A Branch and Bound Method via d.c. Optimization Algorithms and Ellipsoidal Technique for Box Constrained Nonconvex Quadratic Problems

In this paper we propose a new branch and bound algorithm using a rectangular partition and ellipsoidal technique for minimizing a nonconvex quadratic function with box constraints. The bounding procedures are investigated by d.c. (difference of convex functions) optimization algorithms, called DCA. This is based upon the fact that the application of the DCA to the problems of minimizing a quadratic form over an ellipsoid and/or over a box is efficient. Some details of computational aspects of the algorithm are reported. Finally, numerical experiments on a lot of test problems showing the efficiency of our algorithm are presented.