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In the
Steiner Forest
problem, we are given a graph and a collection of source-sink
pairs, and the
goal is to find a subgraph of minimum total length such that all
pairs are connected. The problem is
APX-Hard and can be
2
-approximated by, e.g., the elegant primal-dual algorithm
of Agrawal, Klein, and
Ravi from 1995.
We give a local-search-based constant-factor approximati
on for the problem. Local search brings in
new techniques to an area that has for long not seen any improv
ements and might be a step towards
a combinatorial algorithm for the more general survivable n
etwork design problem. Moreover, local
search was an essential tool to tackle the dynamic MST/Stein
er Tree problem, whereas dynamic Steiner
Forest is still wide open.
It is easy to see that any constant factor local search algori
thm requires steps that add/drop many edges
together. We propose natural local moves which, at each step
, either (a) add a shortest path in the current
graph and then drop a bunch of inessential edges, or (b) add a s
et of edges to the current solution. This
second type of moves is motivated by the potential function w
e use to measure progress, combining the
cost of the solution with a penalty for each connected compon
ent. Our carefully-chosen local moves and
potential function work in tandem to eliminate bad local min
ima that arise when using more traditional
local moves.
Our analysis first considers the case where the local optimum
is a single tree, and shows optimality w.r.t.
moves that add a single edge (and drop a set of edges) is enough
to bound the locality gap. For the
general case, we show how to “project” the optimal solution o
nto the different trees of the local optimum
without incurring too much cost (and this argument uses opti
mality w.r.t. both kinds of moves), followed
by a tree-by-tree argument. We hope both the potential funct
ion, and our analysis techniques will be
useful to develop and analyze local-search algorithms in ot
her contexts.
Potential-based flows are an extension of classical network flows in which the flow on an arc is determined by the difference of the potentials of its incident nodes. Such flows are unique and arise, for example, in energy networks. Two important algorithmic problems are to determine whether there exists a feasible flow and to maximize the flow between two designated nodes. We show that these problems can be solved for the single source and sink case by reducing the network to a single arc. However, if we additionally consider switches that allow to force the flow to 0 and decouple the potentials, these problems are NP-hard. Nevertheless, for particular series-parallel networks, one can use algorithms for the subset sum problem. Moreover, applying network presolving based on generalized series-parallel structures allows to significantly reduce the size of realistic energy networks.
We study the transient optimization of gas transport networks including both discrete controls due to switching of controllable elements and nonlinear fluid dynamics described by the system of isothermal Euler equations, which are partial differential equations in time and 1-dimensional space. This combination leads to mixed-integer optimization problems subject to nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equations on a graph. We propose an instantaneous control approach in which suitable Euler discretizations yield systems of ordinary differential equations on a graph. This networked system of ordinary differential equations is shown to be well-posed and affine-linear solutions of these systems are derived analytically. As a consequence, finite-dimensional mixed-integer linear optimization problems are obtained for every time step that can be solved to global optimality using general-purpose solvers. We illustrate our approach in practice by presenting numerical results on a realistic gas transport network.
We consider optimal control problems for gas flow in pipeline networks. The equations of motion are taken to be represented by a first-order system of hyperbolic semilinear equations derived from the fully nonlinear isothermal Euler gas equations. We formulate an optimal control problem on a network and introduce a tailored time discretization thereof. In order to further reduce the complexity, we consider an instantaneous control strategy. The main part of the paper is concerned with a nonoverlapping domain decomposition of the optimal control problem on the graph into local problems on smaller sub-graphs - ultimately on single edges. We prove convergence of the domain decomposition method on networks and study the wellposedness of the corresponding time-discrete optimal control problems. The point of the paper is that we establish virtual control problems on the decomposed subgraphs such that the corresponding optimality systems are in fact equal to the systems obtained via the domain decomposition of the entire optimality system.
