Convergence and efficiency of subgradient methods for quasiconvex minimization

We study a general subgradient projection method for minimizing a quasiconvex objective subject to a convex set constraint in a Hilbert space. Our setting is very general: the objective is only upper semicontinuous on its domain, which need not be open, and various subdifferentials may be used. We extend previous results by proving convergence in objective values and to the generalized solution set for classical stepsizes t _k →0, ∑t _k =∞, and weak or strong convergence of the iterates to a solution for {t _k }∈ℓ₂∖ℓ₁ under mild regularity conditions. For bounded constraint sets and suitable stepsizes, the method finds ε-solutions with an efficiency estimate of O(ε^-2), thus being optimal in the sense of Nemirovskii. Received: October 4, 1998 / Accepted: July 24, 2000?Published online January 17, 2001     

Primal and dual convergence of a proximal point exponential penalty method for linear programming

We consider the diagonal inexact proximal point iteration where f(x,r)=c ^T x+r∑exp[(A _i x-b _i )/r] is the exponential penalty approximation of the linear program min{c ^T x:Ax≤b}. We prove that under an appropriate choice of the sequences λ _k , ε _k and with some control on the residual ν ^k , for every r _k →0⁺ the sequence u ^k converges towards an optimal point u ^∞ of the linear program. We also study the convergence of the associated dual sequence μ _i ^k =exp[(A _i u ^k -b _i )/r _k ] towards a dual optimal solution. Received: May 2000 / Accepted: November 2001?Published online June 25, 2002     

Small fractional parts of additive forms

Letf(x)=θ₁ x ₁ ^k +...+θ _s x _s ^k be an additive form with real coefficients, and ∥α∥ = min {|α-u|:uεℤ} denote the distance fromα to the nearest integer. We show that ifθ ₁,…,θ _s , are algebraic ands = 4k then there are integersx ₁,…,x _s , satisfying l ≤x ₁,≤ N and ∥f(x)∥ ≤ N ^E , withE = − 1 + 2/e. Whens = λk, 1 ≤λ ≤ 2k, the exponentE may be replaced byλE/4, and if we drop the condition thatθ ₁,…,θ _s , be algebraic then the result holds for almost all values of θεℝ ^s . Whenk ≥ 6 is small a better exponent is obtained using Heath-Brown’s version of Weyl’s estimate.     

Existence and multiplicity of solutions for a nonlinear Neumann problem

We consider a Neumann problem of the type -εΔu+F ^′(u(x))=0 in an open bounded subset Ω of R ⁿ , where F is a real function which has exactly k maximum points. Using Morse theory we find that, for ε suitably small, there are at least 2k nontrivial solutions of the problem and we give some qualitative information about them. Received: October 30, 1999 Published online: December 19, 2001     

A descent method for submodular function minimization

We show a descent method for submodular function minimization based on an oracle for membership in base polyhedra. We assume that for any submodular function f: ?→R on a distributive lattice ?⊆2 ^V with ?,V∈? and f(?)=0 and for any vector x∈R ^V where V is a finite nonempty set, the membership oracle answers whether x belongs to the base polyhedron associated with f and that if the answer is NO, it also gives us a set Z∈? such that x(Z)>f(Z). Given a submodular function f, by invoking the membership oracle O(|V|²) times, the descent method finds a sequence of subsets Z ₁,Z ₂,···,Z _k of V such that f(Z ₁)>f(Z ₂)>···>f(Z _k )=min{f(Y) | Y∈?}, where k is O(|V|²). The method furnishes an alternative framework for submodular function minimization if combined with possible efficient membership algorithms. Received: September 9, 2001 / Accepted: October 15, 2001?Published online December 6, 2001     

A bundle Bregman proximal method for convex nondifferentiable minimization

k } by taking x^k to be an approximate minimizer of , where is a piecewise linear model of f constructed from accumulated subgradient linearizations of f, D_h is the D-function of a generalized Bregman function h and t_k>0. Convergence under implementable criteria is established by extending our recent framework of Bregman proximal minimization, which is of independent interest, e.g., for nonquadratic multiplier methods for constrained minimization. In particular, we provide new insights into the convergence properties of bundle methods based on h=?|·|². Received September 18, 1997 / Revised version received June 30, 1998 Published online November 24, 1998     

Lp-decay rates to nonlinear diffusion waves for p-system with nonlinear damping

In this paper, we study the L ^p (2 ⩽ p ⩽ +∞) convergence rates of the solutions to the Cauchy problem of the so-called p-system with nonlinear damping. Precisely, we show that the corresponding Cauchy problem admits a unique global solution (v(x,t), u(x,t)) and such a solution tends time-asymptotically to the corresponding nonlinear diffusion wave (ῡ(x,t), ū(x,t)) governed by the classical Darcys’s law provided that the corresponding prescribed initial error function (w ₀(x), z ₀(x)) lies in (H ³ × H ²) (ℝ) and |v ₊ − v ₋| + ∥w ₀∥₃ + ∥z ₀∥₂ is sufficiently small. Furthermore, the L ^p (2 ⩽ p ⩽ +∞) convergence rates of the solutions are also obtained.     

