A Unified Approach to the Global Exactness of Penalty and Augmented Lagrangian Functions I: Parametric Exactness

In this two-part study, we develop a unified approach to the analysis of the global exactness of various penalty and augmented Lagrangian functions for constrained optimization problems in finite-dimensional spaces. This approach allows one to verify in a simple and straightforward manner whether a given penalty/augmented Lagrangian function is exact, i.e., whether the problem of unconstrained minimization of this function is equivalent (in some sense) to the original constrained problem, provided the penalty parameter is sufficiently large. Our approach is based on the so-called localization principle that reduces the study of global exactness to a local analysis of a chosen merit function near globally optimal solutions. In turn, such local analysis can be performed with the use of optimality conditions and constraint qualifications. In the first paper, we introduce the concept of global parametric exactness and derive the localization principle in the parametric form. With the use of this version of the localization principle, we recover existing simple, necessary, and sufficient conditions for the global exactness of linear penalty functions and for the existence of augmented Lagrange multipliers of Rockafellar–Wets’ augmented Lagrangian. We also present completely new necessary and sufficient conditions for the global exactness of general nonlinear penalty functions and for the global exactness of a continuously differentiable penalty function for nonlinear second-order cone programming problems. We briefly discuss how one can construct a continuously differentiable exact penalty function for nonlinear semidefinite programming problems as well.     

Augmented Lagrangian Objective Penalty Function

Augmented Lagrangian function is one of the most important tools used in solving some constrained optimization problems. In this article, we study an augmented Lagrangian objective penalty function and a modified augmented Lagrangian objective penalty function for inequality constrained optimization problems. First, we prove the dual properties of the augmented Lagrangian objective penalty function, which are at least as good as the traditional Lagrangian function's. Under some conditions, the saddle point of the augmented Lagrangian objective penalty function satisfies the first-order Karush-Kuhn-Tucker condition. This is especially so when the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker condition holds for convex programming of its saddle point existence. Second, we prove the dual properties of the modified augmented Lagrangian objective penalty function. For a global optimal solution, when the exactness of the modified augmented Lagrangian objective penalty function holds, its saddle point exists. The sufficient and necessary stability conditions used to determine whether the modified augmented Lagrangian objective penalty function is exact for a global solution is proved. Based on the modified augmented Lagrangian objective penalty function, an algorithm is developed to find a global solution to an inequality constrained optimization problem, and its global convergence is also proved under some conditions. Furthermore, the sufficient and necessary calmness condition on the exactness of the modified augmented Lagrangian objective penalty function is proved for a local solution. An algorithm is presented in finding a local solution, with its convergence proved under some conditions.     

Lower-Order Penalization Approach to Nonlinear Semidefinite Programming

In this paper, we reformulate a nonlinear semidefinite programming problem into an optimization problem with a matrix equality constraint. We apply a lower-order penalization approach to the reformulated problem. Necessary and sufficient conditions that guarantee the global (local) exactness of the lower-order penalty functions are derived. Convergence results of the optimal values and optimal solutions of the penalty problems to those of the original semidefinite program are established. Since the penalty functions may not be smooth or even locally Lipschitz, we invoke the Ekeland variational principle to derive necessary optimality conditions for the penalty problems. Under certain conditions, we show that any limit point of a sequence of stationary points of the penalty problems is a KKT stationary point of the original semidefinite program. Communicated by Y. Zhang This work was supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong.     

Exactness and algorithm of an objective penalty function

Penalty function is an important tool in solving many constrained optimization problems in areas such as industrial design and management. In this paper, we study exactness and algorithm of an objective penalty function for inequality constrained optimization. In terms of exactness, this objective penalty function is at least as good as traditional exact penalty functions. Especially, in the case of a global solution, the exactness of the proposed objective penalty function shows a significant advantage. The sufficient and necessary stability condition used to determine whether the objective penalty function is exact for a global solution is proved. Based on the objective penalty function, an algorithm is developed for finding a global solution to an inequality constrained optimization problem and its global convergence is also proved under some conditions. Furthermore, the sufficient and necessary calmness condition on the exactness of the objective penalty function is proved for a local solution. An algorithm is presented in the paper in finding a local solution, with its convergence proved under some conditions. Finally, numerical experiments show that a satisfactory approximate optimal solution can be obtained by the proposed algorithm.     

Exact augmented Lagrangian functions for nonlinear semidefinite programming

In this paper, we study augmented Lagrangian functions for nonlinear semidefinite programming (NSDP) problems with exactness properties. The term exact is used in the sense that the penalty parameter can be taken appropriately, so a single minimization of the augmented Lagrangian recovers a solution of the original problem. This leads to reformulations of NSDP problems into unconstrained nonlinear programming ones. Here, we first establish a unified framework for constructing these exact functions, generalizing Di Pillo and Lucidi’s work from 1996, that was aimed at solving nonlinear programming problems. Then, through our framework, we propose a practical augmented Lagrangian function for NSDP, proving that it is continuously differentiable and exact under the so-called nondegeneracy condition. We also present some preliminary numerical experiments.     

