TY - GEN A1 - Turner, Mark A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Besançon, Mathieu T1 - A Context-Aware Cutting Plane Selection Algorithm for Mixed-Integer Programming N2 - The current cut selection algorithm used in mixed-integer programming solvers has remained largely unchanged since its creation. In this paper, we propose a set of new cut scoring measures, cut filtering techniques, and stopping criteria, extending the current state-of-the-art algorithm and obtaining a 5\% performance improvement for SCIP over the MIPLIB 2017 benchmark set. T3 - ZIB-Report - 23-21 KW - cutting plane selection KW - mixed-integer programming Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-91691 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Turner, Mark A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - Cutting Plane Selection with Analytic Centers and Multiregression N2 - Cutting planes are a crucial component of state-of-the-art mixed-integer programming solvers, with the choice of which subset of cuts to add being vital for solver performance. We propose new distance-based measures to qualify the value of a cut by quantifying the extent to which it separates relevant parts of the relaxed feasible set. For this purpose, we use the analytic centers of the relaxation polytope or of its optimal face, as well as alternative optimal solutions of the linear programming relaxation. We assess the impact of the choice of distance measure on root node performance and throughout the whole branch-and-bound tree, comparing our measures against those prevalent in the literature. Finally, by a multi-output regression, we predict the relative performance of each measure, using static features readily available before the separation process. Our results indicate that analytic center-based methods help to significantly reduce the number of branch-and-bound nodes needed to explore the search space and that our multiregression approach can further improve on any individual method. T3 - ZIB-Report - 22-28 KW - cut selection KW - anlalytic center KW - mixed-integer programming Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-89065 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Turner, Mark A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - Branching via Cutting Plane Selection: Improving Hybrid Branching N2 - Cutting planes and branching are two of the most important algorithms for solving mixed-integer linear programs. For both algorithms, disjunctions play an important role, being used both as branching candidates and as the foundation for some cutting planes. We relate branching decisions and cutting planes to each other through the underlying disjunctions that they are based on, with a focus on Gomory mixed-integer cuts and their corresponding split disjunctions. We show that selecting branching decisions based on quality measures of Gomory mixed-integer cuts leads to relatively small branch-and-bound trees, and that the result improves when using cuts that more accurately represent the branching decisions. Finally, we show how the history of previously computed Gomory mixed-integer cuts can be used to improve the performance of the state-of-the-art hybrid branching rule of SCIP. Our results show a 4% decrease in solve time, and an 8% decrease in number of nodes over affected instances of MIPLIB 2017. T3 - ZIB-Report - 23-17 KW - cutting plane selection KW - variable selection KW - mixed-integer programming Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-91120 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Carderera, Alejandro A1 - Pokutta, Sebastian A1 - Mathieu, Besançon T1 - Simple steps are all you need: Frank-Wolfe and generalized self-concordant functions T2 - Thirty-fifth Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NeurIPS 2021 N2 - Generalized self-concordance is a key property present in the objective function of many important learning problems. We establish the convergence rate of a simple Frank-Wolfe variant that uses the open-loop step size strategy 𝛾𝑡 = 2/(𝑡 + 2), obtaining a O (1/𝑡) convergence rate for this class of functions in terms of primal gap and Frank-Wolfe gap, where 𝑡 is the iteration count. This avoids the use of second-order information or the need to estimate local smoothness parameters of previous work. We also show improved convergence rates for various common cases, e.g., when the feasible region under consideration is uniformly convex or polyhedral. Y1 - 2021 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mathieu, Besançon A1 - Carderera, Alejandro A1 - Pokutta, Sebastian T1 - FrankWolfe.jl: a high-performance and flexible toolbox for Frank-Wolfe algorithms and Conditional Gradients JF - INFORMS Journal on Computing N2 - We present FrankWolfe.jl, an open-source implementation of several popular Frank–Wolfe and conditional gradients variants for first-order constrained optimization. The package is designed with flexibility and high performance in mind, allowing for easy extension and relying on few assumptions regarding the user-provided functions. It supports Julia’s unique multiple dispatch feature, and it interfaces smoothly with generic linear optimization formulations using MathOptInterface.jl. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2022.1191 VL - 34 IS - 5 SP - 2383 EP - 2865 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Anjos, Miguel F. A1 - Brotcorne, Luce T1 - Complexity of near-optimal robust versions of multilevel optimization problems JF - Optimization Letters N2 - Near-optimality robustness extends multilevel optimization with a limited deviation of a lower level from its optimal solution, anticipated by higher levels. We analyze the complexity of near-optimal robust multilevel problems, where near-optimal robustness is modelled through additional adversarial decision-makers. Near-optimal robust versions of multilevel problems are shown to remain in the same complexity class as the problem without near-optimality robustness under general conditions. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11590-021-01754-9 VL - 15 IS - 8 SP - 2597 EP - 2610 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - MacDonald, Jan A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Pokutta, Sebastian T1 - Interpretable Neural Networks with Frank-Wolfe: Sparse Relevance Maps and Relevance Orderings T2 - Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Tjusila, Gennesaret A1 - Besancon, Mathieu A1 - Turner, Mark A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - How Many Clues To Give? A Bilevel Formulation For The Minimum Sudoku Clue Problem N2 - It has been shown that any 9 by 9 Sudoku puzzle must contain at least 17 clues to have a unique solution. This paper investigates the more specific question: given a particular completed Sudoku grid, what is the minimum number of clues in any puzzle whose unique solution is the given grid? We call this problem the Minimum Sudoku Clue Problem (MSCP). We formulate MSCP as a binary bilevel linear program, present a class of globally valid inequalities, and provide a computational study on 50 MSCP instances of 9 by 9 Sudoku grids. Using a general bilevel solver, we solve 95\% of instances to optimality, and show that the solution process benefits from the addition of a moderate amount of inequalities. Finally, we extend the proposed model to other combinatorial problems in which uniqueness of the solution is of interest. T3 - ZIB-Report - 23-15 Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-90902 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Bestuzheva, Ksenia A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Chen, Wei-Kun A1 - Chmiela, Antonia A1 - Donkiewicz, Tim A1 - van Doornmalen, Jasper A1 - Eifler, Leon A1 - Gaul, Oliver A1 - Gamrath, Gerald A1 - Gleixner, Ambros A1 - Gottwald, Leona A1 - Graczyk, Christoph A1 - Halbig, Katrin A1 - Hoen, Alexander A1 - Hojny, Christopher A1 - van der Hulst, Rolf A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Lübbecke, Marco A1 - Maher, Stephen J. A1 - Matter, Frederic A1 - Mühmer, Erik A1 - Müller, Benjamin A1 - Pfetsch, Marc E. A1 - Rehfeldt, Daniel A1 - Schlein, Steffan A1 - Schlösser, Franziska A1 - Serrano, Felipe A1 - Shinano, Yuji A1 - Sofranac, Boro A1 - Turner, Mark A1 - Vigerske, Stefan A1 - Wegscheider, Fabian A1 - Wellner, Philipp A1 - Weninger, Dieter A1 - Witzig, Jakob T1 - The SCIP Optimization Suite 8.0 N2 - The SCIP Optimization Suite provides a collection of software packages for mathematical optimization centered around the constraint integer programming framework SCIP. This paper discusses enhancements and extensions contained in version 8.0 of the SCIP Optimization Suite. Major updates in SCIP include improvements in symmetry handling and decomposition algorithms, new cutting planes, a new plugin type for cut selection, and a complete rework of the way nonlinear constraints are handled. Additionally, SCIP 8.0 now supports interfaces for Julia as well as Matlab. Further, UG now includes a unified framework to parallelize all solvers, a utility to analyze computational experiments has been added to GCG, dual solutions can be postsolved by PaPILO, new heuristics and presolving methods were added to SCIP-SDP, and additional problem classes and major performance improvements are available in SCIP-Jack. T3 - ZIB-Report - 21-41 KW - Constraint integer programming KW - Linear programming KW - Mixed-integer linear programming KW - Mixed-integer nonlinear programming KW - Optimization solver KW - Branch-and-cut KW - Branch-and-price KW - Column generation KW - Parallelization KW - Mixed-integer