Many mixed-integer optimization problems are constrained by nonlinear functions that do not possess desirable analytical properties like convexity or factorability or cannot even be evaluated exactly. This is, e.g., the case for problems constrained by differential equations or for models that rely on black-box simulation runs. For these problem classes, we present, analyze, and test algorithms that solve mixed-integer problems with only Lipschitz continuous nonlinearities. Our theoretical results depend on the assumptions made on the (in)exactness of function evaluations and on the knowledge of Lipschitz constants. If Lipschitz constants are known, we prove finite termination at approximate globally optimal points both for the case of exact and inexact function evaluations. If only approximate Lipschitz constants are known, we prove finite termination and derive additional conditions under which infeasibility can be detected. A computational study for gas transport problems and an academic case study show the applicability of our algorithms to real-world problems and how different assumptions on the constraint functions up- or downgrade the practical performance of the methods.
The development of mathematical simulation and optimization models and algorithms for solving gas transport problems is an active field of research. In order to test and compare these models and algorithms, gas network instances together with demand data are needed. The goal of GasLib is to provide a set of publicly available gas network instances that can be used by researchers in the field of gas transport. The advantages are that researchers save time by using these instances and that different models and algorithms can be compared on the same specified test sets. The library instances are encoded in an XML format. In this paper, we explain this format and present the instances that are available in the library.
We consider nonlinear and nonsmooth mixing aspects in gas transport optimization problems. As mixed-integer reformulations of pooling-type mixing models already render small-size instances computationally intractable, we investigate the applicability of smooth nonlinear programming techniques for equivalent complementarity-based reformulations. Based on recent results for remodeling piecewise affine constraints using an inverse parametric quadratic programming approach, we show that classical stationarity concepts are meaningful for the resulting complementarity-based reformulation of the mixing equations. Further, we investigate in a numerical study the performance of this reformulation compared to a more compact complementarity-based one that does not feature such beneficial regularity properties. All computations are performed on publicly available data of real-world size problem instances from steady-state gas transport.
We consider uniqueness and multiplicity of market equilibria in a short-run setup where traded quantities of electricity are transported through a capacitated network in which power flows have to satisfy the classical lossless DC approximation. The firms face fluctuating demand and decide on their production, which is constrained by given capacities. Today, uniqueness of such market outcomes are especially important in more complicated multilevel models for measuring market (in)efficiency. Thus, our findings are important prerequisites for such studies. We show that market equilibria are unique on tree networks under mild assumptions and we also present a priori conditions under which equilibria are unique on cycle networks. On general networks, uniqueness fails to hold and we present simple examples for which multiple equilibria exist. However, we prove a posteriori criteria for the uniqueness of a given solution and characterize situations in which multiple solutions exist.
Feasibility pumps are highly effective primal heuristics for
mixed-integer linear and nonlinear optimization.
However, despite their success in practice there are only few works
considering their theoretical properties.
We show that feasibility pumps can be seen as alternating
direction methods applied to special reformulations of the original
problem, inheriting the convergence theory of these methods.
Moreover, we propose a novel penalty framework that encompasses
this alternating direction method, which allows us to refrain from random
perturbations that are applied in standard versions of feasibility
pumps in case of failure.
We present a convergence theory for the new penalty based alternating
direction method and compare the new variant of the feasibility
pump with existing versions in an extensive numerical study for
mixed-integer linear and nonlinear problems.
In this paper we analyze peak-load pricing in the presence of network constraints. In our setup, firms facing fluctuating demand decide on the size and location of production facilities. They make production decisions constrained by the invested capacities, taking into account that market prices reflect scarce transmission capacities. We state general conditions for existence and uniqueness of the market equilibrium and provide a characterization of equilibrium investment and production. The presented analysis covers the cases of perfect competition and monopoly - the case of strategic firms is approximated by a conjectural variations approach. Our result is a prerequisite for analyzing regulatory policy options with computational multilevel equilibrium models, since uniqueness of the equilibrium at lower levels is of key importance when solving these models. Thus, our paper contributes to an evolving strand of literature that analyzes regulatory policy based on computational multilevel equilibrium models and aims at taking into account individual objectives of various agents, among them not only generators and customers but also, e.g., the regulator deciding on network expansion.