31,972 research outputs found
A linear programming based heuristic framework for min-max regret combinatorial optimization problems with interval costs
This work deals with a class of problems under interval data uncertainty,
namely interval robust-hard problems, composed of interval data min-max regret
generalizations of classical NP-hard combinatorial problems modeled as 0-1
integer linear programming problems. These problems are more challenging than
other interval data min-max regret problems, as solely computing the cost of
any feasible solution requires solving an instance of an NP-hard problem. The
state-of-the-art exact algorithms in the literature are based on the generation
of a possibly exponential number of cuts. As each cut separation involves the
resolution of an NP-hard classical optimization problem, the size of the
instances that can be solved efficiently is relatively small. To smooth this
issue, we present a modeling technique for interval robust-hard problems in the
context of a heuristic framework. The heuristic obtains feasible solutions by
exploring dual information of a linearly relaxed model associated with the
classical optimization problem counterpart. Computational experiments for
interval data min-max regret versions of the restricted shortest path problem
and the set covering problem show that our heuristic is able to find optimal or
near-optimal solutions and also improves the primal bounds obtained by a
state-of-the-art exact algorithm and a 2-approximation procedure for interval
data min-max regret problems
Generalization Bounds in the Predict-then-Optimize Framework
The predict-then-optimize framework is fundamental in many practical
settings: predict the unknown parameters of an optimization problem, and then
solve the problem using the predicted values of the parameters. A natural loss
function in this environment is to consider the cost of the decisions induced
by the predicted parameters, in contrast to the prediction error of the
parameters. This loss function was recently introduced in Elmachtoub and Grigas
(2017) and referred to as the Smart Predict-then-Optimize (SPO) loss. In this
work, we seek to provide bounds on how well the performance of a prediction
model fit on training data generalizes out-of-sample, in the context of the SPO
loss. Since the SPO loss is non-convex and non-Lipschitz, standard results for
deriving generalization bounds do not apply.
We first derive bounds based on the Natarajan dimension that, in the case of
a polyhedral feasible region, scale at most logarithmically in the number of
extreme points, but, in the case of a general convex feasible region, have
linear dependence on the decision dimension. By exploiting the structure of the
SPO loss function and a key property of the feasible region, which we denote as
the strength property, we can dramatically improve the dependence on the
decision and feature dimensions. Our approach and analysis rely on placing a
margin around problematic predictions that do not yield unique optimal
solutions, and then providing generalization bounds in the context of a
modified margin SPO loss function that is Lipschitz continuous. Finally, we
characterize the strength property and show that the modified SPO loss can be
computed efficiently for both strongly convex bodies and polytopes with an
explicit extreme point representation.Comment: Preliminary version in NeurIPS 201
On the Number of Iterations for Dantzig-Wolfe Optimization and Packing-Covering Approximation Algorithms
We give a lower bound on the iteration complexity of a natural class of
Lagrangean-relaxation algorithms for approximately solving packing/covering
linear programs. We show that, given an input with random 0/1-constraints
on variables, with high probability, any such algorithm requires
iterations to compute a
-approximate solution, where is the width of the input.
The bound is tight for a range of the parameters .
The algorithms in the class include Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition, Benders'
decomposition, Lagrangean relaxation as developed by Held and Karp [1971] for
lower-bounding TSP, and many others (e.g. by Plotkin, Shmoys, and Tardos [1988]
and Grigoriadis and Khachiyan [1996]). To prove the bound, we use a discrepancy
argument to show an analogous lower bound on the support size of
-approximate mixed strategies for random two-player zero-sum
0/1-matrix games
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