A unifying theory of exactness of linear penalty functions II: parametric penalty functions

In this article, we develop a general theory of exact parametric penalty functions for constrained optimization problems. The main advantage of the method of parametric penalty functions is the fact that a parametric penalty function can be both smooth and exact unlike the standard (i.e. non-parametric) exact penalty functions that are always nonsmooth. We obtain several necessary and/or sufficient conditions for the exactness of parametric penalty functions, and for the zero duality gap property to hold true for these functions. We also prove some convergence results for the method of parametric penalty functions, and derive necessary and sufficient conditions for a parametric penalty function to not have any stationary points outside the set of feasible points of the constrained optimization problem under consideration. In the second part of the paper, we apply the general theory of exact parametric penalty functions to a class of parametric penalty functions introduced by Huyer and Neumaier, and to smoothing approximations of nonsmooth exact penalty functions. The general approach adopted in this article allowed us to unify and significantly sharpen many existing results on parametric penalty functions.     

On error estimates of the penalty method for the viscoelastic flow problem I: Time discretization

In this paper, we investigate the two-dimensional viscoelastic fluid motion problem arising in the Oldroyd model. By applying the dual method, the Helmholtz decomposition and some other techniques, we deduce the long-time optimal error estimates for its penalty method. Furthermore, the global optimal error bounds in the L² and H¹-norms for the time semi-discrete of the penalty system are derived under the backward Euler implicit scheme, which improves the best estimate available.     

The lower bound of number of solutions for the second order nonlinear boundary value problem via the root functions method

We consider a second order nonlinear differential equation with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. Using the root functions method we prove a relation between the number of zeros of some variational solutions and the number of solutions of our boundary value problem which follows into a lower bound of the number of its solutions.      

Mehler-Fock transforms of generalized functions via the method of adjoints

In this paper we analyse the Mehler-Fock transform of generalized functions via the method of adjoints. For a distribution of compact support, we prove that its Mehler-Fock transform agrees with its transform via the kernel method. A Paley-Wiener type theorem is established.

     

Determination of a control parameter in a one-dimensional parabolic equation using the method of radial basis functions

In this work, the method of radial basis functions is used for finding the solution of an inverse problem with source control parameter. Because a much wider range of physical phenomena are modelled by nonclassical parabolic initial-boundary value problems, theoretical behavior and numerical approximation of these problems have been active areas of research. The radial basis functions (RBF) method is an efficient mesh free technique for the numerical solution of partial differential equations. The main advantage of numerical methods which use radial basis functions over traditional techniques is the meshless property of these methods. In a meshless method, a set of scattered nodes are used instead of meshing the domain of the problem. The results of numerical experiments are presented and some comparisons are made with several well-known finite difference schemes.     

Numerical solutions of the generalized Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation using B-spline functions

A numerical technique based on the finite difference and collocation methods is presented for the solution of generalized Kuramoto-Sivashinsky (GKS) equation. The derivative matrices between any two families of B-spline functions are presented and are utilized to reduce the solution of GKS equation to the solution of linear algebraic equations. Numerical simulations for five test examples have been demonstrated to validate the technique proposed in the current paper. It is found that the simulating results are in good agreement with the exact solutions.     

New variants of the generalized level method for minimization of convex nondifferentiable functions taking infinite values

New variants of the generalized level method for minimization of convex Lipschitz functions on a compact set with a nonempty interior are proposed. These variants include the well-known generalized and classical level methods. For the new variants, an estimate of the convergence rate is found, including the variants in which the auxiliary problems are solved approximately.     

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.     

A systematization of the saddle point method. Application to the Airy and Hankel functions

The standard saddle point method of asymptotic expansions of integrals requires to show the existence of the steepest descent paths of the phase function and the computation of the coefficients of the expansion from a function implicitly defined by solving an inversion problem. This means that the method is not systematic because the steepest descent paths depend on the phase function on hand and there is not a general and explicit formula for the coefficients of the expansion (like in Watson's Lemma for example). We propose a more systematic variant of the method in which the computation of the steepest descent paths is trivial and almost universal: it only depends on the location and the order of the saddle points of the phase function. Moreover, this variant of the method generates an asymptotic expansion given in terms of a generalized (and universal) asymptotic sequence that avoids the computation of the standard coefficients, giving an explicit and systematic formula for the expansion that may be easily implemented on a symbolic manipulation program. As an illustrative example, the well-known asymptotic expansion of the Airy function is rederived almost trivially using this method. New asymptotic expansions of the Hankel function Hn(z) for large n and z are given as non-trivial examples.     

