On the existence of a solution to a spectral estimation problem \emph{\`a la} Byrnes-Georgiou-Lindquist

A parametric spectral estimation problem in the style of Byrnes, Georgiou, and Lindquist was posed in \cite{FPZ-10}, but the existence of a solution was only proved in a special case. Based on their results, we show that a solution indeed exists given an arbitrary matrix-valued prior density. The main tool in our proof is the topological degree theory.Comment: 6 pages of two-column draft, accepted for publication in IEEE-TA

Well-posedness in vector optimization and scalarization results

In this paper, we give a survey on well-posedness notions of Tykhonov's type for vector optimization problems and the links between them with respect to the classification proposed by Miglierina, Molho and Rocca in [33]. We consider also the notions of extended well-posedness introduced by X.X. Huang ([19],[20]) in the nonparametric case to complete the hierchical structure characterizing these concepts. Finally we propose a review of some theoretical results in vector optimization mainly related to different notions of scalarizing functions, linear and nonlinear, introduced in the last decades, to simplify the study of various well-posedness properties.

The Radius of Metric Subregularity

There is a basic paradigm, called here the radius of well-posedness, which quantifies the "distance" from a given well-posed problem to the set of ill-posed problems of the same kind. In variational analysis, well-posedness is often understood as a regularity property, which is usually employed to measure the effect of perturbations and approximations of a problem on its solutions. In this paper we focus on evaluating the radius of the property of metric subregularity which, in contrast to its siblings, metric regularity, strong regularity and strong subregularity, exhibits a more complicated behavior under various perturbations. We consider three kinds of perturbations: by Lipschitz continuous functions, by semismooth functions, and by smooth functions, obtaining different expressions/bounds for the radius of subregularity, which involve generalized derivatives of set-valued mappings. We also obtain different expressions when using either Frobenius or Euclidean norm to measure the radius. As an application, we evaluate the radius of subregularity of a general constraint system. Examples illustrate the theoretical findings.Comment: 20 page

Generalized Differentiation and Characterizations for Differentiability of Infimal Convolutions

This paper is devoted to the study of generalized differentiation properties of the infimal convolution. This class of functions covers a large spectrum of nonsmooth functions well known in the literature. The subdifferential formulas obtained unify several known results and allow us to characterize the differentiability of the infimal convolution which plays an important role in variational analysis and optimization

On the well-posedness of multivariate spectrum approximation and convergence of high-resolution spectral estimators

In this paper, we establish the well-posedness of the generalized moment problems recently studied by Byrnes-Georgiou-Lindquist and coworkers, and by Ferrante-Pavon-Ramponi. We then apply these continuity results to prove almost sure convergence of a sequence of high-resolution spectral estimators indexed by the sample size

Well-Behavior, Well-Posedness and Nonsmooth Analysis

AMS subject classification: 90C30, 90C33.We survey the relationships between well-posedness and well-behavior. The latter notion means that any critical sequence (xn) of a lower semicontinuous function f on a Banach space is minimizing. Here “critical” means that the remoteness of the subdifferential ∂f(xn) of f at xn (i.e. the distance of 0 to ∂f(xn)) converges to 0. The objective function f is not supposed to be convex or smooth and the subdifferential ∂ is not necessarily the usual Fenchel subdifferential. We are thus led to deal with conditions ensuring that a growth property of the subdifferential (or the derivative) of a function implies a growth property of the function itself. Both qualitative questions and quantitative results are considered

Advances in Optimization and Nonlinear Analysis

The present book focuses on that part of calculus of variations, optimization, nonlinear analysis and related applications which combines tools and methods from partial differential equations with geometrical techniques. More precisely, this work is devoted to nonlinear problems coming from different areas, with particular reference to those introducing new techniques capable of solving a wide range of problems. The book is a valuable guide for researchers, engineers and students in the field of mathematics, operations research, optimal control science, artificial intelligence, management science and economics