semidefinite programming Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-85309 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Turner, Mark A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - Branching via Cutting Plane Selection: Improving Hybrid Branching N2 - Cutting planes and branching are two of the most important algorithms for solving mixed-integer linear programs. For both algorithms, disjunctions play an important role, being used both as branching candidates and as the foundation for some cutting planes. We relate branching decisions and cutting planes to each other through the underlying disjunctions that they are based on, with a focus on Gomory mixed-integer cuts and their corresponding split disjunctions. We show that selecting branching decisions based on quality measures of Gomory mixed-integer cuts leads to relatively small branch-and-bound trees, and that the result improves when using cuts that more accurately represent the branching decisions. Finally, we show how the history of previously computed Gomory mixed-integer cuts can be used to improve the performance of the state-of-the-art hybrid branching rule of SCIP. Our results show a $4\%$ decrease in solve time, and an $8\%$ decrease in number of nodes over affected instances of MIPLIB 2017. Y1 - 2023 PB - Springer ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Designolle, Sébastien A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Iommazzo, Gabriele A1 - Knebel, Sebastian A1 - Gelß, Patrick A1 - Pokutta, Sebastian T1 - Improved Local Models and New Bell Inequalities Via Frank-Wolfe Algorithms JF - Physical Review Research N2 - In Bell scenarios with two outcomes per party, we algorithmically consider the two sides of the membership problem for the local polytope: Constructing local models and deriving separating hyperplanes, that is, Bell inequalities. We take advantage of the recent developments in so-called Frank-Wolfe algorithms to significantly increase the convergence rate of existing methods. First, we study the threshold value for the nonlocality of two-qubit Werner states under projective measurements. Here, we improve on both the upper and lower bounds present in the literature. Importantly, our bounds are entirely analytical; moreover, they yield refined bounds on the value of the Grothendieck constant of order three: 1.4367⩽KG(3)⩽1.4546. Second, we demonstrate the efficiency of our approach in multipartite Bell scenarios, and present local models for all projective measurements with visibilities noticeably higher than the entanglement threshold. We make our entire code accessible as a julia library called BellPolytopes.jl. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.043059 VL - 5 SP - 043059 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Turner, Mark A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Besançon, Mathieu T1 - A Context-Aware Cutting Plane Selection Algorithm for Mixed-Integer Programming N2 - The current cut selection algorithm used in mixed-integer programming solvers has remained largely unchanged since its creation. In this paper, we propose a set of new cut scoring measures, cut filtering techniques, and stopping criteria, extending the current state-of-the-art algorithm and obtaining a 5\% performance improvement for SCIP over the MIPLIB 2017 benchmark set. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mexi, Gioni A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Bolusani, Suresh A1 - Chmiela, Antonia A1 - Hoen, Alexander A1 - Gleixner, Ambros T1 - Scylla: a matrix-free fix-propagate-and-project heuristic for mixed-integer optimization T2 - Proceedings of Conference of the Society for Operations Research in Germany Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bestuzheva, Ksenia A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Chen, Wei-Kun A1 - Chmiela, Antonia A1 - Donkiewicz, Tim A1 - Doornmalen, Jasper A1 - Eifler, Leon A1 - Gaul, Oliver A1 - Gamrath, Gerald A1 - Gleixner, Ambros A1 - Gottwald, Leona A1 - Graczyk, Christoph A1 - Halbig, Katrin A1 - Hoen, Alexander A1 - Hojny, Christopher A1 - Hulst, Rolf A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Lübbecke, Marco A1 - Maher, Stephen J. A1 - Matter, Frederic A1 - Mühmer, Erik A1 - Müller, Benjamin A1 - Pfetsch, Marc A1 - Rehfeldt, Daniel A1 - Schlein, Steffan A1 - Schlösser, Franziska A1 - Serrano, Felipe A1 - Shinano, Yuji A1 - Sofranac, Boro A1 - Turner, Mark A1 - Vigerske, Stefan A1 - Wegscheider, Fabian A1 - Wellner, Philipp A1 - Weninger, Dieter A1 - Witzig, Jakob T1 - Enabling research through the SCIP optimization suite 8.0 JF - ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software N2 - The SCIP Optimization Suite provides a collection of software packages for mathematical optimization centered around the constraint integer programming framework SCIP. The focus of this article is on the role of the SCIP Optimization Suite in supporting research. SCIP’s main design principles are discussed, followed by a presentation of the latest performance improvements and developments in version 8.0, which serve both as examples of SCIP’s application as a research tool and as a platform for further developments. Furthermore, this article gives an overview of interfaces to other programming and modeling languages, new features that expand the possibilities for user interaction with the framework, and the latest developments in several extensions built upon SCIP. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1145/3585516 VL - 49 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 21 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Garcia, Joaquim Dias A1 - Legat, Benoît A1 - Sharma, Akshay T1 - Flexible Differentiable Optimization via Model Transformations JF - INFORMS Journal on Computing N2 - We introduce DiffOpt.jl, a Julia library to differentiate through the solution of optimization problems with respect to arbitrary parameters present in the objective and/or constraints. The library builds upon MathOptInterface, thus leveraging the rich ecosystem of solvers and composing well with modeling languages like JuMP. DiffOpt offers both forward and reverse differentiation modes, enabling multiple use cases from hyperparameter optimization to backpropagation and sensitivity analysis, bridging constrained optimization with end-to-end differentiable programming. DiffOpt is built on two known rules for differentiating quadratic programming and conic programming standard forms. However, thanks to its ability to differentiate through model transformations, the user is not limited to these forms and can differentiate with respect to the parameters of any model that can be reformulated into these standard forms. This notably includes programs mixing affine conic constraints and convex quadratic constraints or objective function. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2022.0283 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Designolle, Sébastien A1 - Iommazzo, Gabriele A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Knebel, Sebastian A1 - Gelß, Patrick A1 - Pokutta, Sebastian T1 - Improved local models and new Bell inequalities via Frank-Wolfe algorithms JF - Physical Review Research N2 - In Bell scenarios with two outcomes per party, we algorithmically consider the two sides of the membership problem for the local polytope: Constructing local models and deriving separating hyperplanes, that is, Bell inequalities. We take advantage of the recent developments in so-called Frank-Wolfe algorithms to significantly increase the convergence rate of existing methods. First, we study the threshold value for the nonlocality of two-qubit Werner states under projective measurements. Here, we improve on both the upper and lower bounds present in the literature. Importantly, our bounds are entirely analytical; moreover, they yield refined bounds on the value of the Grothendieck constant of order three: 1.4367⩽KG(3)⩽1.4546. Second, we demonstrate the efficiency of our approach in multipartite Bell scenarios, and present local models for all projective measurements with visibilities noticeably higher than the entanglement threshold. We make our entire code accessible as a julia library called BellPolytopes.jl. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.043059 VL - 5 SP - 043059 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wilken, St. Elmo A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Kratochvíl, Miroslav A1 - Kuate, Chilperic Armel Foko A1 - Trefois, Christophe A1 - Gu, Wei A1 - Ebenhöh, Oliver T1 - Interrogating the effect of enzyme kinetics on metabolism using differentiable constraint-based models JF - Metabolic Engineering Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Sharma, Kartikey A1 - Hendrych, Deborah A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Pokutta, Sebastian T1 - Network Design for the Traffic Assignment Problem with Mixed-Integer Frank-Wolfe T2 - Proceedings of INFORMS Optimization Society Conference Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Bolusani, Suresh A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Bestuzheva, Ksenia A1 - Chmiela, Antonia A1 - Dionísio, João A1 - Donkiewicz, Tim A1 - van Doornmalen, Jasper A1 - Eifler, Leon A1 - Ghannam, Mohammed A1 - Gleixner, Ambros A1 - Graczyk, Christoph A1 - Halbig, Katrin A1 - Hedtke, Ivo A1 - Hoen, Alexander A1 - Hojny, Christopher A1 - van der Hulst, Rolf A1 - Kamp, Dominik A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Kofler, Kevin A1 - Lentz, Jurgen A1 - Manns, Julian A1 - Mexi, Gioni A1 - Mühmer, Erik A1 - E. Pfetsch, Marc A1 - Schlösser, Franziska A1 - Serrano, Felipe A1 - Shinano, Yuji A1 - Turner, Mark A1 - Vigerske, Stefan A1 - Weninger, Dieter A1 - Xu, Liding T1 - The SCIP Optimization Suite 9.0 N2 - The SCIP Optimization Suite provides a collection of software packages for mathematical optimization, centered around the constraint integer programming framework SCIP. This report discusses the enhancements and extensions included in the SCIP Optimization Suite 9.0. The updates in SCIP 9.0 include improved symmetry handling, additions and improvements of nonlinear handlers and primal heuristics, a new cut generator and two new cut selection schemes, a new branching rule, a new LP interface, and several bug fixes. The SCIP Optimization Suite 9.0 also features new Rust and C++ interfaces for SCIP, new Python interface for SoPlex, along with enhancements to existing interfaces. The SCIP Optimization Suite 9.0 also includes new and improved features in the LP solver SoPlex, the presolving library PaPILO, the parallel framework UG, the decomposition framework GCG, and the SCIP extension SCIP-SDP. These additions and enhancements have resulted in an overall performance improvement of SCIP in terms of solving time, number of nodes in the branch-and-bound tree, as well as the reliability of the solver. T3 - ZIB-Report - 24-02-29 KW - Constraint integer programming KW - Linear programming KW - Mixed-integer linear programming KW - Mixed-integer nonlinear programming KW - Optimization solver KW - Branch-and-cut KW - Branch-and-price KW - Column generation KW - Parallelization KW - Mixed-integer semidefinite programming Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-95528 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mexi, Gioni A1 - Shamsi, Somayeh A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Bodic, Pierre T1 - Probabilistic Lookahead Strong Branching via a Stochastic Abstract Branching Model T2 - Proceedings of International Conference on the Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Operations Research Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tjusila, Gennesaret A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Turner, Mark A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - How Many Clues To Give? A Bilevel Formulation For The Minimum Sudoku Clue Problem JF - Operations Research Letters N2 - It has been shown that any 9 by 9 Sudoku puzzle must contain at least 17 clues to have a unique solution. This paper investigates the more specific question: given a particular completed Sudoku grid, what is the minimum number of clues in any puzzle whose unique solution is the given grid? We call this problem the Minimum Sudoku Clue Problem (MSCP). We formulate MSCP as a binary bilevel linear program, present a class of globally valid inequalities, and provide a computational study on 50 MSCP instances of 9 by 9 Sudoku grids. Using a general bilevel solver, we solve 95% of instances to optimality, and show that the solution process benefits from the addition of a moderate amount of inequalities. Finally, we extend the proposed model to other combinatorial problems in which uniqueness of the solution is of interest. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orl.2024.107105 VL - 54 SP - 107105 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Turner, Mark A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Besançon, Mathieu A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - Cutting Plane Selection with Analytic Centers and Multiregression T2 - Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Operations Research. CPAIOR 2023. N2 - Cutting planes are a crucial component of state-of-the-art mixed-integer programming solvers, with the choice of which subset of cuts to add being vital for solver performance. We propose new distance-based measures to qualify the value of a cut by quantifying the extent to which it separates relevant parts of the relaxed feasible set. For this purpose, we use the analytic centers of the relaxation polytope or of its optimal face, as well as alternative optimal solutions of the linear programming relaxation. We assess the impact of the choice of distance measure on root node performance and throughout the whole branch-and-bound tree, comparing our measures against those prevalent in the literature. Finally, by a multi-output regression, we predict the relative performance of each measure, using static features readily available before the separation process. Our results indicate that analytic center-based methods help to significantly reduce the number of branch-and-bound nodes needed to explore the search space and that our multiregression approach can further improve on any individual method. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33271-5_4 VL - 13884 SP - 52 EP - 68 PB - Springer ER -