基于增广Lagrange函数的RQP方法

Recursive quadratic programming is a family of techniques developd by Bartholomew-Biggs and other authors for solving nonlinear programming problems.This paperdescribes a new method for constrained optimization which obtains its search di-rections from a quadratic programming subproblem based on the well-known aug-mented Lagrangian function.It avoids the penalty parameter to tend to infinity.We employ the Fletcher‘s exact penalty function as a merit function and the use of an approximate directional derivative of the function that avoids the need toevaluate the second order derivatives of the problem functions.We prove that thealgorithm possesses global and superlinear convergence properties.At the sametime, numerical results are reported.     

Global saddle points of nonlinear augmented Lagrangian functions

We notice that the results for the existence of global (local) saddle points of augmented Lagrangian functions in the literature were only sufficient conditions of some special types of augmented Lagrangian. In this paper, we introduce a general class of nonlinear augmented Lagrangian functions for constrained optimization problem. In two different cases, we present sufficient and necessary conditions for the existence of global saddle points. Moreover, as corollaries of the two results above, we not only obtain sufficient and necessary conditions for the existence of global saddle points of some special types of augmented Lagrangian functions mentioned in the literature, but also give some weaker sufficient conditions than the ones in the literature. Compared with our recent work (Wang et al. in Math Oper Res 38:740–760, 2013), the nonlinear augmented Lagrangian functions in this paper are more general and the results in this paper are original. We show that some examples (such as improved barrier augmented Lagrangian) satisfy the assumptions of this paper, but not available in Wang et al. (2013).     

Approximate Augmented Lagrangian Functions and Nonlinear Semidefinite Programs

In this paper, an approximate augmented Lagrangian function for nonlinear semidefinite programs is introduced. Some basic properties of the approximate augmented Lagrange function such as monotonicity and convexity are discussed. Necessary and sufficient conditions for approximate strong duality results are derived. Conditions for an approximate exact penalty representation in the framework of augmented Lagrangian are given. Under certain conditions, it is shown that any limit point of a sequence of stationary points of approximate augmented Lagrangian problems is a KKT point of the original semidefinite program and that a sequence of optimal solutions to augmented Lagrangian problems converges to a solution of the original semidefinite program.     

Duality and Exact Penalization for Vector Optimization via Augmented Lagrangian

In this paper, we introduce an augmented Lagrangian function for a multiobjective optimization problem with an extended vector-valued function. On the basis of this augmented Lagrangian, set-valued dual maps and dual optimization problems are constructed. Weak and strong duality results are obtained. Necessary and sufficient conditions for uniformly exact penalization and exact penalization are established. Finally, comparisons of saddle-point properties are made between a class of augmented Lagrangian functions and nonlinear Lagrangian functions for a constrained multiobjective optimization problem.     

Existence of Augmented Lagrange Multipliers for Semi-infinite Programming Problems

Using an augmented Lagrangian approach, we study the existence of augmented Lagrange multipliers of a semi-infinite programming problem and discuss their characterizations in terms of saddle points. In the case of a sharp Lagrangian, we obtain a first-order necessary condition for the existence of an augmented Lagrange multiplier for the semi-infinite programming problem and some first-order sufficient conditions by assuming inf-compactness of the data functions and the extended Mangasarian–Fromovitz constraint qualification. Using a valley at 0 augmenting function and assuming suitable second-order sufficient conditions, we obtain the existence of an augmented Lagrange multiplier for the semi-infinite programming problem.     

Augmented Lagrangian functions for constrained optimization problems

In this paper, in order to obtain some existence results about solutions of the augmented Lagrangian problem for a constrained problem in which the objective function and constraint functions are noncoercive, we construct a new augmented Lagrangian function by using an auxiliary function. We establish a zero duality gap result and a sufficient condition of an exact penalization representation for the constrained problem without the coercive or level-bounded assumption on the objective function and constraint functions. By assuming that the sequence of multipliers is bounded, we obtain the existence of a global minimum and an asymptotically minimizing sequence for the constrained optimization problem.     

A geometric framework for nonconvex optimization duality using augmented lagrangian functions

We provide a unifying geometric framework for the analysis of general classes of duality schemes and penalty methods for nonconvex constrained optimization problems. We present a separation result for nonconvex sets via general concave surfaces. We use this separation result to provide necessary and sufficient conditions for establishing strong duality between geometric primal and dual problems. Using the primal function of a constrained optimization problem, we apply our results both in the analysis of duality schemes constructed using augmented Lagrangian functions, and in establishing necessary and sufficient conditions for the convergence of penalty methods.     

