28,213 research outputs found
A Riemannian low-rank method for optimization over semidefinite matrices with block-diagonal constraints
We propose a new algorithm to solve optimization problems of the form for a smooth function under the constraints that is positive
semidefinite and the diagonal blocks of are small identity matrices. Such
problems often arise as the result of relaxing a rank constraint (lifting). In
particular, many estimation tasks involving phases, rotations, orthonormal
bases or permutations fit in this framework, and so do certain relaxations of
combinatorial problems such as Max-Cut. The proposed algorithm exploits the
facts that (1) such formulations admit low-rank solutions, and (2) their
rank-restricted versions are smooth optimization problems on a Riemannian
manifold. Combining insights from both the Riemannian and the convex geometries
of the problem, we characterize when second-order critical points of the smooth
problem reveal KKT points of the semidefinite problem. We compare against state
of the art, mature software and find that, on certain interesting problem
instances, what we call the staircase method is orders of magnitude faster, is
more accurate and scales better. Code is available.Comment: 37 pages, 3 figure
Pooling problem: Alternate formulations and solution methods
Copyright @ 2004 INFORMSThe pooling problem, which is fundamental to the petroleum industry, describes a situation in which products possessing different attribute qualities are mixed in a series of pools in such a way that the attribute qualities of the blended products of the end pools must satisfy given requirements. It is well known that the pooling problem can be modeled through bilinear and nonconvex quadratic programming. In this paper, we investigate how best to apply a new branch-and-cut quadratic programming algorithm to solve the pooling problem. To this effect, we consider two standard models: One is based primarily on flow variables, and the other relies on the proportion. of flows entering pools. A hybrid of these two models is proposed for general pooling problems. Comparison of the computational properties of flow and proportion models is made on several problem instances taken from the literature. Moreover, a simple alternating procedure and a variable neighborhood search heuristic are developed to solve large instances and compared with the well-known method of successive linear programming. Solution of difficult test problems from the literature is substantially accelerated, and larger ones are solved exactly or approximately.This project was funded by Ultramar Canada and Luc Massé. The work of C. Audet was supported by NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) fellowship PDF-207432-1998 and by CRPC (Center for Research on Parallel Computation). The work of J. Brimberg was supported by NSERC grant #OGP205041. The work of P. Hansen was supported by FCAR(Fonds pour la Formation des Chercheurs et l’Aide à la Recherche)
grant #95ER1048, and NSERC grant #GP0105574
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