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The most important ingredient for solving mixed-integer nonlinear programs (MINLPs) to global epsilon-optimality with spatial branch and bound is a tight, computationally tractable relaxation. Due to both theoretical and practical considerations, relaxations of MINLPs are usually required to be convex. Nonetheless, current optimization solver can often successfully handle a moderate presence of nonconvexities, which opens the door for the use of potentially tighter nonconvex relaxations. In this work, we exploit this fact and make use of a nonconvex relaxation obtained via aggregation of constraints: a surrogate relaxation. These relaxations were actively studied for linear integer programs in the 70s and 80s, but they have been scarcely considered since. We revisit these relaxations in an MINLP setting and show the computational benefits and challenges they can have. Additionally, we study a generalization of such relaxation that allows for multiple aggregations simultaneously and present the first algorithm that is capable of computing the best set of aggregations. We propose a multitude of computational enhancements for improving its practical performance and evaluate the algorithm’s ability to generate strong dual bounds through extensive computational experiments.
Maximal Quadratic-Free Sets
(2020)
The intersection cut paradigm is a powerful framework that facilitates the generation of valid linear inequalities, or cutting planes, for a potentially complex set S. The key ingredients in this construction are a simplicial conic relaxation of S and an S-free set: a convex zone whose interior does not intersect S. Ideally, such S-free set would be maximal inclusion-wise, as it would generate a deeper cutting plane. However, maximality can be a challenging goal in general. In this work, we show how to construct maximal S-free sets when S is defined as a general quadratic inequality. Our maximal S-free sets are such that efficient separation of a vertex in LP-based approaches to quadratically constrained problems is guaranteed. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to provide maximal quadratic-free sets.
Given a factorable function f, we propose a procedure that constructs a concave underestimor of f that is tight at a given point. These underestimators can be used to generate intersection cuts. A peculiarity of these underestimators is that they do not rely on a bounded domain. We propose a strengthening procedure for the intersection cuts that exploits the bounds of the domain. Finally, we propose an extension of monoidal strengthening to take advantage of the integrality of the non-basic variables.
SCIP is a solver for a wide variety of mathematical optimization problems. It is written in C and extendable due to its plug-in based design. However, dealing with all C specifics when extending SCIP can be detrimental to development and testing of new ideas. This paper attempts to provide a remedy by introducing PySCIPOpt, a Python interface to SCIP that enables users to write new SCIP code entirely in Python. We demonstrate how to intuitively model mixed-integer linear and quadratic optimization problems and moreover provide examples on how new Python plug-ins can be added to SCIP.
The generation of strong linear inequalities for QCQPs has been recently tackled by a number of authors using the intersection cut paradigm - a highly studied tool in integer programming whose flexibility has triggered these renewed efforts in non-linear settings. In this work, we consider intersection cuts using the recently proposed construction of maximal quadratic-free sets. Using these sets, we derive closed-form formulas to compute intersection cuts which allow for quick cut-computations by simply plugging-in parameters associated to an arbitrary quadratic inequality being violated by a vertex of an LP relaxation. Additionally, we implement a cut-strengthening procedure that dates back to Glover and evaluate these techniques with extensive computational experiments.
Using the recently proposed maximal quadratic-free sets and the well-known monoidal strengthening procedure, we show how to improve inter- section cuts for quadratically-constrained optimization problems by exploiting integrality requirements. We provide an explicit construction that allows an efficient implementation of the strengthened cuts along with computational results showing their improvements over the standard intersection cuts. We also show that, in our setting, there is unique lifting which implies that our strengthening procedure is generating the best possible cut coefficients for the integer variables.