5,542 research outputs found
Robust optimization with incremental recourse
In this paper, we consider an adaptive approach to address optimization
problems with uncertain cost parameters. Here, the decision maker selects an
initial decision, observes the realization of the uncertain cost parameters,
and then is permitted to modify the initial decision. We treat the uncertainty
using the framework of robust optimization in which uncertain parameters lie
within a given set. The decision maker optimizes so as to develop the best cost
guarantee in terms of the worst-case analysis. The recourse decision is
``incremental"; that is, the decision maker is permitted to change the initial
solution by a small fixed amount. We refer to the resulting problem as the
robust incremental problem. We study robust incremental variants of several
optimization problems. We show that the robust incremental counterpart of a
linear program is itself a linear program if the uncertainty set is polyhedral.
Hence, it is solvable in polynomial time. We establish the NP-hardness for
robust incremental linear programming for the case of a discrete uncertainty
set. We show that the robust incremental shortest path problem is NP-complete
when costs are chosen from a polyhedral uncertainty set, even in the case that
only one new arc may be added to the initial path. We also address the
complexity of several special cases of the robust incremental shortest path
problem and the robust incremental minimum spanning tree problem
Optimal Recombination in Genetic Algorithms
This paper surveys results on complexity of the optimal recombination problem
(ORP), which consists in finding the best possible offspring as a result of a
recombination operator in a genetic algorithm, given two parent solutions. We
consider efficient reductions of the ORPs, allowing to establish polynomial
solvability or NP-hardness of the ORPs, as well as direct proofs of hardness
results
Convex Combinatorial Optimization
We introduce the convex combinatorial optimization problem, a far reaching
generalization of the standard linear combinatorial optimization problem. We
show that it is strongly polynomial time solvable over any edge-guaranteed
family, and discuss several applications
Parameterized complexity of machine scheduling: 15 open problems
Machine scheduling problems are a long-time key domain of algorithms and
complexity research. A novel approach to machine scheduling problems are
fixed-parameter algorithms. To stimulate this thriving research direction, we
propose 15 open questions in this area whose resolution we expect to lead to
the discovery of new approaches and techniques both in scheduling and
parameterized complexity theory.Comment: Version accepted to Computers & Operations Researc
Complexity of Discrete Energy Minimization Problems
Discrete energy minimization is widely-used in computer vision and machine
learning for problems such as MAP inference in graphical models. The problem,
in general, is notoriously intractable, and finding the global optimal solution
is known to be NP-hard. However, is it possible to approximate this problem
with a reasonable ratio bound on the solution quality in polynomial time? We
show in this paper that the answer is no. Specifically, we show that general
energy minimization, even in the 2-label pairwise case, and planar energy
minimization with three or more labels are exp-APX-complete. This finding rules
out the existence of any approximation algorithm with a sub-exponential
approximation ratio in the input size for these two problems, including
constant factor approximations. Moreover, we collect and review the
computational complexity of several subclass problems and arrange them on a
complexity scale consisting of three major complexity classes -- PO, APX, and
exp-APX, corresponding to problems that are solvable, approximable, and
inapproximable in polynomial time. Problems in the first two complexity classes
can serve as alternative tractable formulations to the inapproximable ones.
This paper can help vision researchers to select an appropriate model for an
application or guide them in designing new algorithms.Comment: ECCV'16 accepte
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