Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

OPTIMIZATION WITH LINEAR COMPLEMENTARITY CONSTRAINTS

Abstract

A Mathematical Program with Linear Complementarity Constraints (MPLCC) is an optimization problem where a continuously differentiable function is minimized on a set defined by linear constraints and complementarity conditions on pairs of complementary variables. This problem finds many applications in several areas of science, engineering and economics and is also an important tool for the solution of some NP-hard structured and nonconvex optimization problems, such as bilevel, bilinear and nonconvex quadratic programs and the eigenvalue complementarity problem. In this paper some of the most relevant applications of the MPLCC and formulations of nonconvex optimization problems as MPLCCs are first presented.

Algorithms for computing a feasible solution, a stationary point and a global minimum for the MPLCC are next discussed. The most important nonlinear programming methods, complementarity algorithms, enumerative techniques and 0 - 1 integer programming approaches for the MPLCC are reviewed. Some comments about the computational performance of these algorithms and a few topics for future research are also included in this survey.

linear complementarity problems; global optimization; nonlinear programming; integer programming


1 INTRODUCTION

A mathematical problem with linear complementarity constraints (MPLCC) [22[22] DIRKSE S, FERRIS M & MEERAUS A. 2005. Mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints: automatic reformulation and solution via constrained optimization. In KEHOE T, SRINIVASAN T & WHALLEY J. Editors. Frontiers in Applied General Equilibrium Modeling, pages 67-93. Cambridge University Press.,60[60] LUO Z, PANG J-S & RALPH D. 1997. Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints. Cambridge University Press, New York.,70[70] OUTRATA J, KOCVARA M & ZOWE J. 1998. Nonsmooth Approach to Optimization Problems with Equilibrium Constraints: Theory, Applications and Numerical Results. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.,76[76] RALPH D. 2007. Nonlinear programming advances in mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Royal Society.] consists of minimizing a continuously differentiable function on a set defined by a general linear complementarity problem (GLCP). The standard form of this problem is stated as follows:

where E ∈ ℝ p×n , M ∈ ℝp×n, N ∈ ℝ p×m,and Ky is a polyhedron in ℝm. Since the variables xi and wi are nonnegative, then the constraint (5) is equivalent to n inequalities xi wi = 0, i = 1, ..., n. So in each feasible solution of the MPLCC, for eachi = 1, ..., n, at least one of the variables xi or wi must be equal to zero. These variables are called complementary and lend the name to the problem. In many applications of the MPLCC, some of the variables xi are unrestricted in sign and their complementary variables wi are equal to zero. In this paper we only concentrate on the Standard Form (1)-(5), but most of the ideas and algorithms are easily extended to the latter mixed form of the MPLCC.

The MPLCC is called a Linear (Quadratic) Programming Problem with Linear Complementarity Constraints and is denoted by LPLCC (QPLCC) if its objective function ƒ is linear (quadratic). The MPLCC seems to be introduced in the papers of Ibaraki [43[43] IBARAKI T. 1971. Complementarity programming. Operations Research, 19:1523-1529.] and Jeroslow [44[44] JEROSLOW RG. 1978. Cutting-planes for complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, 16:56-62.] and became very important later as a tool for finding global minima of bilevel programming problems [8[8] BARD J. 1999. Practical Bilevel Optimization: Algorithms and Applications. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.,12[12] BARD J & MOORE J. 1990. A branch and bound algorithm for the bilevel programming problem. SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, 11:281-292.,18[18] COLSON B, MARCOTTE P & SAVARD G. 2005. Bilevel programming: a survey. 4OR: A Quarterly Journal of Operations Research, 3:87-107.,21[21] DEMPE S. 2002. Foundations of Bilevel Programming. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordecht.,37[37] HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G. 1992. New branch-and-bound rules for linear bilevel programming. SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, 13:1194-1217.,47[47] JÚDICE J AND FAUSTINO A. 1992. A SLCP method for bilevel linear programming. Annals of Operations Research, 34:89-106.]. Many other formulations of nonconvex programs and applications of the MPLCC have been discussed in the past several years [1[1] AMARAL P, BOMZE I & JÚDICE J. 2014. Copositivity and constrained fractional quadratic programs. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 146:325-350. ,2[2] AUDET C, HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G.1999. A symmetrical linear maxmin approach to disjoint bilinear programming. Mathematical Programming 85:573-592.,10[10] BRÁS C, HAGER W & JÚDICE J. 2012. An investigation of feasible descent algorithms for estimating the condition number of a matrix. TOP - Journal of Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, 20:791-809.,11[11] BURDAKOV O, KANZOW C & SCHWARTZ A. On a reformulation of mathematical programs with cardinality constraints. To appear in Advances in Global Optimization.,19[19] COTTLE R, PANG J-S & STONE R. 1992. The Linear Complementarity Problem. Academic Press, New York.,22[22] DIRKSE S, FERRIS M & MEERAUS A. 2005. Mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints: automatic reformulation and solution via constrained optimization. In KEHOE T, SRINIVASAN T & WHALLEY J. Editors. Frontiers in Applied General Equilibrium Modeling, pages 67-93. Cambridge University Press.,33[33] FACCHINEI F & PANGJ-S. 2002. Finite-Dimensional Variational Inequalities and Complementarity Problems, Vol. I and II. Springer, New York.,41[41] HORST R, PARDALOS P & THOAI VN. 2003. Introduction to Global Optimization. Kluwer, New York.,40[40] HU J, MITCHELL J & PANG J-S. 2012. An LPLCC approach to nonconvex quadratic programs. Mathematical Programming, 133:243-277.,55[55] KONNO H. 1971. Bilinear programming: Part ii - aplications of bilinear programming. Technical report, Department of Operations Research, Stanford University.,60[60] LUO Z, PANG J-S & RALPH D. 1997. Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints. Cambridge University Press, New York.,61[61] MANGASARIAN OL. 1995. The linear complementarity problem as a separable bilinear program. Journal of Global Optimization, 6:153-161.,63[63] MASSARO A, PELILLO M & BOMZE I. 2002. A complementarity pivoting approach to the maximum weight clique problem. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 12:928-948.,67[67] MURTY K. 1988. Linear Complementarity, Linear and Nonlinear Programming. Heldermann Verlag, Berlin.,70[70] OUTRATA J, KOCVARA M & ZOWE J. 1998. Nonsmooth Approach to Optimization Problems with Equilibrium Constraints: Theory, Applications and Numerical Results. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.,73[73] PINTO DA COSTA A, MARTINS J, FIGUEIREDO I & JÚDICE J. 2004. The directional instability problem in systems with frictional contacts. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 139:357-384.,76[76] RALPH D. 2007. Nonlinear programming advances in mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Royal Society.,80[80] SEEGER A. 1999. Eigenvalue analysis of equilibrium processes defined by linear complementarity conditions. Linear Algebra and its Applications, 292:1-14.,87[87] VANDEMBUSSCHE D & NEMHAUSER G. 2005.A branch-and-cut algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programs with box constraints. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 102:559-575.]. In this paper we surveyed the most important applications of the MPLCC and formulations of problems as MPLCCs with special emphasis on bilevel, bilinear and nonconvex quadratic programming problems and the eigenvalue complementarity problem.

