Local Convergence of Newton-type Methods for Nonsmooth Constrained Equations and Applications

In this thesis we consider constrained systems of equations. The focus is on local Newton-type methods for the solution of constrained systems which converge locally quadratically under mild assumptions implying neither local uniqueness of solutions nor differentiability of the equation function at solutions. The first aim of this thesis is to improve existing local convergence results of the constrained Levenberg-Marquardt method. To this end, we describe a general Newton-type algorithm. Then we prove local quadratic convergence of this general algorithm under the same four assumptions which were recently used for the local convergence analysis of the LP-Newton method. Afterwards, we show that, besides the LP-Newton method, the constrained Levenberg-Marquardt method can be regarded as a special realization of the general Newton-type algorithm and therefore enjoys the same local convergence properties. Thus, local quadratic convergence of a nonsmooth constrained Levenberg-Marquardt method is proved without requiring conditions implying the local uniqueness of solutions. As already mentioned, we use four assumptions for the local convergence analysis of the general Newton-type algorithm. The second aim of this thesis is a detailed discussion of these convergence assumptions for the case that the equation function of the constrained system is piecewise continuously differentiable. Some of the convergence assumptions seem quite technical and difficult to check. Therefore, we look for sufficient conditions which are still mild but which seem to be more familiar. We will particularly prove that the whole set of the convergence assumptions holds if some set of local error bound conditions is satisfied and in addition the feasible set of the constrained system excludes those zeros of the selection functions which are not zeros of the equation function itself, at least in a sufficiently small neighborhood of some fixed solution. We apply our results to constrained systems arising from complementarity systems, i.e., systems of equations and inequalities which contain complementarity constraints. Our new conditions are discussed for a suitable reformulation of the complementarity system as constrained system of equations by means of the minimum function. In particular, it will turn out that the whole set of the convergence assumptions is actually implied by some set of local error bound conditions. In addition, we provide a new constant rank condition implying the whole set of the convergence assumptions. Particularly, we provide adapted formulations of our new conditions for special classes of complementarity systems. We consider Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) systems arising from optimization problems, variational inequalities, or generalized Nash equilibrium problems (GNEPs) and Fritz-John (FJ) systems arising from GNEPs. Thus, we obtain for each problem class conditions which guarantee local quadratic convergence of the general Newton-type algorithm and its special realizations to a solution of the particular problem. Moreover, we prove for FJ systems of GNEPs that generically some full row rank condition is satisfied at any solution of the FJ system of a GNEP. The latter condition implies the whole set of the convergence assumptions if the functions which characterize the GNEP are sufficiently smooth. Finally, we describe an idea for a possible globalization of our Newton-type methods, at least for the case that the constrained system arises from a certain smooth reformulation of the KKT system of a GNEP. More precisely, a hybrid method is presented whose local part is the LP-Newton method. The hybrid method turns out to be, under appropriate conditions, both globally and locally quadratically convergent

Local Convergence of Newton-type Methods for Nonsmooth Constrained Equations and Applications

In this thesis we consider constrained systems of equations. The focus is on local Newton-type methods for the solution of constrained systems which converge locally quadratically under mild assumptions implying neither local uniqueness of solutions nor differentiability of the equation function at solutions. The first aim of this thesis is to improve existing local convergence results of the constrained Levenberg-Marquardt method. To this end, we describe a general Newton-type algorithm. Then we prove local quadratic convergence of this general algorithm under the same four assumptions which were recently used for the local convergence analysis of the LP-Newton method. Afterwards, we show that, besides the LP-Newton method, the constrained Levenberg-Marquardt method can be regarded as a special realization of the general Newton-type algorithm and therefore enjoys the same local convergence properties. Thus, local quadratic convergence of a nonsmooth constrained Levenberg-Marquardt method is proved without requiring conditions implying the local uniqueness of solutions. As already mentioned, we use four assumptions for the local convergence analysis of the general Newton-type algorithm. The second aim of this thesis is a detailed discussion of these convergence assumptions for the case that the equation function of the constrained system is piecewise continuously differentiable. Some of the convergence assumptions seem quite technical and difficult to check. Therefore, we look for sufficient conditions which are still mild but which seem to be more familiar. We will particularly prove that the whole set of the convergence assumptions holds if some set of local error bound conditions is satisfied and in addition the feasible set of the constrained system excludes those zeros of the selection functions which are not zeros of the equation function itself, at least in a sufficiently small neighborhood of some fixed solution. We apply our results to constrained systems arising from complementarity systems, i.e., systems of equations and inequalities which contain complementarity constraints. Our new conditions are discussed for a suitable reformulation of the complementarity system as constrained system of equations by means of the minimum function. In particular, it will turn out that the whole set of the convergence assumptions is actually implied by some set of local error bound conditions. In addition, we provide a new constant rank condition implying the whole set of the convergence assumptions. Particularly, we provide adapted formulations of our new conditions for special classes of complementarity systems. We consider Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) systems arising from optimization problems, variational inequalities, or generalized Nash equilibrium problems (GNEPs) and Fritz-John (FJ) systems arising from GNEPs. Thus, we obtain for each problem class conditions which guarantee local quadratic convergence of the general Newton-type algorithm and its special realizations to a solution of the particular problem. Moreover, we prove for FJ systems of GNEPs that generically some full row rank condition is satisfied at any solution of the FJ system of a GNEP. The latter condition implies the whole set of the convergence assumptions if the functions which characterize the GNEP are sufficiently smooth. Finally, we describe an idea for a possible globalization of our Newton-type methods, at least for the case that the constrained system arises from a certain smooth reformulation of the KKT system of a GNEP. More precisely, a hybrid method is presented whose local part is the LP-Newton method. The hybrid method turns out to be, under appropriate conditions, both globally and locally quadratically convergent