Nonlinear separation approach for the augmented Lagrangian in nonlinear semidefinite programming

This paper aims at showing that the class of augmented Lagrangian functions for nonlinear semidefinite programming problems can be derived, as a particular case, from a nonlinear separation scheme in the image space associated with the given problem. By means of the image space analysis, a global saddle point condition for the augmented Lagrangian function is investigated. It is shown that the existence of a saddle point is equivalent to a regular nonlinear separation of two suitable subsets of the image space. Without requiring the strict complementarity, it is proved that, under second order sufficiency conditions, the augmented Lagrangian function admits a local saddle point. The existence of global saddle points is then obtained under additional assumptions that do not require the compactness of the feasible set. Motivated by the result on global saddle points, we propose two modified primal-dual methods based on the augmented Lagrangian using different strategies and prove their convergence to a global solution and the optimal value of the original problem without requiring the boundedness condition of the multiplier sequence.     

Saddle Points Theory of Two Classes of Augmented Lagrangians and Its Applications to Generalized Semi-infinite Programming

In this paper, we develop the sufficient conditions for the existence of local and global saddle points of two classes of augmented Lagrangian functions for nonconvex optimization problem with both equality and inequality constraints, which improve the corresponding results in available papers. The main feature of our sufficient condition for the existence of global saddle points is that we do not need the uniqueness of the optimal solution. Furthermore, we show that the existence of global saddle points is a necessary and sufficient condition for the exact penalty representation in the framework of augmented Lagrangians. Based on these, we convert a class of generalized semi-infinite programming problems into standard semi-infinite programming problems via augmented Lagrangians. Some new first-order optimality conditions are also discussed. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of P.R. China (Grant No. 10571106 and No. 10701047).     

基于不等式约束的一类新的增广lagrangian函数

本文提出了一类新的增广lagrangian函数,并证明了它的稳定点、整体极小点与原约束问题KKT点、整体极小点有1-1对应关系,增广lagrangian函数的局部极小点为原问题的局部极小点.     

A Globally Convergent Lagrangian Barrier Algorithm for Optimization with General Inequality Constraints and Simple Bounds

We consider the global and local convergence properties of a class of Lagrangian barrier methods for solving nonlinear programming problems. In such methods, simple bound constraints may be treated separately from more general constraints. The objective and general constraint functions are combined in a Lagrangian barrier function. A sequence of such functions are approximately minimized within the domain defined by the simple bounds. Global convergence of the sequence of generated iterates to a first-order stationary point for the original problem is established. Furthermore, possible numerical difficulties associated with barrier function methods are avoided as it is shown that a potentially troublesome penalty parameter is bounded away from zero. This paper is a companion to previous work of ours on augmented Lagrangian methods.

     

Some Results on Augmented Lagrangians in Constrained Global Optimization via Image Space Analysis

The aim of this paper is to present some results for the augmented Lagrangian function in the context of constrained global optimization by means of the image space analysis. It is first shown that a saddle point condition for the augmented Lagrangian function is equivalent to the existence of a regular nonlinear separation in the image space. Local and global sufficient optimality conditions for the exact augmented Lagrangian function are then investigated by means of second-order analysis in the image space. Local optimality result for this function is established under second-order sufficiency conditions in the image space. Global optimality result is further obtained under additional assumptions. Finally, it is proved that the exact augmented Lagrangian method converges to a global solution–Lagrange multiplier pair of the original problem under mild conditions.     

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.     

广义乘子交替方向法求解线性约束不可分非凸优化问题的收敛性

In this paper, we consider the convergence of the generalized alternating direction method of multipliers(GADMM) for solving linearly constrained nonconvex minimization model whose objective contains coupled functions. Under the assumption that the augmented Lagrangian function satisfies the Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz inequality, we prove that the sequence generated by the GADMM converges to a critical point of the augmented Lagrangian function when the penalty parameter in the augmented Lagrangian function is sufficiently large. Moreover, we also present some sufficient conditions guaranteeing the sublinear and linear rate of convergence of the algorithm.     

Duality in vector optimization via augmented Lagrangian

This paper is devoted to developing augmented Lagrangian duality theory in vector optimization. By using the concepts of the supremum and infimum of a set and conjugate duality of a set-valued map on the basic of weak efficiency, we establish the interchange rules for a set-valued map, and propose an augmented Lagrangian function for a vector optimization problem with set-valued data. Under this augmented Lagrangian, weak and strong duality results are given. Then we derive sufficient conditions for penalty representations of the primal problem. The obtained results extend the corresponding theorems existing in scalar optimization.