A random walk for the solution sought: Remarks on the difference scheme approach to nonlinear semigroups and evolution operators

In [2], Crandall and Evans show existence of mild solution to an abstract Cauchy Problem: u′(t)+Au(t)∋f(t), 0≤t≤T, u(0)=x₀, where A is an accretive operator in a general Banach space X and f ε L¹(0,T;X). Their method involves proving convergence in the L^∞-norm of a sequence of step function approximations α_n(σ, τ) to the solution of a first order partial differential equation. We consider a more general Cauchy Problem and show a.e. existence of mild solution by proving convergence of the step functions α_n(σ, τ) in the L¹-norm. Fundamental to the proof is a nonhomogeneous random walk in the plane.     

On the stability of solutions to quadratic programming problems

We consider the parametric programming problem (Q _p ) of minimizing the quadratic function f(x,p):=x ^T Ax+b ^T x subject to the constraint Cx≤d, where x∈ℝ ⁿ , A∈ℝ ^n×n , b∈ℝ ⁿ , C∈ℝ ^m×n , d∈ℝ ^m , and p:=(A,b,C,d) is the parameter. Here, the matrix A is not assumed to be positive semidefinite. The set of the global minimizers and the set of the local minimizers to (Q _p ) are denoted by M(p) and M ^loc (p), respectively. It is proved that if the point-to-set mapping M ^loc (·) is lower semicontinuous at p then M ^loc (p) is a nonempty set which consists of at most ? _m,n points, where ? _m,n = is the maximal cardinality of the antichains of distinct subsets of {1,2,...,m} which have at most n elements. It is proved also that the lower semicontinuity of M(·) at p implies that M(p) is a singleton. Under some regularity assumption, these necessary conditions become the sufficient ones. Received: November 5, 1997 / Accepted: September 12, 2000?Published online November 17, 2000     

L P boundedness of area function associated with operators on product spaces

Let L be the infinitesimal generator of an analytic semigroup on L2 (Rn) with suitable upper bounds on its heat kernels. Assume that L has a bounded holomorphic functional calculus on L2(Rn). In this paper,we define the Littlewood- Paley g function associated with L on Rn × Rn, denoted by GL(f)(x1, x2), and decomposition, we prove that ‖SL(f)‖p ≈‖GL(f)‖p ≈‖f‖p for 1 ＜ p ＜∞.     

On Kernel polynomials and self-perturbation of orthogonal polynomials

Given an orthogonal polynomial system {Q _n (x)} _n=0 ^∞, define another polynomial system by where α _n are complex numbers and t is a positive integer. We find conditions for {P _n (x)} _n=0 ^∞ to be an orthogonal polynomial system. When t=1 and α₁≠0, it turns out that {Q _n (x)} _n=0 ^∞ must be kernel polynomials for {P _n (x)} _n=0 ^∞ for which we study, in detail, the location of zeros and semi-classical character. Received: November 25, 1999; in final form: April 6, 2000?Published online: June 22, 2001     

Solution of monotone complementarity problems with locally Lipschitzian functions

The paper deals with complementarity problems CP(F), where the underlying functionF is assumed to be locally Lipschitzian. Based on a special equivalent reformulation of CP(F) as a system of equationsφ(x)=0 or as the problem of minimizing the merit functionΘ=1/2∥Φ∥ ₂ ² , we extend results which hold for sufficiently smooth functionsF to the nonsmooth case. In particular, ifF is monotone in a neighbourhood ofx, it is proved that 0 εδθ(x) is necessary and sufficient forx to be a solution of CP(F). Moreover, for monotone functionsF, a simple derivative-free algorithm that reducesΘ is shown to possess global convergence properties. Finally, the local behaviour of a generalized Newton method is analyzed. To this end, the result by Mifflin that the composition of semismooth functions is again semismooth is extended top-order semismooth functions. Under a suitable regularity condition and ifF isp-order semismooth the generalized Newton method is shown to be locally well defined and superlinearly convergent with the order of 1+p.     

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     

Global convergence of a class of non-interior point algorithms using Chen-Harker-Kanzow-Smale functions for nonlinear complementarity problems

We propose a class of non-interior point algorithms for solving the complementarity problems(CP): Find a nonnegative pair (x,y)∈ℝ ²ⁿ satisfying y=f(x) and x _i y _i =0 for every i∈{1,2,...,n}, where f is a continuous mapping from ℝ ⁿ to ℝ ⁿ . The algorithms are based on the Chen-Harker-Kanzow-Smale smoothing functions for the CP, and have the following features; (a) it traces a trajectory in ℝ ³ⁿ which consists of solutions of a family of systems of equations with a parameter, (b) it can be started from an arbitrary (not necessarily positive) point in ℝ ²ⁿ in contrast to most of interior-point methods, and (c) its global convergence is ensured for a class of problems including (not strongly) monotone complementarity problems having a feasible interior point. To construct the algorithms, we give a homotopy and show the existence of a trajectory leading to a solution under a relatively mild condition, and propose a class of algorithms involving suitable neighborhoods of the trajectory. We also give a sufficient condition on the neighborhoods for global convergence and two examples satisfying it. Received April 9, 1997 / Revised version received September 2, 1998? Published online May 28, 1999     

