Merit functions: a bridge between optimization and equilibria

In the last decades, many problems involving equilibria, arising from engineering, physics and economics, have been formulated as variational mathematical models. In turn, these models can be reformulated as optimization problems through merit functions. This paper aims at reviewing the literature about merit functions for variational inequalities, quasi-variational inequalities and abstract equilibrium problems. Smoothness and convexity properties of merit functions and solution methods based on them will be presented

Forward-backward truncated Newton methods for convex composite optimization

This paper proposes two proximal Newton-CG methods for convex nonsmooth optimization problems in composite form. The algorithms are based on a a reformulation of the original nonsmooth problem as the unconstrained minimization of a continuously differentiable function, namely the forward-backward envelope (FBE). The first algorithm is based on a standard line search strategy, whereas the second one combines the global efficiency estimates of the corresponding first-order methods, while achieving fast asymptotic convergence rates. Furthermore, they are computationally attractive since each Newton iteration requires the approximate solution of a linear system of usually small dimension

A descent method for nonsmooth variational inequalities via regularization

In this paper we propose a descent method for solving variational inequality problems where the underlying operator is nonsmooth, locally Lipschitz, and monotone over a closed, convex feasible set. The idea is to combine a descent method for variational inequality problems whose operators are nonsmooth, locally Lipschitz, and strongly monotone, with the Tikonov-Browder regularization technique. Finally, numerical results are presented and discussed