Local Convergence of Newton-type Methods for Nonsmooth Constrained Equations and Applications

In this thesis we consider constrained systems of equations. The focus is on local Newton-type methods for the solution of constrained systems which converge locally quadratically under mild assumptions implying neither local uniqueness of solutions nor differentiability of the equation function at solutions. The first aim of this thesis is to improve existing local convergence results of the constrained Levenberg-Marquardt method. To this end, we describe a general Newton-type algorithm. Then we prove local quadratic convergence of this general algorithm under the same four assumptions which were recently used for the local convergence analysis of the LP-Newton method. Afterwards, we show that, besides the LP-Newton method, the constrained Levenberg-Marquardt method can be regarded as a special realization of the general Newton-type algorithm and therefore enjoys the same local convergence properties. Thus, local quadratic convergence of a nonsmooth constrained Levenberg-Marquardt method is proved without requiring conditions implying the local uniqueness of solutions. As already mentioned, we use four assumptions for the local convergence analysis of the general Newton-type algorithm. The second aim of this thesis is a detailed discussion of these convergence assumptions for the case that the equation function of the constrained system is piecewise continuously differentiable. Some of the convergence assumptions seem quite technical and difficult to check. Therefore, we look for sufficient conditions which are still mild but which seem to be more familiar. We will particularly prove that the whole set of the convergence assumptions holds if some set of local error bound conditions is satisfied and in addition the feasible set of the constrained system excludes those zeros of the selection functions which are not zeros of the equation function itself, at least in a sufficiently small neighborhood of some fixed solution. We apply our results to constrained systems arising from complementarity systems, i.e., systems of equations and inequalities which contain complementarity constraints. Our new conditions are discussed for a suitable reformulation of the complementarity system as constrained system of equations by means of the minimum function. In particular, it will turn out that the whole set of the convergence assumptions is actually implied by some set of local error bound conditions. In addition, we provide a new constant rank condition implying the whole set of the convergence assumptions. Particularly, we provide adapted formulations of our new conditions for special classes of complementarity systems. We consider Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) systems arising from optimization problems, variational inequalities, or generalized Nash equilibrium problems (GNEPs) and Fritz-John (FJ) systems arising from GNEPs. Thus, we obtain for each problem class conditions which guarantee local quadratic convergence of the general Newton-type algorithm and its special realizations to a solution of the particular problem. Moreover, we prove for FJ systems of GNEPs that generically some full row rank condition is satisfied at any solution of the FJ system of a GNEP. The latter condition implies the whole set of the convergence assumptions if the functions which characterize the GNEP are sufficiently smooth. Finally, we describe an idea for a possible globalization of our Newton-type methods, at least for the case that the constrained system arises from a certain smooth reformulation of the KKT system of a GNEP. More precisely, a hybrid method is presented whose local part is the LP-Newton method. The hybrid method turns out to be, under appropriate conditions, both globally and locally quadratically convergent

A family of Newton methods for nonsmooth constrained systems with nonisolated solutions

We propose a new family of Newton-type methods for the solution of constrained systems of equations. Under suitable conditions, that do not include differentiability or local uniqueness of solutions, local, quadratic convergence to a solution of the system of equations can be established. We show that as particular instances of the method we obtain inexact versions of both a recently introduced LP-based Newton method and of a Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm for the solution of systems with nonisolated solutions, and improve on corresponding existing results

GENERALIZED NASH EQUILIBRIUM PROBLEMS - RECENT ADVANCES AND CHALLENGES

Generalized Nash equilibrium problems have become very important as a modeling tool during the last decades. The aim of this survey paper is twofold. It summarizes recent advances in the research on computational methods for generalized Nash equilibrium problems and points out current challenges. The focus of this survey is on algorithms and their convergence properties. Therefore, we also present reformulations of the generalized Nash equilibrium problem, results on error bounds and properties of the solution set of the equilibrium problems

An LP-Newton method: nonsmooth equations, KKT systems, and nonisolated solutions

We define a new Newton-type method for the solution of constrained systems of equations and analyze in detail its properties. Under suitable conditions, that do not include differentiability or local uniqueness of solutions, the method converges locally quadratically to a solution of the system, thus filling an important gap in the existing theory. The new algorithm improves on known methods and, when particularized to KKT systems derived from optimality conditions for constrained optimization or variational inequalities, it has theoretical advantages even over methods specifically designed to solve such systems. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg and Mathematical Optimization Society

A new error bound result for Generalized Nash Equilibrium Problems and its algorithmic application

We present a new algorithm for the solution of Generalized Nash Equilibrium Problems. This hybrid method combines the robustness of a potential reduction algorithm and the local quadratic convergence rate of the LP-Newton method. We base our local convergence theory on a local error bound and provide a new sufficient condition for it to hold that is weaker than known ones. In particular, this condition implies neither local uniqueness of a solution nor strict complementarity. We also report promising numerical results. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York