On convergence of a generalized Pál interpolation process

Let f∈C _[−1,1] ^″ (r≥1) and R_n(f,α,β,x) be the generalized Pál interpolation polynomials satisfying the conditions R_n(f,α,β,x_k)=f(x_k),R_n ^′(f,α,β,x_k)=f′(x_k)(k=1,2,…,n), where {x_k} are the roots of n-th Jacobi polynomial P_n(α,β,x),α,β>−1 and {x _k ^″ } are the roots of (1−x²)P_n″(α,β,x). In this paper, we prove that holds uniformly on [0,1]. In Memory of Professor M. T. Cheng Supported by the Science Foundation of CSBTB and the Natural Science Foundatioin of Zhejiang.     

Polynomial convergence of primal-dual algorithms for the second-order cone program based on the MZ-family of directions

In this paper we study primal-dual path-following algorithms for the second-order cone programming (SOCP) based on a family of directions that is a natural extension of the Monteiro-Zhang (MZ) family for semidefinite programming. We show that the polynomial iteration-complexity bounds of two well-known algorithms for linear programming, namely the short-step path-following algorithm of Kojima et al. and Monteiro and Adler, and the predictor-corrector algorithm of Mizuno et al., carry over to the context of SOCP, that is they have an O( logε^-1) iteration-complexity to reduce the duality gap by a factor of ε, where n is the number of second-order cones. Since the MZ-type family studied in this paper includes an analogue of the Alizadeh, Haeberly and Overton pure Newton direction, we establish for the first time the polynomial convergence of primal-dual algorithms for SOCP based on this search direction. Received: June 5, 1998 / Accepted: September 8, 1999?Published online April 20, 2000     

Convergence of a non-monotone scheme for Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equations with discontinous initial data

We prove the convergence of a non-monotonous scheme for a one-dimensional first order Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation of the form v _t + max _α (f(x, α)v _x ) = 0, v(0, x) = v ₀(x). The scheme is related to the HJB-UltraBee scheme suggested in Bokanowski and Zidani (J Sci Comput 30(1):1–33, 2007). We show for general discontinuous initial data a first-order convergence of the scheme, in L ¹-norm, towards the viscosity solution. We also illustrate the non-diffusive behavior of the scheme on several numerical examples.     

A nodal basis of Cμ-rational spline functions on triangulations

Let ρ be a triangulation of a polygonal domain D⊂R² with vertices V={v_i:l≤i≤N_v} and RS^k(D, ρ)={u∈C^k(D): ≠ T∈ρ, u/_T is a rational function}. The purpose of this paper is to study the existence and construction of C^μ-rational spline functions on any triangulation ρ for CAGD. The Hermite problem H^μ(V,U)={find u∈U: D^αu(v_i)=D^αf(v_i),|α|≤μ} is solved by the generalized wedge function method in rational spline function family, i.e. U=RS^μ. this solution needs only the knowledge of partial derivatives of order≤μ at v_i. The explicit repesentations of all C^μ-GWF(generalized wedge functions)and the interpolating operator with degree of precision at least 2μ+1 for any triangulation are given.     

Penultimate limiting forms in extreme value theory

Summary Let {X _n}_n≧1 be a sequence of independent, identically distributed random variables. If the distribution function (d.f.) ofM _n=max (X ₁,…,X _n), suitably normalized with attraction coefficients {α_n}_n≧1(α_n>0) and {b _n}_n≧1, converges to a non-degenerate d.f.G(x), asn→∞, it is of interest to study the rate of convergence to that limit law and if the convergence is slow, to find other d.f.'s which better approximate the d.f. of(M _n−b_n)/a_n thanG(x), for moderaten. We thus consider differences of the formF ⁿ(a_nx+b_n)−G(x), whereG(x) is a type I d.f. of largest values, i.e.,G(x)≡Λ(x)=exp (-exp(−x)), and show that for a broad class of d.f.'sF in the domain of attraction of Λ, there is a penultimate form of approximation which is a type II [Ф _α(x)=exp (−x^−α), x>0] or a type III [Ψ _α(x)= exp (−(−x)^α), x<0] d.f. of largest values, much closer toF ⁿ(a_nx+b_n) than the ultimate itself.     

Fourier Analysis of Semistable Distributions

We consider the generalized convolution powers G _α ^*u (x) of an arbitrary semistable distribution function G _α (x) of exponent α∈(0,2), and prove that for all j, k∈{0,1,2,…} and u>0 the derivatives G _α ^(k,j)(x;u)=∂ ^k+j G _α ^*u (x)/∂ x ^k ∂ u ^j , x∈ℝ, are of bounded variation on the whole real line ℝ. The proof, along with an integral recursion in j, is new even in the special case of stable laws, and the result provides a framework for possible asymptotic expansions in merge theorems from the domain of geometric partial attraction of semistable laws. An erratum to this article can be found at