Combining Trust-Region Techniques and Rosenbrock Methods to Compute Stationary Points

Rosenbrock methods are popular for solving a stiff initial-value problem of ordinary differential equations. One advantage is that there is no need to solve a nonlinear equation at every iteration, as compared with other implicit methods such as backward difference formulas or implicit Runge–Kutta methods. In this article, we introduce a trust-region technique to select the time steps of a second-order Rosenbrock method for a special initial-value problem, namely, a gradient system obtained from an unconstrained optimization problem. The technique is different from the local error approach. Both local and global convergence properties of the new method for solving an equilibrium point of the gradient system are addressed. Finally, some promising numerical results are also presented. This research was supported in part by Grant 2007CB310604 from National Basic Research Program of China, and #DMS-0404537 from the United States National Science Foundation, and Grant #W911NF-05-1-0171 from the United States Army Research Office, and the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong.