In this note we study multiple-ratio fractional 0--1 programs, a broad class of NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems. In particular, under some relatively mild assumptions we provide a complete characterization of the conditions, which ensure that a single-ratio function is submodular. Then we illustrate our theoretical results with the assortment optimization and facility location problems, and discuss practical situations that guarantee submodularity in the considered application settings. In such cases, near-optimal solutions for multiple-ratio fractional 0--1 programs can be found via simple greedy algorithms.
In this paper, we provide a column generation-based approach for solving the airport flight-to-gate assignment problem, where the goal is to minimize the on-ground portion of arrival delays by optimally assigning each scheduled flight to a compatible gate. Specifically, we use a set covering formulation for the master problem and decompose the pricing problem such that each gate is the basis for an independent pricing problem to be solved for assignment patterns with negative reduced costs. We use a combination of an approximation algorithm based on the submodularity of the underlying set and …
For years, there has been interest in approximation methods for solving dynamic programming problems, because of the inherent complexity in computing optimal solutions characterized by Bellman's principle of optimality. A wide range of approximate dynamic programming (ADP) methods now exists. It is of great interest to guarantee that the performance of an ADP scheme be at least some known fraction, say $β$, of optimal. This paper introduces a general approach to bounding the performance of ADP methods, in this sense, in the stochastic setting. The approach is based on new results for bounding …
We present an efficient algorithm for solving fractional programming problems whose objective functions are the ratio of a low-rank quadratic to a positive definite quadratic with convex constraints. The proposed algorithm for these convex-convex problems is based on the Shen-Yu Quadratic Transform which finds stationary points of concave-convex sum-of-ratios problems. We further use elements of the algorithm proposed in [arXiv:1802.10192] and the classic Dinkelbach approach to ensure convergence. We show that our algorithm performs better than previous algorithms for low-rank problems.
In this paper we propose two proximal gradient algorithms for fractional programming problems in real Hilbert spaces, where the numerator is a proper, convex and lower semicontinuous function and the denominator is a smooth function, either concave or convex. In the iterative schemes, we perform a proximal step with respect to the nonsmooth numerator and a gradient step with respect to the smooth denominator. The algorithm in case of a concave denominator has the particularity that it generates sequences which approach both the (global) optimal solutions set and the optimal objective value of …
We consider fractional linear programming production games for the single-objective and multiobjective cases. We use the method of Chakraborty and Gupta (2002) in order to transform the fractional linear programming problems into linear programming problems. A cooperative game is attached and we prove the non-emptiness of the core by using the duality theory from the linear programming. In the multiobjective case, we give a characterization of the Stable outcome of the associate cooperative game, which is balanced. We also consider the cooperative game associated to an exchange economy with a …
The strict complementary slackness condition (SCSC) is an important concept in the duality theory of linear programming (LP). The current study aims at extending this concept to the framework of linear fractional programming (LFP). First, we define this concept in this framework and demonstrate the existence of a strict complementary solution - a pair of primal and dual optimal solutions satisfying the SCSC. Second, we show that the problem of finding such a solution reduces to that of identifying a relative interior point of a polyhedron. More recently, Mehdiloozad et al. (2016) have addresse…
We explore the approximation of feedback control of integro-differential equations containing a fractional Laplacian term. To obtain feedback control for the state variable of this nonlocal equation we use the Hamilton--Jacobi--Bellman equation. It is well-known that this approach suffers from the curse of dimensionality, and to mitigate this problem we couple semi-Lagrangian schemes for the discretization of the dynamic programming principle with the use of Shepard approximation. This coupling enables approximation of high dimensional problems. Numerical convergence toward the solution of the…
In this paper, in the absence of any constraint qualifications, we develop sequential necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for a constrained multiobjective fractional programming problem characterizing a Henig proper efficient solution in terms of the $ε$-subdifferentials and the subdifferentials of the functions. This is achieved by employing a sequential Henig subdifferential calculus rule of the sums of $m \ (m\geq 2)$ proper convex vector valued mappings with a composition of two convex vector valued mappings. In order to present an example illustrating the main results of this p…
This paper presents a canonical dual approach to the problem of minimizing the sum of a quadratic function and the ratio of nonconvex function and quadratic functions, which is a type of non-convex optimization problem subject to an elliptic constraint. We first relax the fractional structure by introducing a family of parametric subproblems. Under certain conditions, we show that the canonical dual of each subproblem becomes a two-dimensional concave maximization problem that exhibits no duality gap. Since the infimum of the optima of the parameterized subproblems leads to a solution to the o…
In this paper, we study a class of fractional semi-infinite polynomial programming problems involving s.o.s-convex polynomial functions. For such a problem, by a conic reformulation proposed in our previous work and the quadratic modules associated with the index set, a hierarchy of semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations can be constructed and convergent upper bounds of the optimum can be obtained. In this paper, by introducing Lasserre's measure-based representation of nonnegative polynomials on the index set to the conic reformulation, we present a new SDP relaxation method for the consi…
Increasing reliability and reducing disruptions in supply networks are of increasing importance; for example, power outages in electricity distribution networks cost \$35-50 billion annually in the US. Motivated by the operational constraints of such networks and their rapid adoption of decentralized paradigms and self-healing components, we introduce the "minimum reconnection time" (MRT) problem. MRT seeks to reduce outage time after network disruptions by programming reconnection times of different edges (i.e., switches), while ensuring that the operating network is acyclic. We show that MRT…
In this paper, we study a class of fractional semi-infinite polynomial programming (FSIPP) problems, in which the objective is a fraction of a convex polynomial and a concave polynomial, and the constraints consist of infinitely many convex polynomial inequalities. To solve such a problem, we first reformulate it to a pair of primal and dual conic optimization problems, which reduce to semidefinite programming (SDP) problems if we can bring sum-of-squares structures into the conic constraints. To this end, we provide a characteristic cone constraint qualification for convex semi-infinite progr…
This paper proposes a fuzzy goal programming based on Taylor series for solving decentralized bi-level multiobjective fractional programming (DBLMOFP) problem. In the proposed approach, all of the membership functions are associated with the fuzzy goals of each objective at the both levels and also the fractional membership functions are converted to linear functions using the Taylor series approach. Then a fuzzy goal programming is proposed to reach the highest degree of each of the membership goals by taking the most satisfactory solution for all decision makers at the both levels. Finally, …
We extend Robust Optimization to fractional programming, where both the objective and the constraints contain uncertain parameters. Earlier work did not consider uncertainty in both the objective and the constraints, or did not use Robust Optimization. Our contribution is threefold. First, we provide conditions to guarantee that either a globally optimal solution, or a sequence converging to the globally optimal solution, can be found by solving one or more convex optimization problems. Second, we identify two cases for which an exact solution can be obtained by solving a single optimization p…
Due to the unobservability of confoundings, there has been widespread concern about how to compute causality quantitatively. To address this challenge, proxy-based negative control approaches have been commonly adopted, where auxiliary outcome variables $\bm{W}$ are introduced as the proxy of confoundings $\bm{U}$. However, these approaches rely on strong assumptions such as reversibility, completeness, or bridge functions. These assumptions lack intuitive empirical interpretation and solid verification techniques, hence their applications in the real world are limited. For instance, these app…
This paper considers a fractional programming problem (P) which minimizes a ratio of quadratic functions subject to a two-sided quadratic constraint. As is well-known, the fractional objective function can be replaced by a parametric family of quadratic functions, which makes (P) highly related to, but more difficult than a single quadratic programming problem subject to a similar constraint set. The task is to find the optimal parameter $λ^*$ and then look for the optimal solution if $λ^*$ is attained. Contrasted with the classical Dinkelbach method that iterates over the parameter, we propos…
In this paper we consider three minimization problems, namely quadratic, $ρ$-convex and quadratic fractional programing problems. The quadratic problem is considered with quadratic inequality constraints with bounded continuous and discrete mixed variables. The $ρ$-convex problem is considered with $ρ$-convex inequality constraints in mixed variables. The quadratic fractional problem is studied with quadratic fractional constraints in mixed variables. For all three problems we reformulate the problem as a mathematical programming problem and apply standard Karush Kuhn Tucker necessary conditio…
Linear programming (LP) relaxation is a standard technique for solving hard combinatorial optimization (CO) problems. Here we present a gradient descent algorithm which exploits the special structure of some LP relaxations induced by CO problems. The algorithm can be run in parallel mode and was implemented as CUDA C/C++ program to be executed on GPU. We exemplify efficiency of the algorithm by solving a fractional 2-matching problem. Our results demonstrate that a fractional 2-matching problem with 100,000 nodes is solved by our algorithm on a modern GPU on a scale of a second while solving t…
We consider a Bolza-type optimal control problem for a dynamical system described by a fractional differential equation with the Caputo derivative of an order $α\in (0, 1)$. The value of this problem is introduced as a functional in a suitable space of histories of motions. We prove that this functional satisfies the dynamic programming principle. Based on a new notion of coinvariant derivatives of the order $α$, we associate the considered optimal control problem with a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. Under certain smoothness assumptions, we establish a connection between the value function…
In this paper, we deal with a Cauchy problem for a nonlinear fractional differential equation with the Caputo derivative of order $α\in (0, 1)$. As initial data, we consider a pair consisting of an initial point, which does not necessarily coincide with the inferior limit of the fractional derivative, and a function that determines the values of a solution on the interval from this inferior limit to the initial point. We study differentiability properties of the functional associating initial data with the endpoint of the corresponding solution of the Cauchy problem. Stimulated by recent resul…
In this article, we use the monotonic optimization approach to propose an outcome-space outer approximation by copolyblocks for solving strictly quasiconvex multiobjective programming problems and especially in the case that the objective functions are nonlinear fractional. After the algorithm is terminated, with any given tolerance, we obtain an approximation of the weakly efficient solution set, that contains the whole weakly efficient solution set of the problem. The algorithm is proved to be convergent and it is suitable to be implemented in parallel using standard convex programming tools…
A finite horizon linear quadratic(LQ) optimal control problem is studied for a class of discrete-time linear fractional systems (LFSs) affected by multiplicative, independent random perturbations. Based on the dynamic programming technique, two methods are proposed for solving this problem. The first one seems to be new and uses a linear, expanded-state model of the LFS. The LQ optimal control problem reduces to a similar one for stochastic linear systems and the solution is obtained by solving Riccati equations. The second method appeals to the Principle of Optimality and provides an algorith…
The well-known Influence Maximization (IM) problem has been actively studied by researchers over the past decade, with emphasis on marketing and social networks. Existing research have obtained solutions to the IM problem by obtaining the influence spread and utilizing the property of submodularity. This paper is based on a novel approach to the IM problem geared towards optimizing clicks and consequently revenue within anOnline Social Network (OSN). Our approach diverts from existing approaches by adopting a novel, decision-making perspective through implementing Stochastic Dynamic Programmin…
We present an optimization problem emerging from optimal control theory and situated at the intersection of fractional programming and linear max-min programming on polytopes. A naïve solution would require solving four nested, possibly nonlinear, optimization problems. Instead, relying on numerous geometric arguments we determine an analytical solution to this problem. In the course of proving our main theorem we also establish another optimization result stating that the minimum of a specific minimax optimization is located at a vertex of the constraint set.
This work proposes a first extensive analysis of the Vehicle Routing Problem with Fractional Objective Function (vrpfof). We investigate how the principal techniques used either in the context of fractional programming or in the context of vehicle routing problems interact. We present new dual and primal bounding procedures which have been incorporated in an exact method. The method proposed allows to extend specific variants of \vrp\ to their counterpart with a fractional objective function. Extensive numerical experiments prove the validity of our approach.
This paper presents three direct methods based on Grünwald-Letnikov, trapezoidal and Simpson fractional integral formulas to solve fractional optimal control problems (FOCPs). At first, the fractional integral form of FOCP is considered, then the fractional integral is approximated by Grünwald-Letnikov, trapezoidal and Simpson formulas in a matrix approach. Thereafter, the performance index is approximated either by trapezoidal or Simpson quadrature. As a result, FOCP are reduced to nonlinear programming problems, which can be solved by many well-developed algorithms. To improve the efficiency…
The characterization of the global maximum of energy efficiency (EE) problems in wireless networks is a challenging problem due to the non-convex nature of investigated problems in interference channels. The aim of this work is to develop a new and general framework to achieve globally optimal solutions. First, the hidden monotonic structure of the most common EE maximization problems is exploited jointly with fractional programming theory to obtain globally optimal solutions with exponential complexity in the number of network links. To overcome this issue, we also propose a framework to comp…
In this paper we introduce a new dual program, which is representable as a semi-definite linear programming problem, for a primal convex minimax programming model problem and show that there is no duality gap between the primal and the dual whenever the functions involved are SOS-convex polynomials. Under a suitable constraint qualification, we derive strong duality results for this class of minimax problems. Consequently, we present applications of our results to robust SOS-convex programming problems under data uncertainty and to minimax fractional programming problems with SOS-convex polyno…
In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient optimal altitude for an aerial access point (AAP), which acts as a flying base station to serve a set of ground user equipment (UE). Since the ratio of total energy consumed by the aerial vehicle to the communication energy is very large, we include the aerial vehicle's energy consumption in the problem formulation. After considering the energy consumption model of the aerial vehicle, our objective is translated into a non-convex optimization problem of maximizing the global energy efficiency (GEE) of the aerial communication system, subject to alt…
In this paper we introduce a new operation for Linear Programming (LP), called LP complementation, which resembles many properties of LP duality. Given a maximisation (resp.~minimisation) LP $P$, we define its complement $Q$ as a specific minimisation (resp.~maximisation) LP with the same objective function as $P$. Our central result is the LP complementation theorem, that establishes the following relationship between the optimal value $\text{Opt}(P)$ of $P$ and the optimal value $\text{Opt}(Q)$ of its complement: $\frac{1}{\text{Opt}(P)}+\frac{1}{\text{Opt}(Q)}=1$. The LP complementation ope…
The aim of this study is to find the optimum of a linear fractional function over the efficient set of a multi-objective linear fractional integer program without generating all efficient solutions. By its nature, it is a global optimization problem since the efficient set is discrete, hence not convex. For this purpose, a branch and bound based method is described with a double mission to search for an optimal solution for a given linear fractional function which is moreover, efficient for a multi-objective linear fractional integer programming problem. Tests performed on instances randomly g…
Facility and covering location models are key elements in many decision aid tools in logistics, supply chain design, telecommunications, public infrastructure planning, and many other industrial and public sectors. In many applications, it is likely that customers are not dichotomously covered by facilities, but gradually covered according to, e.g., the distance to the open facilities. Moreover, customers are not served by a single facility, but by a collection of them, which jointly serve them. In this paper we study the recently introduced multiple gradual cover location problem (MGCLP). The…
We propose a Boolean Linear Programming model for the preemptive single machine scheduling problem with equal processing times, arbitrary release dates and weights(priorities) minimizing the total weighted completion time. Almost always an optimal solution of the Linear Programming relaxation is integral and can be straightforwardly converted into an optimal schedule. To deal with the fractional solutions we present two heuristics. Very often our heuristics find solutions with objective function values equal to the lower bound found by the Linear Programming relaxation. For the cases when uppe…
In this paper, we investigate the resource allocation problem for D2D communications underlaying wireless powered communication networks, where multiple D2D pairs harvest energy from a power station equipped with multiple antennas and then transmit information signals simultaneously over the same spectrum resource. The aim is to maximize the sum throughput via joint time scheduling and power control, while satisfying the energy causality constraints. The formulated non-convex problem is first transformed into a nonlinear fractional programming problem with a tactful reformulation. Then, by lev…