Melnikov functions and limit cycles in piecewise smooth perturbations of a linear center using regularization method

In this article we study limit cycles in piecewise smooth perturbations of a linear center. In this setting it is common to adapt classical results for smooth systems, like Melnikov functions, to non-smooth ones. However, there is little justification for this procedure in the literature. By using the regularization method we give a theoretical proof that supports the use of Melnikov functions directly from the original non-smooth problem.     

Properties of a family of merit functions and a merit function method for the NCP

A family of merit functions are proposed, which are the generalization of several existing merit functions. A number of favorable properties of the proposed merit functions are established. By using these properties, a merit function method for solving nonlinear complementarity problem is investigated, and the global convergence of the proposed algorithm is proved under some standard assumptions. Some preliminary numerical results are given.     

A one-parametric class of smoothing functions and an improved regularization Newton method for the NCP

In this paper, we introduce a one-parametric class of smoothing functions, which enjoys some favourable properties and includes two famous smoothing functions as special cases. Based on this class of smoothing functions, we propose a regularization Newton method for solving the non-linear complementarity problem. The main feature of the proposed method is that it uses a perturbed Newton equation to obtain the direction. This not only allows our method to have global and local quadratic convergences without strict complementarity conditions, but also makes the regularization parameter converge to zero globally Q-linearly. In addition, we use a new non-monotone line search scheme to obtain the step size. Some numerical results are reported which confirm the good theoretical properties of the proposed method.     

An outer approximation method for minimizing the product of several convex functions on a convex set

This paper addresses the minimization of the product ofp convex functions on a convex set. It is shown that this nonconvex problem can be converted to a concave minimization problem withp variables, whose objective function value is determined by solving a convex minimization problem. An outer approximation method is proposed for obtaining a global minimum of the resulting problem. Computational experiments indicate that this algorithm is reasonable efficient whenp is less than 4.This research was partly supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Grant No. (C)03832018 and (C)04832010.     

On the weakening of the convergence of Newton’s method using recurrent functions

We use Newton’s method to approximate a locally unique solution of an equation in a Banach space setting. We introduce recurrent functions to provide a weaker semilocal convergence analysis for Newton’s method than before [J. Appell, E. De Pascale, J.V. Lysenko, P.P. Zabrejko, New results on Newton–Kantorovich approximations with applications to nonlinear integral equations, Numer. Funct. Anal. Optim. 18 (1997) 1–17; I.K. Argyros, The theory and application of abstract polynomial equations, in: Mathematics Series, St. Lucie/CRC/Lewis Publ., Boca Raton, Florida, USA, 1998; I.K. Argyros, Concerning the “terra incognita” between convergence regions of two Newton methods, Nonlinear Anal. 62 (2005) 179–194; I.K. Argyros, Convergence and Applications of Newton-Type Iterations, Springer-Verlag Publ., New York, 2008; S. Chandrasekhar, Radiative Transfer, Dover Publ., New York, 1960; F. Cianciaruso, E. De Pascale, Newton–Kantorovich approximations when the derivative is Hölderian: Old and new results, Numer. Funct. Anal. Optim. 24 (2003) 713–723; N.T. Demidovich, P.P. Zabrejko, Ju.V. Lysenko, Some remarks on the Newton–Kantorovich method for nonlinear equations with Hölder continuous linearizations, Izv. Akad. Nauk Belorus 3 (1993) 22–26. (in Russian); E. De Pascale, P.P. Zabrejko, Convergence of the Newton–Kantorovich method under Vertgeim conditions: A new improvement, Z. Anal. Anwendvugen 17 (1998) 271–280; L.V. Kantorovich, G.P. Akilov, Functional Analysis, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1982; J.V. Lysenko, Conditions for the convergence of the Newton–Kantorovich method for nonlinear equations with Hölder linearizations, Dokl. Akad. Nauk BSSR 38 (1994) 20–24. (in Russian); B.A. Vertgeim, On conditions for the applicability of Newton’s method, (Russian), Dokl. Akad. Nauk., SSSR 110 (1956) 719–722; B.A. Vertgeim, On some methods for the approximate solution of nonlinear functional equations in Banach spaces, Uspekhi Mat. Nauk 12 (1957) 166–169. (in Russian); English transl.:; Amer. Math. Soc. Transl. 16 (1960) 378–382] provided that the Fréchet-derivative of the operator involved is p$p$-Hölder continuous (p∈(0,1]$p\in (0,1]$).     

