A parametric successive underestimation method for convex multiplicative programming problems

This paper addresses itself to the algorithm for minimizing the product of two nonnegative convex functions over a convex set. It is shown that the global minimum of this nonconvex problem can be obtained by solving a sequence of convex programming problems. The basic idea of this algorithm is to embed the original problem into a problem in a higher dimensional space and to apply a branch-and-bound algorithm using an underestimating function. Computational results indicate that our algorithm is efficient when the objective function is the product of a linear and a quadratic functions and the constraints are linear. An extension of our algorithm for minimizing the sum of a convex function and a product of two convex functions is also discussed.     

Lagrangian duality of concave minimization subject to linear constraints and an additional facial reverse convex constraint

This paper is concerned with the global optimization problem of minimizing a concave function subject to linear constraints and an additional facial reverse convex constraint. Here, the feasible set is the union of some faces of the polyhedron determined by the linear constraints. Several well-known mathematical problems can be written or transformed into the form considered. The paper addresses the Lagrangian duality of the problem. It is shown that, under slight assumptions, the duality gap can be closed with a finite dual multiplier. Finite methods based on solving concave minimization problems are also proposed. We deal with the advantages accrued when outer approximation, cutting plane, or branch-and-bound methods are used for solving these subproblems.This research was supported in part by the Hungarian National Research Foundation, Grant OTKA 2568. The author wishes to thank the Associate Editor and the referees for their valuable comments.     

A new global optimization method for univariate constrained twice-differentiable NLP problems

In this paper, a new global optimization method is proposed for an optimization problem with twice-differentiable objective and constraint functions of a single variable. The method employs a difference of convex underestimator and a convex cut function, where the former is a continuous piecewise concave quadratic function, and the latter is a convex quadratic function. The main objectives of this research are to determine a quadratic concave underestimator that does not need an iterative local optimizer to determine the lower bounding value of the objective function and to determine a convex cut function that effectively detects infeasible regions for nonconvex constraints. The proposed method is proven to have a finite ε-convergence to locate the global optimum point. The numerical experiments indicate that the proposed method competes with another covering method, the index branch-and-bound algorithm, which uses the Lipschitz constant.     

An effective branch-and-bound algorithm for convex quadratic integer programming

We present a branch-and-bound algorithm for minimizing a convex quadratic objective function over integer variables subject to convex constraints. In a given node of the enumeration tree, corresponding to the fixing of a subset of the variables, a lower bound is given by the continuous minimum of the restricted objective function. We improve this bound by exploiting the integrality of the variables using suitably-defined lattice-free ellipsoids. Experiments show that our approach is very fast on both unconstrained problems and problems with box constraints. The main reason is that all expensive calculations can be done in a preprocessing phase, while a single node in the enumeration tree can be processed in linear time in the problem dimension.     

Branch-and-Bound Outer Approximation Algorithm for Sum-of-Ratios Fractional Programs

In this article, a branch and-bound outer approximation algorithm is presented for globally solving a sum-of-ratios fractional programming problem. To solve this problem, the algorithm instead solves an equivalent problem that involves minimizing an indefinite quadratic function over a nonempty, compact convex set. This problem is globally solved by a branch-and-bound outer approximation approach that can create several closed-form linear inequality cuts per iteration. In contrast to pure outer approximation techniques, the algorithm does not require computing the new vertices that are created as these cuts are added. Computationally, the main work of the algorithm involves solving a sequence of convex programming problems whose feasible regions are identical to one another except for certain linear constraints. As a result, to solve these problems, an optimal solution to one problem can potentially be used to good effect as a starting solution for the next problem.     

Semidefinite relaxations for non-convex quadratic mixed-integer programming

We present semidefinite relaxations for unconstrained non-convex quadratic mixed-integer optimization problems. These relaxations yield tight bounds and are computationally easy to solve for medium-sized instances, even if some of the variables are integer and unbounded. In this case, the problem contains an infinite number of linear constraints; these constraints are separated dynamically. We use this approach as a bounding routine in an SDP-based branch-and-bound framework. In case of a convex objective function, the new SDP bound improves the bound given by the continuous relaxation of the problem. Numerical experiments show that our algorithm performs well on various types of non-convex instances.     

Piecewise-linear programming: The compact (CPLP) algorithm

A compact algorithm is presented for solving the convex piecewise-linear-programming problem, formulated by means of a separable convex piecewise-linear objective function (to be minimized) and a set of linear constraints. This algorithm consists of a finite sequence of cycles, derived from the simplex method, characteritic of linear programming, and the line search, characteristic of nonlinear programming. Both the required storage and amount of calculation are reduced with respect to the usual approach, based on a linear-programming formulation with an expanded tableau. The tableau dimensions arem×(n+1), wherem is the number of constraints andn the number of the (original) structural variables, and they do not increase with the number of breakpoints of the piecewise-linear terms constituting the objective function.     

