Unital affine semigroups

Affine semigroups are convex sets on which there exists an associative binary operation which is affine separately in either variable. They were introduced by Cohen and Collins in 1959. We look at examples of affine semigroups which are of interest to matrix and operator theory and we prove some new results on the extreme points and the absorbing elements of certain types of affine semigroups. Most notably we improve a result of Wendel that every invertible element in a compact affine semigroup is extreme by extending this result to linearly bounded affine semigroups.     

Ratios of affine functions

Aratio of affine functions is a function which can be expressed as the ratio of a vector valued affine function and a scalar affine functional. The purpose of this note is to examine properties of sets which are preserved under images and inverse images of such functions. Specifically, we show that images and inverse images of convex sets under such functions are convex sets. Also, images of bounded, convex polytopes under such functions are bounded, convex polytopes. In addition, we provide sufficient conditions under which the extreme points of images of convex sets are images of extreme points of the underlying domains. Of course, this result is useful when one wishes to maximize a convex function over a corresponding set. The above assertions are well known for affine functions. Applications of the results include a problem that concerns the control of stochastic eigenvectors of stochastic matrices.     

Reverse Convex Programming Approach in the Space of Extreme Criteria for Optimization over Efficient Sets

The problem of minimizing a convex function over the difference of two convex sets is called ‘reverse convex program’. This is a typical problem in global optimization, in which local optima are in general different from global optima. Another typical example in global optimization is the optimization problem over the efficient set of a multiple criteria programming problem. In this article, we investigate some special cases of optimization problems over the efficient set, which can be transformed equivalently into reverse convex programs in the space of so-called extreme criteria of multiple criteria programming problems under consideration. A suitable algorithm of branch and bound type is then established for globally solving resulting problems. Preliminary computational results with the proposed algorithm are reported.     

Minimum Distance to the Complement of a Convex Set: Duality Result

The subject of this paper is to study the problem of the minimum distance to the complement of a convex set. Nirenberg has stated a duality theorem treating the minimum norm problem for a convex set. We state a duality result which presents some analogy with the Nirenberg theorem, and we apply this result to polyhedral convex sets. First, we assume that the polyhedral set is expressed as the intersection of some finite collection of m given half-spaces. We show that a global solution is determined by solving m convex programs. If the polyhedral set is expressed as the convex hull of a given finite set of extreme points, we show that a global minimum for a polyhedral norm is obtained by solving a finite number of linear programs.     

Multi-objective optimization over convex disjunctive feasible sets using reference points

In this paper we consider the Multiple Objective Optimization Problem (MOOP), where concave functions are to be maximized over a feasible set represented as a union of compact convex sets. To solve this problem we consider two auxiliary scalar optimization problems which use reference points. The first one contains only continuous variables, it has higher dimensionality, however it is convex. The second scalar problem is a mixed integer programming problem. The solutions of both scalar problems determine nondominated points. Some other properties of these problems are also discussed.     

Inscribed ball and enclosing box methods for the convex maximization problem

Many important classes of decision models give rise to the problem of finding a global maximum of a convex function over a convex set. This problem is known also as concave minimization, concave programming or convex maximization. Such problems can have many local maxima, therefore finding the global maximum is a computationally difficult problem, since standard nonlinear programming procedures fail. In this article, we provide a very simple and practical approach to find the global solution of quadratic convex maximization problems over a polytope. A convex function achieves its global maximum at extreme points of the feasible domain. Since an inscribed ball does not contain any extreme points of the domain, we use the largest inscribed ball for an inner approximation while a minimal enclosing box is exploited for an outer approximation of the domain. The approach is based on the use of these approximations along with the standard local search algorithm and cutting plane techniques.     

Characterizations of strictly convex sets by the uniqueness of support points

Abstract

This short paper characterizes strictly convex sets by the uniqueness of support points (such points are called unique support points or exposed points) under appropriate assumptions. A class of so-called regular sets, for which every extreme point is a unique support point, is introduced. Closed strictly convex sets and their intersections with some other sets are shown to belong to this class. The obtained characterizations are then applied to set-valued maps and to the separation of a convex set and a strictly convex set. Under suitable assumptions, so-called set-valued maps with path property are characterized by strictly convex images of the considered set-valued map.     

