76 research outputs found
Certification of Bounds of Non-linear Functions: the Templates Method
The aim of this work is to certify lower bounds for real-valued multivariate
functions, defined by semialgebraic or transcendental expressions. The
certificate must be, eventually, formally provable in a proof system such as
Coq. The application range for such a tool is widespread; for instance Hales'
proof of Kepler's conjecture yields thousands of inequalities. We introduce an
approximation algorithm, which combines ideas of the max-plus basis method (in
optimal control) and of the linear templates method developed by Manna et al.
(in static analysis). This algorithm consists in bounding some of the
constituents of the function by suprema of quadratic forms with a well chosen
curvature. This leads to semialgebraic optimization problems, solved by
sum-of-squares relaxations. Templates limit the blow up of these relaxations at
the price of coarsening the approximation. We illustrate the efficiency of our
framework with various examples from the literature and discuss the interfacing
with Coq.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, 2 table
Towards a better approximation for sparsest cut?
We give a new -approximation for sparsest cut problem on graphs
where small sets expand significantly more than the sparsest cut (sets of size
expand by a factor bigger, for some small ; this
condition holds for many natural graph families). We give two different
algorithms. One involves Guruswami-Sinop rounding on the level- Lasserre
relaxation. The other is combinatorial and involves a new notion called {\em
Small Set Expander Flows} (inspired by the {\em expander flows} of ARV) which
we show exists in the input graph. Both algorithms run in time . We also show similar approximation algorithms in graphs with
genus with an analogous local expansion condition. This is the first
algorithm we know of that achieves -approximation on such general
family of graphs
A New Regularity Lemma and Faster Approximation Algorithms for Low Threshold Rank Graphs
Kolla and Tulsiani [KT07,Kolla11} and Arora, Barak and Steurer [ABS10]
introduced the technique of subspace enumeration, which gives approximation
algorithms for graph problems such as unique games and small set expansion; the
running time of such algorithms is exponential in the threshold-rank of the
graph.
Guruswami and Sinop [GS11,GS12], and Barak, Raghavendra, and Steurer [BRS11]
developed an alternative approach to the design of approximation algorithms for
graphs of bounded threshold-rank, based on semidefinite programming relaxations
in the Lassere hierarchy and on novel rounding techniques. These algorithms are
faster than the ones based on subspace enumeration and work on a broad class of
problems.
In this paper we develop a third approach to the design of such algorithms.
We show, constructively, that graphs of bounded threshold-rank satisfy a weak
Szemeredi regularity lemma analogous to the one proved by Frieze and Kannan
[FK99] for dense graphs. The existence of efficient approximation algorithms is
then a consequence of the regularity lemma, as shown by Frieze and Kannan.
Applying our method to the Max Cut problem, we devise an algorithm that is
faster than all previous algorithms, and is easier to describe and analyze
Mixed-integer Nonlinear Optimization: a hatchery for modern mathematics
The second MFO Oberwolfach Workshop on Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) took place between 2nd and 8th June 2019. MINLP refers to one of the hardest Mathematical Programming (MP) problem classes, involving both nonlinear functions as well as continuous and integer decision variables. MP is a formal language for describing optimization problems, and is traditionally part of Operations Research (OR), which is itself at the intersection of mathematics, computer science, engineering and econometrics. The scientific program has covered the three announced areas (hierarchies of approximation, mixed-integer nonlinear optimal control, and dealing with uncertainties) with a variety of tutorials, talks, short research announcements, and a special "open problems'' session
Scalable computation of intracellular metabolite concentrations
Current mathematical frameworks for predicting the flux state and
macromolecular composition of the cell do not rely on thermodynamic constraints
to determine the spontaneous direction of reactions. These predictions may be
biologically infeasible as a result. Imposing thermodynamic constraints
requires accurate estimations of intracellular metabolite concentrations. These
concentrations are constrained within physiologically possible ranges to enable
an organism to grow in extreme conditions and adapt to its environment. Here,
we introduce tractable computational techniques to characterize intracellular
metabolite concentrations within a constraint-based modeling framework. This
model provides a feasible concentration set, which can generally be nonconvex
and disconnected. We examine three approaches based on polynomial optimization,
random sampling, and global optimization. We leverage the sparsity and
algebraic structure of the underlying biophysical models to enhance the
computational efficiency of these techniques. We then compare their performance
in two case studies, showing that the global-optimization formulation exhibits
more desirable scaling properties than the random-sampling and
polynomial-optimization formulation, and, thus, is a promising candidate for
handling large-scale metabolic networks
- …