In this paper, we have developed a parallel branch and bound algorithm which computes the maximal structured singular value $mu$ without tightly bounding $mu$ for each frequency and thus significantly reduce the computational complexity.
The problem of recovering a low-rank matrix from the linear constraints, known as affine matrix rank minimization problem, has been attracting extensive attention in recent years. In general, affine matrix rank minimization problem is a NP-hard. In o
ur latest work, a non-convex fraction function is studied to approximate the rank function in affine matrix rank minimization problem and translate the NP-hard affine matrix rank minimization problem into a transformed affine matrix rank minimization problem. A scheme of iterative singular value thresholding algorithm is generated to solve the regularized transformed affine matrix rank minimization problem. However, one of the drawbacks for our iterative singular value thresholding algorithm is that the parameter $a$, which influences the behaviour of non-convex fraction function in the regularized transformed affine matrix rank minimization problem, needs to be determined manually in every simulation. In fact, how to determine the optimal parameter $a$ is not an easy problem. Here instead, in this paper, we will generate an adaptive iterative singular value thresholding algorithm to solve the regularized transformed affine matrix rank minimization problem. When doing so, our new algorithm will be intelligent both for the choice of the regularized parameter $lambda$ and the parameter $a$.
Process synthesis using rigorous unit operation models is highly desirable to identify the most efficient pathway for sustainable production of fuels and value-added chemicals. However, it often leads to a large-scale strongly nonlinear and nonconvex
mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model. In this work, we propose two robust homotopy continuation enhanced branch and bound (HCBB) algorithms (denoted as HCBB-FP and HCBB-RB) where the homotopy continuation method is employed to gradually approach the optimal solution of the NLP subproblem at a node from the solution at its parent node. A variable step length is adapted to effectively balance feasibility and computational efficiency. The computational results demonstrate that the proposed HCBB algorithms can find the same optimal solution from different initial points, while the existing MINLP algorithms fail or find much worse solutions. In addition, HCBB-RB is superior to HCBB-FP due to lower computational effort required for the same locally optimal solution.
Quasi branch and bound is a recently introduced generalization of branch and bound, where lower bounds are replaced by a relaxed notion of quasi-lower bounds, required to be lower bounds only for sub-cubes containing a minimizer. This paper is devote
d to studying the possible benefits of this approach, for the problem of minimizing a smooth function over a cube. This is accomplished by suggesting two quasi branch and bound algorithms, qBnB(2) and qBnB(3), that compare favorably with alternative branch and bound algorithms. The first algorithm we propose, qBnB(2), achieves second order convergence based only on a bound on second derivatives, without requiring calculation of derivatives. As such, this algorithm is suitable for derivative free optimization, for which typical algorithms such as Lipschitz optimization only have first order convergence and so suffer from limited accuracy due to the clustering problem. Additionally, qBnB(2) is provably more efficient than the second order Lipschitz gradient algorithm which does require exact calculation of gradients. The second algorithm we propose, qBnB(3), has third order convergence and finite termination. In contrast with BnB algorithms with similar guarantees who typically compute lower bounds via solving relatively time consuming convex optimization problems, calculation of qBnB(3) bounds only requires solving a small number of Newton iterations. Our experiments verify the potential of both these methods in comparison with state of the art branch and bound algorithms.
This note provides upper bounds on the number of operations required to compute by value iterations a nearly optimal policy for an infinite-horizon discounted Markov decision process with a finite number of states and actions. For a given discount fa
ctor, magnitude of the reward function, and desired closeness to optimality, these upper bounds are strongly polynomial in the number of state-action pairs, and one of the provided upper bounds has the property that it is a non-decreasing function of the value of the discount factor.
Control laws for selective transfer of information encoded in excitations of a quantum network, based on shaping the energy landscape using time-invariant, spatially-varying bias fields, can be successfully designed using numerical optimization. Such
control laws, already departing from classicality by replacing closed-loop asymptotic stability with alternative notions of localization, have the intriguing property that for all practical purposes they achieve the upper bound on the fidelity, yet the (logarithmic) sensitivity of the fidelity to such structured perturbation as spin coupling errors and bias field leakages is nearly vanishing. Here, these differential sensitivity results are extended to large structured variations using $mu$-design tools to reveal a crossover region in the space of controllers where objectives usually thought to be conflicting are actually concordant.