一类新的Lagrangian乘子法

本文提出了求解光滑不等式约束最优化问题新的乘子法,在增广Lagrangian函数中,使用了新的NCP函数的乘子法．该方法在增广Lagrangian函数和原问题之间存在很好的等价性;同时该方法具有全局收敛性,且在适当假设下,具有超线性收敛率．本文给出了一个有效选择参数C的方法．     

带有不等式约束的非线性规划问题的一个精确增广Lagrange函数

对求解带有不等式约束的非线性非凸规划问题的一个精确增广Lagrange函数进行了研究．在适当的假设下,给出了原约束问题的局部极小点与增广Lagrange函数,在原问题变量空间上的无约束局部极小点之间的对应关系．进一步地,在对全局解的一定假设下,还提供了原约束问题的全局最优解与增广Lagrange函数,在原问题变量空间的一个紧子集上的全局最优解之间的一些对应关系．因此,从理论上讲,采用该文给出的增广Lagrange函数作为辅助函数的乘子法,可以求得不等式约束非线性规划问题的最优解和对应的Lagrange乘子．     

新的滤子方法(英)

本文定义了一种新的滤子方法,并提出了求解光滑不等式约束最优化问题的滤子QP-free非可行域方法. 通过乘子和分片线性非线性互补函数,构造一个等价于原约束问题一阶KKT条件的非光滑方程组.在此基础上, 通过牛顿-拟牛顿迭代得到满足KKT最优条件的解,在迭代中采用了滤子线搜索方法,证明了该算法是可实现,并具有全局收敛性. 另外,在较弱条件下可以证明该方法具有超线性收敛性.     

新的滤子方法

本文定义了一种新的滤子方法,并提出了求解光滑不等式约束最优化问题的滤子QP-free非可行域方法.通过乘子和分片线性非线性互补函数,构造一个等价于原约束问题一阶KKT条件的非光滑方程组.在此基础上,通过牛顿-拟牛顿迭代得到满足KKT最优条件的解,在迭代中采用了滤子线搜索方法,证明了该算法是可实现,并具有全局收敛性.另外,在较弱条件下可以证明该方法具有超线性收敛性.     

乘子方法中的参数选择

Di Pillo和Grippo提出的含参数C〉0的增广Lagrangian函数中，使用了最大函数，该函数可能在无穷多个点处不可微．为了克服这个问题，濮定国在2004年提出了一类带新的NCP函数的乘子法．该方法在增广Lagrangian函数和原问题之间存在很好的等价性；同时该方法具有全局收敛性，且在适当假设下，具有超线性收敛率．但是在该方法中，要求参数C充分大．为了实现算法及提高算法效率，本文给出了一个有效选择参数C的方法．     

对等式约束非线性规划问题的Hestenes-Powell增广拉格朗日函数的进一步研究

本文对用无约束极小化方法求解等式约束非线性规划问题的Hestenes-Powell 增广拉格朗日函数作了进一步研究．在适当的条件下,我们建立了Hestenes-Powell增广拉格朗日函数在原问题变量空间上的无约束极小与原约束问题的解之间的关系,并且也给出了Hestenes-Powell增广拉格朗日函数在原问题变量和乘子变量的积空间上的无约束极小与原约束问题的解之间的一个关系．因此,从理论的观点来看,原约束问题的解和对应的拉格朗日乘子值不仅可以用众所周知的乘子法求得,而且可以通过对Hestenes-Powell 增广拉格朗日函数在原问题变量和乘子变量的积空间上执行一个单一的无约束极小化来获得．     

互补约束均衡优化的一个共轭梯度投影法

讨论均衡约束最优化问题,利用一个互补函数和扰动技术将原问题转换为非线性等式约束最优化问题,然后利用共轭梯度投影算法的思想,给出了问题的一个求解算法,在适当的条件下,证明了算法的全局收敛性.     

无罚函数和滤子的QP-free非可行域方法

提出了求解光滑不等式约束最优化问题的无罚函数和无滤子QP-free非可行域方法. 通过乘子和非线性互补函数, 构造一个等价于原约束问题一阶KKT条件的非光滑方程组. 在此基础上, 通过牛顿-拟牛顿迭代得到满足KKT最优性条件的解, 在迭代中采用了无罚函数和无滤子线搜索方法, 并证明该算法是可实现,具有全局收敛性. 另外, 在较弱条件下可以证明该方法具有超线性收敛性.     

非线性约束优化问题的一个修正 Lagrangian 算法

基于一个含有控制参数的修正Lagrangian函数,该文建立了一个求解非线性约束优化问题的修正Lagrangian算法.在一些适当的条件下,证明了控制参数存在一个阀值,当控制参数小于这一阀值时,由这一算法产生的序列解局部收敛于问题的Kuhn-Tucker点,并且建立了解的误差上界.最后给出一些约束优化问题的数值结果.     

分片线性NCP函数滤子QP-free算法

本文定义了分片线性NCP函数,并对非线性约束优化问题,提出了带有这分片NCP函数的QP-free非可行域算法.利用优化问题的一阶KKT条件,乘子和NCP函数,得到对应的非光滑方程组.本文给出解这非光滑方程组算法,它包含原始-对偶变量,在局部意义下,可看成关扰动牛顿-拟牛顿迭代算法.在线性搜索时,这算法采用滤子方法.本文给出的算法是可实现的并具有全局收敛性,在适当假设下算法具有超线性收敛性.     