Special Pair of Dual Parametric Nonlinear Optimization Problems with Common Set of Optimal Points

On the base of a given strictly convex function defined on the Euclidean space E n ( n S 2) we can-without the assumption that it is differentiable - introduce some manifolds in topologic sense. Such manifolds are sets of all optimal points of a certain parametric non-linear optimization problem. This paper presents above all certain generalization of some results of [F. No ? i ) ka and L. Grygarová (1991). Some topological questions connected with strictly convex functions. Optimization , 22 , 177-191. Akademie Verlag, Berlin] and [L. Grygarová (1988). Über Lösungsmengen spezieller konvexer parametrischer Optimierungsaufgaben . Optimization 19 , 215-228. Akademie Verlag Berlin], under less strict assumptions. The main results are presented in Sections 3 and 4, in Section 3 the geometrical characterization of the set of optimal points of a certain parametric minimization problem is presented; in Section 4 we study a maximization non-linear parametric problem assigned to it. It seems that it is a certain pair of parametric optimization problems with the same set of their optimal points, so that this pair of problems can be denoted as a pair of dual parametric non-linear optimization problems. This paper presents, most of all in Section 2, a number of interesting geometric facts about strictly convex functions. From the point of view of non-smooth analysis the present article is a certain complement to Chapter 4.3 of the book [B. Bank, J. Guddat, D. Klatte, B. Kummer and K. Tammer (1982). Nonlinear Parametric Optimization . Akademie Verlag, Berlin] where a convex parametric minimization problem is considered under more general and stronger conditions (but without any assumptions concerning strict convexity and without geometrical aspects).     

A neural network for the linear complementarity problem

An artificial neural network is proposed in this paper for solving the linear complementarity problem. The new neural network is based on a reformulation of the linear complementarity problem into the unconstrained minimization problem. Our new neural network can be easily implemented on a circuit. On the theoretical aspect, we analyze the existence of the equilibrium points for our neural network. In addition, we prove that if the equilibrium point exists for the neural network, then any such equilibrium point is both asymptotically and bounded (Lagrange) stable for any initial state. Furthermore, linear programming and certain quadratical programming problems (not necessarily convex) can be also solved by the neural network. Simulation results on several problems including a nonconvex one are also reported.     

A tensor product matrix approximation problem in quantum physics

We consider a matrix approximation problem arising in the study of entanglement in quantum physics. This notion represents a certain type of correlations between subsystems in a composite quantum system. The states of a system are described by a density matrix, which is a positive semidefinite matrix with trace one. The goal is to approximate such a given density matrix by a so-called separable density matrix, and the distance between these matrices gives information about the degree of entanglement in the system. Separability here is expressed in terms of tensor products. We discuss this approximation problem for a composite system with two subsystems and show that it can be written as a convex optimization problem with special structure. We investigate related convex sets, and suggest an algorithm for this approximation problem which exploits the tensor product structure in certain subproblems. Finally some computational results and experiences are presented.     

Bounding a class of nonconvex linearly-constrained resource allocation problems via the surrogate dual

We consider a class of problems of resource allocation under economies of scale, namely that of minimizing a lower semicontinuous, isotone, and explicitly quasiconcave cost function subject to linear constraints. An important class of algorithms for the linearly constrained minimization of nonconvex cost functions utilize the branch and bound approach, using convex underestimating cost functions to compute the lower bounds.We suggest instead the use of the surrogate dual problem to bound subproblems. We show that the success of the surrogate dual in fathoming subproblems in a branch and bound algorithm may be determined without directly solving the surrogate dual itself, but that a simple test of the feasibility of a certain linear system of inequalities will suffice. This test is interpreted geometrically and used to characterize the extreme points and extreme rays of the optimal value function's level sets.Research partially supported by NSF under grant # ENG77-06555.     

Linear programming system identification: The general nonnegative parameters case

By linear programming system identification, we mean the problem of estimating the objective function coefficient vector π and the technological coefficient matrix A for a linear programming system that best explains a set of input–output vectors. Input vectors are regarded as available resources. Output vectors are compared to imputed optimal ones by a decisional efficiency measure and a likelihood function is constructed. In an earlier paper, we obtained results for a simplified version of the problem. In this paper, we propose a genetic algorithm approach for the general case in which π and A are of arbitrary finite dimensions and have nonnegative components. A method based on Householder transformations and Monte Carlo integration is used as an alternative to combinatorial algorithms for the extreme points and volumes of certain required convex polyhedral sets. The method exhibits excellent face validity for a published test data set in data envelopment analysis.     

