Local Convergence of the Affine-Scaling Interior-Point Algorithm for Nonlinear Programming

This paper addresses the local convergence properties of the affine-scaling interior-point algorithm for nonlinear programming. The analysis of local convergence is developed in terms of parameters that control the interior-point scheme and the size of the residual of the linear system that provides the step direction. The analysis follows the classical theory for quasi-Newton methods and addresses q-linear, q-superlinear, and q-quadratic rates of convergence

On the relationship between bilevel decomposition algorithms and direct interior-point methods

Engineers have been using bilevel decomposition algorithms to solve certain nonconvex large-scale optimization problems arising in engineering design projects. These algorithms transform the large-scale problem into a bilevel program with one upperlevel problem (the master problem) and several lower-level problems (the subproblems). Unfortunately, there is analytical and numerical evidence that some of these commonly used bilevel decomposition algorithms may fail to converge even when the starting point is very close to the minimizer. In this paper, we establish a relationship between a particular bilevel decomposition algorithm, which only performs one iteration of an interior-point method when solving the subproblems, and a direct interior-point method, which solves the problem in its original (integrated) form. Using this relationship, we formally prove that the bilevel decomposition algorithm converges locally at a superlinear rate. The relevance of our analysis is that it bridges the gap between the incipient local convergence theory of bilevel decomposition algorithms and the mature theory of direct interior-point methods

Local quadratic convergence of polynomial-time interior-point methods for conic optimization problems

In this paper, we establish a local quadratic convergence of polynomial-time interior-point methods for general conic optimization problems. The main structural property used in our analysis is the logarithmic homogeneity of self-concordant barrier functions. We propose new path-following predictor-corrector schemes which work only in the dual space. They are based on an easily computable gradient proximity measure, which ensures an automatic transformation of the global linear rate of convergence to the local quadratic one under some mild assumptions. Our step-size procedure for the predictor step is related to the maximum step size (the one that takes us to the boundary). It appears that in order to obtain local superlinear convergence, we need to tighten the neighborhood of the central path proportionally to the current duality gapconic optimization problem, worst-case complexity analysis, self-concordant barriers, polynomial-time methods, predictor-corrector methods, local quadratic convergence