmetric successive overrelaxation (SSOR) techniques, we introduce two class of synchronous matrix multisplitting methods to solve LCP (M,q). Convergence results for these two methods are presented when M is an H-matrix (and also an M-matrix). Also the monotone convergence of the new methods is established. Finally, the numerical results show that the introduced methods are effective for solving the large and sparse linear complementary problems.     

On the convergence analysis of inexact hybrid extragradient proximal point algorithms for maximal monotone operators

In this paper we introduce general iterative methods for finding zeros of a maximal monotone operator in a Hilbert space which unify two previously studied iterative methods: relaxed proximal point algorithm [H.K. Xu, Iterative algorithms for nonlinear operators, J. London Math Soc. 66 (2002) 240–256] and inexact hybrid extragradient proximal point algorithm [R.S. Burachik, S. Scheimberg, B.F. Svaiter, Robustness of the hybrid extragradient proximal-point algorithm, J. Optim. Theory Appl. 111 (2001) 117–136]. The paper establishes both weak convergence and strong convergence of the methods under suitable assumptions on the algorithm parameters.     

Convergence behavior of interior-point algorithms

We show that most interior-point algorithms for linear programming generate a solution sequence in which every limit point satisfies the strict complementarity condition. These algorithms include all path-following algorithms and some potential reduction algorithms. The result also holds for the monotone complementarity problem if a strict complementarity solution exists. In general, the limit point is a solution that maximizes the number of its nonzero components among all solutions.Research supported in part by NSF Grant DDM-8922636, the Iowa Business School Summer Grant, and the Interdisciplinary Research Grant of the University of Iowa Center for Advanced Studies.     

A non–interior predictor–corrector path following algorithm for the monotone linear complementarity problem

We present a predictor–corrector non–interior path following algorithm for the monotone linear complementarity problem based on Chen–Harker–Kanzow–Smale smoothing techniques. Although the method is modeled on the interior point predictor–corrector strategies, it is the first instance of a non–interior point predictor–corrector algorithm. The algorithm is shown to be both globally linearly convergent and locally quadratically convergent under standard hypotheses. The approach to global linear convergence follows the authors’ previous work on this problem for the case of (P ₀+R ₀) LCPs. However, in this paper we use monotonicity to refine our notion of neighborhood of the central path. The refined neighborhood allows us to establish the uniform boundedness of certain slices of the neighborhood of the central path under the standard hypothesis that a strictly positive feasible point exists. Received September 1997 / Revised version received May 1999?Published online December 15, 1999     

The solution set structure of monotone linear complementarity problems over second-order cone

The second-order cone linear complementarity problem (SOCLCP) is a generalization of the linear complementarity problem (LCP). In this paper we characterize the solution set of a monotone SOCLCP with the help of the Jordan-algebraic technique.     

A globally convergent derivative-free method for solving large-scale nonlinear monotone equations

In this paper, we propose two derivative-free iterative methods for solving nonlinear monotone equations, which combines two modified HS methods with the projection method in Solodov and Svaiter (1998) [5]. The proposed methods can be applied to solve nonsmooth equations. They are suitable to large-scale equations due to their lower storage requirement. Under mild conditions, we show that the proposed methods are globally convergent. The reported numerical results show that the methods are efficient.     

Randomized pivot algorithms for P-matrix linear complementarity problems

We study orientations of the n-cube that come from simple principal pivot algorithms for the linear complementarity problem with a P-matrix. We show that these orientations properly generalize those that are obtained from linear objective functions on polytopes combinatorially equivalent to the cube. The orientations from LCP with a P-matrix may admit directed cycles. We give a sequence of problems on which the algorithm RANDOM-EDGE performs very badly. Received: February 12, 2001 / Accepted: September 9, 2001?Published online April 12, 2002     

A monotone semismooth Newton type method for a class of complementarity problems

In this paper, we propose a modified semismooth Newton method for a class of complementarity problems arising from the discretization of free boundary problems and establish its monotone convergence. We show that under appropriate conditions, the method reduces to semismooth Newton method. We also do some preliminary numerical experiments to show the efficiency of the proposed method.