不可分离凸背包问题的拉格朗日分解和区域分割方法

本文对线性约束不可分离凸背包问题给出了一种精确算法．该算法是拉格朗日分解和区域分割结合起来的一种分枝定界算法．利用拉格朗日分解方法可以得到每个子问题的一个可行解，一个不可行解，一个下界和一个上界．区域分割可以把一个整数箱子分割成几个互不相交的整数子箱子的并集，每个整数子箱子对应一个子问题．通过区域分割可以逐步减小对偶间隙并最终经过有限步迭代找到原问题的最优解．数值结果表明该算法对不可分离凸背包问题是有效的．     

New computational results on the discrete time/cost trade-off problem in project networks

We describe a new exact procedure for the discrete time/cost trade-off problem in deterministic activity-on-the-arc networks of the CPM type, where the duration of each activity is a discrete, nonincreasing function of the amount of a single resource (money) committed to it. The objective is to construct the complete and efficient time/cost profile over the set of feasible project durations. The procedure uses a horizon-varying approach based on the iterative optimal solution of the problem of minimising the sum of the resource use over all activities subject to the activity precedence constraints and a project deadline. This optimal solution is derived using a branch-and-bound procedure which computes lower bounds by making convex piecewise linear underestimations of the discrete time/cost trade-off curves of the activities to be used as input for an adapted version of the Fulkerson labelling algorithm for the linear time/cost trade-off problem. Branching involves the selection of an activity in order to partition its set of execution modes into two subsets which are used to derive improved convex piecewise linear underestimations. The procedure has been programmed in Visual C ++ under Windows NT and has been validated using a factorial experiment on a large set of randomly generated problem instances.     

An eigenvalue decomposition based branch-and-bound algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programming problems with convex quadratic constraints

In this paper, we propose a branch-and-bound algorithm for finding a global optimal solution for a nonconvex quadratic program with convex quadratic constraints (NQPCQC). We first reformulate NQPCQC by adding some nonconvex quadratic constraints induced by eigenvectors of negative eigenvalues associated with the nonconvex quadratic objective function to Shor’s semidefinite relaxation. Under the assumption of having a bounded feasible domain, these nonconvex quadratic constraints can be further relaxed into linear ones to form a special semidefinite programming relaxation. Then an efficient branch-and-bound algorithm branching along the eigendirections of negative eigenvalues is designed. The theoretic convergence property and the worst-case complexity of the proposed algorithm are proved. Numerical experiments are conducted on several types of quadratic programs to show the efficiency of the proposed method.     

Using convex envelopes to solve the interactive fixed-charge linear programming problem

In the well-known fixed-charge linear programming problem, it is assumed, for each activity, that the value of the fixed charge incurred when the level of the activity is positive does not depend upon which other activities, if any, are also undertaken at a positive level. However, we have encountered several practical problems where this assumption does not hold. In an earlier paper, we developed a new problem, called the interactive fixed-charge linear programming problem (IFCLP), to model these problems. In this paper, we show how to construct the convex envelopes and other convex underestimating functions for the objective function for problem (IFCLP) over various rectangular subsets of its domain. Using these results, we develop a specialized branch-and-bound algorithm for problem (IFCLP) which finds an exact optimal solution for the problem in a finite number of steps. We also discuss the main properties of this algorithm.The authors would like to thank an anonymous referee for his helpful suggestions.     

一类线性乘积规划问题的分支定界缩减方法

提出了求解一类线性乘积规划问题的分支定界缩减方法, 并证明了算法的收敛性.在这个方法中, 利用两个变量乘积的凸包络技术, 给出了目标函数与约束函数中乘积的下界, 由此确定原问题的一个松弛凸规划, 从而找到原问题全局最优值的下界和可行解. 为了加快所提算法的收敛速度, 使用了超矩形的缩减策略. 数值结果表明所提出的算法是可行的.     

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.     

On Extensions of the Frank-Wolfe Theorems

In this paper we consider optimization problems defined by a quadratic objective function and a finite number of quadratic inequality constraints. Given that the objective function is bounded over the feasible set, we present a comprehensive study of the conditions under which the optimal solution set is nonempty, thus extending the so-called Frank-Wolfe theorem. In particular, we first prove a general continuity result for the solution set defined by a system of convex quadratic inequalities. This result implies immediately that the optimal solution set of the aforementioned problem is nonempty when all the quadratic functions involved are convex. In the absence of the convexity of the objective function, we give examples showing that the optimal solution set may be empty either when there are two or more convex quadratic constraints, or when the Hessian of the objective function has two or more negative eigenvalues. In the case when there exists only one convex quadratic inequality constraint (together with other linear constraints), or when the constraint functions are all convex quadratic and the objective function is quasi-convex (thus allowing one negative eigenvalue in its Hessian matrix), we prove that the optimal solution set is nonempty.     