A novel neural network based on NCP function for solving constrained nonconvex optimization problems

This article presents a novel neural network (NN) based on NCP function for solving nonconvex nonlinear optimization (NCNO) problem subject to nonlinear inequality constraints. We first apply the p‐power convexification of the Lagrangian function in the NCNO problem. The proposed NN is a gradient model which is constructed by an NCP function and an unconstrained minimization problem. The main feature of this NN is that its equilibrium point coincides with the optimal solution of the original problem. Under a proper assumption and utilizing a suitable Lyapunov function, it is shown that the proposed NN is Lyapunov stable and convergent to an exact optimal solution of the original problem. Finally, simulation results on two numerical examples and two practical examples are given to show the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed NN. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 130–141, 2016     

On Unconstrained and Constrained Stationary Points of the Implicit Lagrangian

Mangasarian and Solodov (Ref. 1) proposed to solve nonlinear complementarity problems by seeking the unconstrained global minima of a new merit function, which they called implicit Lagrangian. A crucial point in such an approach is to determine conditions which guarantee that every unconstrained stationary point of the implicit Lagrangian is a global solution, since standard unconstrained minimization techniques are only able to locate stationary points. Some authors partially answered this question by giving sufficient conditions which guarantee this key property. In this paper, we settle the issue by giving a necessary and sufficient condition for a stationary point of the implicit Lagrangian to be a global solution and, hence, a solution of the nonlinear complementarity problem. We show that this new condition easily allows us to recover all previous results and to establish new sufficient conditions. We then consider a constrained reformulation based on the implicit Lagrangian in which nonnegative constraints on the variables are added to the original unconstrained reformulation. This is motivated by the fact that often, in applications, the function which defines the complementarity problem is defined only on the nonnegative orthant. We consider the KKT-points of this new reformulation and show that the same necessary and sufficient condition which guarantees, in the unconstrained case, that every unconstrained stationary point is a global solution, also guarantees that every KKT-point of the new problem is a global solution.     

A new augmented Lagrangian function for inequality constraints in nonlinear programming problems

In this paper, a new augmented Lagrangian function is introduced for solving nonlinear programming problems with inequality constraints. The relevant feature of the proposed approach is that, under suitable assumptions, it enables one to obtain the solution of the constrained problem by a single unconstrained minimization of a continuously differentiable function, so that standard unconstrained minimization techniques can be employed. Numerical examples are reported.     

New results on a class of exact augmented Lagrangians

In this paper, a new continuously differentiable exact augmented Lagrangian is introduced for the solution of nonlinear programming problems with compact feasible set. The distinguishing features of this augmented Lagrangian are that it is radially unbounded with respect to the multiplier and that it goes to infinity on the boundary of a compact set containing the feasible region. This allows one to establish a complete equivalence between the unconstrained minimization of the augmented Lagrangian on the product space of problem variables and multipliers and the solution of the constrained problem.The author wishes to thank Dr. L. Grippo for having suggested the topic of this paper and for helpful discussions.     

On the role of continuously differentiable exact penalty functions in constrained global optimization

The aim of this paper is to show that the new continuously differentiable exact penalty functions recently proposed in literature can play an important role in the field of constrained global optimization. In fact they allow us to transfer ideas and results proposed in unconstrained global optimization to the constrained case.First, by drawing our inspiration from the unconstrained case and by using the strong exactness properties of a particular continuously differentiable penalty function, we propose a sufficient condition for a local constrained minimum point to be global.Then we show that every constrained local minimum point satisfying the second order sufficient conditions is an attraction point for a particular implementable minimization algorithm based on the considered penalty function. This result can be used to define new classes of global algorithms for the solution of general constrained global minimization problems. As an example, in this paper we describe a simulated annealing algorithm which produces a sequence of points converging in probability to a global minimum of the original constrained problem.     

Properties of Restricted NCP Functions for Nonlinear Complementarity Problems

In this paper, we study restricted NCP functions which may be used to reformulate the nonlinear complementarity problem as a constrained minimization problem. In particular, we consider three classes of restricted NCP functions, two of them introduced by Solodov and the other proposed in this paper. We give conditions under which a minimization problem based on a restricted NCP function enjoys favorable properties, such as equivalence between a stationary point of the minimization problem and the nonlinear complementarity problem, strict complementarity at a solution of the minimization problem, and boundedness of the level sets of the objective function. We examine these properties for three restricted NCP functions and show that the merit function based on the restricted NCP function proposed in this paper enjoys favorable properties compared with those based on the other restricted NCP functions.     

A family of NCP functions and a descent method for the nonlinear complementarity problem

In last decades, there has been much effort on the solution and the analysis of the nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP) by reformulating NCP as an unconstrained minimization involving an NCP function. In this paper, we propose a family of new NCP functions, which include the Fischer-Burmeister function as a special case, based on a p-norm with p being any fixed real number in the interval (1,+∞), and show several favorable properties of the proposed functions. In addition, we also propose a descent algorithm that is indeed derivative-free for solving the unconstrained minimization based on the merit functions from the proposed NCP functions. Numerical results for the test problems from MCPLIB indicate that the descent algorithm has better performance when the parameter p decreases in (1,+∞). This implies that the merit functions associated with p∈(1,2), for example p=1.5, are more effective in numerical computations than the Fischer-Burmeister merit function, which exactly corresponds to p=2. J.-S. Chen is a member of Mathematics Division, National Center for Theoretical Sciences, Taipei Office. J.-S. Chen’s work is partially supported by National Science Council of Taiwan.