Implementation of a restarted Krylov subspace method for the evaluation of matrix functions

A new implementation of restarted Krylov subspace methods for evaluating f(A)b for a function f, a matrix A and a vector b is proposed. In contrast to an implementation proposed previously, it requires constant work and constant storage space per restart cycle. The convergence behavior of this scheme is discussed and a new stopping criterion based on an error indicator is given. The performance of the implementation is illustrated for three parabolic initial value problems, requiring the evaluation of exp(A)b.     

Direct method to solve Volterra integral equation of the first kind using operational matrix with block-pulse functions

This article proposes a simple efficient direct method for solving Volterra integral equation of the first kind. By using block-pulse functions and their operational matrix of integration, first kind integral equation can be reduced to a linear lower triangular system which can be directly solved by forward substitution. Some examples are presented to illustrate efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method.     

A study on the method of fundamental solutions using an image concept

In this paper, both analytical and semi-analytical solutions for Green’s functions are obtained by using the image method which can be seen as a special case of method of fundamental solutions (MFS). The image method is employed to solve the Green’s function for the annular, eccentric and half-plane Laplace problems. In addition, an analytical solution is derived for the fixed-free annular case. For the half-plane problem with a circular hole and an eccentric annulus, semi-analytical solutions are both obtained by using the image concept after determining the strengths of two frozen image points and a free constant by matching boundary conditions. It is found that two frozen images terminated at the two focuses in the bipolar coordinates for the problems with two circular boundaries. A boundary value problem of an eccentric annulus without sources is also considered. Error distribution is plotted after comparing with the analytical solution derived by Lebedev et al. using the bipolar coordinates. The optimal locations for the source distribution in the MFS are also examined by using the image concept. It is observed that we should locate singularities on the two focuses to obtain better results in the MFS. Besides, whether the free constant is required or not in the MFS is also studied. The results are compared well with the analytical solutions.     

Solution of nonlinear weakly singular Volterra integral equations using the fractional‐order Legendre functions and pseudospectral method

In this article, our main goal is to render an idea to convert a nonlinear weakly singular Volterra integral equation to a non‐singular one by new fractional‐order Legendre functions. The fractional‐order Legendre functions are generated by change of variable on well‐known shifted Legendre polynomials. We consider a general form of singular Volterra integral equation of the second kind. Then the fractional Legendre–Gauss–Lobatto quadratures formula eliminates the singularity of the kernel of the integral equation. Finally, the Legendre pseudospectral method reduces the solution of this problem to the solution of a system of algebraic equations. This method also can be utilized on fractional differential equations as well. The comparison of results of the presented method and other numerical solutions shows the efficiency and accuracy of this method. Also, the obtained maximum error between the results and exact solutions shows that using the present method leads to accurate results and fast convergence for solving nonlinear weakly singular Volterra integral equations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Re-observation on localized waves constructed by variable separation solutions of (1+1)-dimensional coupled integrable dispersionless equations via the projective Riccati equation method

Variable separation exponential-form solution of (1+1)-dimensional coupled integrable dispersionless equations in physics and mathematics is obtained via the projective Riccati equation method. Based on the potential function, the multi-valued loop soliton, chaotic soliton chain and fractal pattern are studied. However, the singularity structure without the physical meaning is found at the same time for the original components of the system. Actually, if suitable functions are taken in variable separation solution, the singularity for the original components can be avoided. If the singularity structure for anyone of all components appears, novel and interesting structures for the potential function will become meaningless.