Stability Analysis of Gradient-Based Neural Networks for Optimization Problems

The paper introduces a new approach to analyze the stability of neural network models without using any Lyapunov function. With the new approach, we investigate the stability properties of the general gradient-based neural network model for optimization problems. Our discussion includes both isolated equilibrium points and connected equilibrium sets which could be unbounded. For a general optimization problem, if the objective function is bounded below and its gradient is Lipschitz continuous, we prove that (a) any trajectory of the gradient-based neural network converges to an equilibrium point, and (b) the Lyapunov stability is equivalent to the asymptotical stability in the gradient-based neural networks. For a convex optimization problem, under the same assumptions, we show that any trajectory of gradient-based neural networks will converge to an asymptotically stable equilibrium point of the neural networks. For a general nonlinear objective function, we propose a refined gradient-based neural network, whose trajectory with any arbitrary initial point will converge to an equilibrium point, which satisfies the second order necessary optimality conditions for optimization problems. Promising simulation results of a refined gradient-based neural network on some problems are also reported.     

Piecewise convex formulations of binary and permutation problems

It is well known that the problem of maximization of any difference of convex functions can be turned into a convex maximization problem; here, the aim is a piecewise convex maximization problem instead. Although this may seem harder, sometimes the dimension may be reduced by 1, and the local search may be improved by using extreme points of the closure of the convex hull of better points. We show that it is always the case for both binary and permutation problems and give, as such instances, piecewise convex formulations for the maximum clique problem and the quadratic assignment problem.     

A finite steps algorithm for solving convex feasibility problems

This paper develops a new variant of the classical alternating projection method for solving convex feasibility problems where the constraints are given by the intersection of two convex cones in a Hilbert space. An extension to the feasibility problem for the intersection of two convex sets is presented as well. It is shown that one can solve such problems in a finite number of steps and an explicit upper bound for the required number of steps is obtained. As an application, we propose a new finite steps algorithm for linear programming with linear matrix inequality constraints. This solution is computed by solving a sequence of a matrix eigenvalue decompositions. Moreover, the proposed procedure takes advantage of the structure of the problem. In particular, it is well adapted for problems with several small size constraints.     

On extreme points of bounded sets of generalized finite sequence spaces

The Linear Independence Extreme Point Theorem and Opposite Sign Theorem of semiinfinite programming provide algebraic characterizations of unbounded infinite dimensional convex polyhedral sets in terms of their extreme points. The Charnes, Kortanek, and Raike purification algorithm, which transforms any non-extreme point to an extreme point having objective function value at least as great, is based upon the constructive proofs of these two theorems. In this paper these extreme point characterizations are extended to additionally constrained, bounded convex polyhedral constraint sets of semi-infinite programming. It is shown that each of these bounded sets is spanned by a possibly infinite number of extreme points, and as before the proofs are constructive, thereby expanding the range of applicability of the purification algorithm to these cases.     

Bauer's maximum principle and hulls of sets

We use the Bauer maximum principle for quasiconvex, polyconvex and rank-one convex functions to derive Krein-Milman-type theorems for compact sets in . Further we show that in general the set of quasiconvex extreme points is not invariant under transposition and it is different from the set of rank-one convex extreme points. Finally, a set in with different polyconvex, quasiconvex and rank-one convex hulls is constructed. Received September 14, 1999 / Accepted January 14, 2000 /Published online July 20, 2000     

Banach空间中关于有界集的同时远达问题的适定性

本文研究Banach空间中关于有界集的同时远达问题的适定性,在集合的Hausdorff距离下,证明了：对自反局部一致凸Banach空间中的闭有界集K,使所有关于K的同时远达问题是适定的紧凸子集A全体在紧凸子集全体中是Gδ型集．     

Enumeration of All Possibly Optimal Vertices with Possible Optimality Degrees in Linear Programming Problems with a Possibilistic Objective Function

In this paper, we treat linear programming problems with fuzzy objective function coefficients. To such a problem, the possibly optimal solution set is defined as a fuzzy set. It is shown that any possibly optimal solution can be represented by a convex combination of possibly optimal vertices. A method to enumerate all possibly optimal vertices with their membership degrees is developed. It is shown that, given a possibly optimal extreme point with a higher membership degree, the membership degree of an adjacent extreme point is calculated by solving a linear programming problem and that all possibly optimal vertices are enumerated sequentially by tracing adjacent possibly optimal extreme points from a possibly optimal extreme point with the highest membership degree.