Abstract Convexity And Global Optimization

Special tools are required for examining and solving optimization problems. The main tools in the study of local optimization are classical calculus and its modern generalizions which form nonsmooth analysis. The gradient and various kinds of generalized derivatives allow us to ac complish a local approximation of a given function in a neighbourhood of a given point. This kind of approximation is very useful in the study of local extrema. However, local approximation alone cannot help to solve many problems of global optimization, so there is a clear need to develop special global tools for solving these problems. The simplest and most well-known area of global and simultaneously local optimization is convex programming. The fundamental tool in the study of convex optimization problems is the subgradient, which actu ally plays both a local and global role. First, a subgradient of a convex function f at a point x carries out a local approximation of f in a neigh bourhood of x. Second, the subgradient permits the construction of an affine function, which does not exceed f over the entire space and coincides with f at x. This affine function h is called a support func tion. Since f(y) ~ h(y) for ally, the second role is global. In contrast to a local approximation, the function h will be called a global affine support.

This book presents state-of-the-art results and methodologies in modern global optimization, and has been a staple reference for researchers, engineers, advanced students (also in applied mathematics), and practitioners in various fields of engineering. The second edition has been brought up to date and continues to develop a coherent and rigorous theory of deterministic global optimization, highlighting the essential role of convex analysis. The text has been revised and expanded to meet the needs of research, education, and applications for many years to come. Updates for this new edition include: · Discussion of modern approaches to minimax, fixed point, and equilibrium theorems, and to nonconvex optimization; · Increased focus on dealing more efficiently with ill-posed problems of global optimization, particularly those with hard constraints; · Important discussions of decomposition methods for specially structured problems; · A complete revision of the chapter on nonconvex quadratic programming, in order to encompass the advances made in quadratic optimization since publication of the first edition. · Additionally, this new edition contains entirely new chapters devoted to monotonic optimization, polynomial optimization and optimization under equilibrium constraints, including bilevel programming, multiobjective programming, and optimization with variational inequality constraint. From the reviews of the first edition: The book gives a good review of the topic. ...The text is carefully constructed and well written, the exposition is clear. It leaves a remarkable impression of the concepts, tools and techniques in global optimization. It might also be used as a basis and guideline for lectures on this subject. Students as well as professionals will profitably read and use it.—Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, 49:3 (1999)

There has been much recent progress in global optimization algo rithms for nonconvex continuous and discrete problems from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. Convex analysis plays a fun damental role in the analysis and development of global optimization algorithms. This is due essentially to the fact that virtually all noncon vex optimization problems can be described using differences of convex functions and differences of convex sets. A conference on Convex Analysis and Global Optimization was held during June 5 -9, 2000 at Pythagorion, Samos, Greece. The conference was honoring the memory of C. Caratheodory (1873-1950) and was en dorsed by the Mathematical Programming Society (MPS) and by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Activity Group in Optimization. The conference was sponsored by the European Union (through the EPEAEK program), the Department of Mathematics of the Aegean University and the Center for Applied Optimization of the University of Florida, by the General Secretariat of Research and Tech nology of Greece, by the Ministry of Education of Greece, and several local Greek government agencies and companies. This volume contains a selective collection of refereed papers based on invited and contribut ing talks presented at this conference. The two themes of convexity and global optimization pervade this book. The conference provided a forum for researchers working on different aspects of convexity and global opti mization to present their recent discoveries, and to interact with people working on complementary aspects of mathematical programming.

The theory of convex optimization has been constantly developing over the past 30 years. Most recently, many researchers have been studying more complicated classes of problems that still can be studied by means of convex analysis, so-called "anticonvex" and "convex-anticonvex" optimizaton problems. This manuscript contains an exhaustive presentation of the duality for these classes of problems and some of its generalization in the framework of abstract convexity. This manuscript will be of great interest for experts in this and related fields.

A textbook for an undergraduate course in mathematical programming for students with a knowledge of elementary real analysis, linear algebra, and classical linear programming (simple techniques). Focuses on the computation and characterization of global optima of nonlinear functions, rather than the locally optimal solutions addressed by most books on optimization. Incorporates the theoretical, algorithmic, and computational advances of the past three decades that help solve globally multi-extreme problems in the mathematical modeling of real world systems. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Most global optimization literature focuses on theory. This book, however, contains descriptions of new implementations of general-purpose or problem-specific global optimization algorithms. It discusses existing software packages from which the entire community can learn. The contributors are experts in the discipline of actually getting global optimization to work, and the book provides a source of ideas for people needing to implement global optimization software.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. (Albert Einstein, Readers Digest, 1977) The modern practice of creating technical systems and technological processes of high effi.ciency besides the employment of new principles, new materials, new physical effects and other new solutions ( which is very traditional and plays the key role in the selection of the general structure of the object to be designed) also includes the choice of the best combination for the set of parameters (geometrical sizes, electrical and strength characteristics, etc.) concretizing this general structure, because the Variation of these parameters ( with the structure or linkage being already set defined) can essentially affect the objective performance indexes. The mathematical tools for choosing these best combinations are exactly what is this book about. With the advent of computers and the computer-aided design the pro bations of the selected variants are usually performed not for the real examples ( this may require some very expensive building of sample op tions and of the special installations to test them ), but by the analysis of the corresponding mathematical models. The sophistication of the mathematical models for the objects to be designed, which is the natu ral consequence of the raising complexity of these objects, greatly com plicates the objective performance analysis. Today, the main (and very often the only) available instrument for such an analysis is computer aided simulation of an object's behavior, based on numerical experiments with its mathematical model.

This volume contains, in part, a selection of papers presented at the sixth Australian Optimization Day Miniconference (Ballarat, 16 July 1999), and the Special Sessions on Nonlinear Dynamics and Optimization and Operations Re search - Methods and Applications, which were held in Melbourne, July 11-15 1999 as a part of the Joint Meeting of the American Mathematical Society and Australian Mathematical Society. The editors have strived to present both con tributed papers and survey style papers as a more interesting mix for readers. Some participants from the meetings mentioned above have responded to this approach by preparing survey and 'semi-survey' papers, based on presented lectures. Contributed paper, which contain new and interesting results, are also included. The fields of the presented papers are very large as demonstrated by the following selection of key words from selected papers in this volume: • optimal control, stochastic optimal control, MATLAB, economic models, implicit constraints, Bellman principle, Markov process, decision-making under uncertainty, risk aversion, dynamic programming, optimal value function. • emergent computation, complexity, traveling salesman problem, signal estimation, neural networks, time congestion, teletraffic. • gap functions, nonsmooth variational inequalities, derivative-free algo rithm, Newton's method. • auxiliary function, generalized penalty function, modified Lagrange func tion. • convexity, quasiconvexity, abstract convexity.