Reformulation and solution approach for non-separable integer quadratic programs

We consider quadratic programs with pure general integer variables. The objective function is quadratic and convex and the constraints are linear. An exact solution approach is proposed. It is decomposed into two phases. In the first phase, the initial problem is reformulated into an equivalent problem with a separable objective function. This is done by use of a Gauss decomposition of the Hessian matrix of the initial problem and requires the addition of some continuous variables and constraints. In the second phase, the reformulated problem is linearized by an approximation of each squared term by a set of K linear functions that correspond to the tangents of a hyperbola in K points. We give a proof of the intuitive property that when K is large enough, the optimal value of the obtained linear program is very close to optimal value of the two previous problems, the initial problem and the reformulated separable problem. The reminder is dedicated to the implementation of a branch-and-bound algorithm for the solution of linearized problem, and its application to a set of instances. Several points are considered among which choice of the right value for parameter K and the implementation of a sophisticated heuristic solution algorithm. The numerical comparison is done with CPLEX 12.2 since, in this case, the initial problem as well as the problem reformulated by the first step can be solved by CPLEX. We show that with our approach, the total CPU time is divided by a factor ranging from 1.2 to 131.6 for instances with 40–60 variables.     

求线性比式和问题全局解的输出空间分枝定界算法

基于对p-1维输出空间进行剖分的思想,提出了一种求解线性比式和问题的分枝定界算法.通过一种两阶段转换方法得到原问题的一个等价问题,该问题的非凸性主要体现在新增加的p-1个非线性等式约束上.利用双线性函数的凹凸包络对这些非线性约束进行凸化,这就为等价问题构造了凸松弛子问题.将凸松弛子问题中的冗余约束去掉并进行等价转换,从而获得了一个比凸松弛子问题规模更小、约束更少的线性规划问题.证明了算法的理论收敛性和计算复杂性.数值实验表明该算法是有效可行的.     

A Branch-and-Bound Approach for Solving a Class of Generalized Semi-infinite Programming Problems

A nonconvex generalized semi-infinite programming problem is considered, involving parametric max-functions in both the objective and the constraints. For a fixed vector of parameters, the values of these parametric max-functions are given as optimal values of convex quadratic programming problems. Assuming that for each parameter the parametric quadratic problems satisfy the strong duality relation, conditions are described ensuring the uniform boundedness of the optimal sets of the dual problems w.r.t. the parameter. Finally a branch-and-bound approach is suggested transforming the problem of finding an approximate global minimum of the original nonconvex optimization problem into the solution of a finite number of convex problems.     

Convex programming with single separable constraint and bounded variables

In this paper a minimization problem with convex objective function subject to a separable convex inequality constraint “≤” and bounded variables (box constraints) is considered. We propose an iterative algorithm for solving this problem based on line search and convergence of this algorithm is proved. At each iteration, a separable convex programming problem with the same constraint set is solved using Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. Convex minimization problems subject to linear equality/ linear inequality “≥” constraint and bounds on the variables are also considered. Numerical illustration is included in support of theory.     

On Generalizations of the Frank-Wolfe Theorem to Convex and Quasi-Convex Programmes

In this paper we are concerned with the problem of boundedness and the existence of optimal solutions to the constrained optimization problem. We present necessary and sufficient conditions for boundedness of either a faithfully convex or a quasi-convex polynomial function over the feasible set defined by a system of faithfully convex inequality constraints and/or quasi-convex polynomial inequalities, where the faithfully convex functions satisfy some mild assumption. The conditions are provided in the form of an algorithm, terminating after a finite number of iterations, the implementation of which requires the identification of implicit equality constraints in a homogeneous linear system. We prove that the optimal solution set of the considered problem is nonempty, this way extending the attainability result well known as the so-called Frank-Wolfe theorem. Finally we show that our extension of the Frank-Wolfe theorem immediately implies continuity of the solution set defined by the considered system of (quasi)convex inequalities.     

Global optimization of a quadratic function subject to a bounded mixed integer consraint set

In this paper we consider the optimization of a quadratic function subject to a linearly bounded mixed integer constraint set. We develop two types of piecewise affine convex underestimating functions for the objective function. These are used in a branch and bound algorithm for solving the original problem. We show finite convergence to a near optimal solution for this algorithm. We illustrate the algorithm with a small numerical example. Finally we discuss some modifications of the algorithm and address the question of extending the problem to include quadratic constraints.Supported by grants from the Danish Natural Science Research Council and the Danish Research Academy.