Deflation for semismooth equations

Variational inequalities can in general support distinct solutions. In this paper we study an algorithm for computing distinct solutions of a variational inequality, without varying the initial guess supplied to the solver. The central idea is the combination of a semismooth Newton method with a deflation operator that eliminates known solutions from consideration. Given one root of a semismooth residual, deflation constructs a new problem for which a semismooth Newton method will not converge to the known root, even from the same initial guess. This enables the discovery of other roots. We prove the effectiveness of the deflation technique under the same assumptions that guarantee locally superlinear convergence of a semismooth Newton method. We demonstrate its utility on various finite- and infinite-dimensional examples drawn from constrained optimization, game theory, economics and solid mechanics.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure

The convergence of a one-step smoothing Newton method for P0-NCP based on a new smoothing NCP-function

AbstractThe nonlinear complementarity problem (denoted by NCP(F)) can be reformulated as the solution of a nonsmooth system of equations. By introducing a new smoothing NCP-function, the problem is approximated by a family of parameterized smooth equations. A one-step smoothing Newton method is proposed for solving the nonlinear complementarity problem with P0-function (P0-NCP) based on the new smoothing NCP-function. The proposed algorithm solves only one linear system of equations and performs only one line search per iteration. Without requiring strict complementarity assumption at the P0-NCP solution, the proposed algorithm is proved to be convergent globally and superlinearly under suitable assumptions. Furthermore, the algorithm has local quadratic convergence under mild conditions

A squared smoothing Newton method for nonsmooth matrix equations and its applications in semidefinite optimization problems

10.1137/S1052623400379620SIAM Journal on Optimization143783-80