During the past several years, a great interest has emerged on the design and implementation of efficient algorithms to deal with the MPLCC. Three important issues are related with the solution of an MPLCC, namely the computation of a feasible solution, a stationary point and a global minimum. Finding a feasible solution of the MPLCC consists of solving the GLCP defined by the constraints (2)-(5). This problem is in general NP-hard [54[54] JÚDICE J & VICENTE LN. 1994. On the solution and complexity of a generalized linear complementarity problem. Journal of Global Optimization, 4:415-424.], but it can be solved efficiently for the most important applications and formulations by special purpose algorithms or local nonlinear programming methods. In general, an enumerative technique or 0 - 1 Integer Linear Programming should be used to compute such a feasible solution or to show that the MPLCC is infeasible.

The MPLCC can be seen as a special Nonlinear Programming Problem (NLP) with linear constraints and the nonlinear equality restriction (5). This definition has implied a number of stationary concepts associated to the MPLCC [30[30] FANG HR, LEYFFER S & MUNSON T. 2012. A pivoting algorithm for linear programming with linear complementarity constraints. Optimization Methods and Software, 27:89-114.,38[38] HOEISEL T, KANZOW C & SCHWARTZ A. 2013. Theoretical and numerical comparison of relaxation methods for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. Mathematical Programming, 137:257-288.,60[60] LUO Z, PANG J-S & RALPH D. 1997. Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints. Cambridge University Press, New York.,70[70] OUTRATA J, KOCVARA M & ZOWE J. 1998. Nonsmooth Approach to Optimization Problems with Equilibrium Constraints: Theory, Applications and Numerical Results. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.,72[72] PANG J-S & FUKUSHIMA M. 1999. Complementarity constraint qualifications and simplified B-stationarity conditions for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints. Computational Optimization Applications, 13:111-136.,76[76] RALPH D. 2007. Nonlinear programming advances in mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Royal Society.,83[83] SCHEEL H & SCHOLTES S. 2000. Mathematical programs with complementarity constraints: Stationarity, optimality and sensitivity. Mathematics of Operations Research, 25:1-22.,89[89] YE JJ. 1999. Optimality conditions for optimization problems with complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 9:374-387.,90[90] YE JJ. 2005. Necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 307:350-369.]. Among them, strongly stationary, M-stationary and B-stationary points [30[30] FANG HR, LEYFFER S & MUNSON T. 2012. A pivoting algorithm for linear programming with linear complementarity constraints. Optimization Methods and Software, 27:89-114.,38[38] HOEISEL T, KANZOW C & SCHWARTZ A. 2013. Theoretical and numerical comparison of relaxation methods for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. Mathematical Programming, 137:257-288.,76[76] RALPH D. 2007. Nonlinear programming advances in mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Royal Society.] are the most important and are briefly surveyed in this paper. Many algorithms have been developed in the past several years for computing stationary points of MPLCC [4[4] ANITESCU M. 2005. On using the elastic mode in nonlinear programming approaches for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 15:1203-1236. ,7[7] ANITESCU M, TSENG P & WRIGHT SJ. 2007. Elastic-mode algorithms for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints: global convergence and stationarity properties. Mathematical Programming, 110:337-371.,15[15] BENSON H, SENA, SHANNO D & VANDERBEI R. 2005. Interior-point algorithms, penaltymethods and equilibrium problems. Computational Optimization and Applications, 34:155-182.,22[22] DIRKSE S, FERRIS M & MEERAUS A. 2005. Mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints: automatic reformulation and solution via constrained optimization. In KEHOE T, SRINIVASAN T & WHALLEY J. Editors. Frontiers in Applied General Equilibrium Modeling, pages 67-93. Cambridge University Press.,26[26] FACCHINEI F, JIANG H & QI L. 1999. A smoothing method for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints. Mathematical Programming, 85:107-134.,30[30] FANG HR, LEYFFER S & MUNSON T. 2012. A pivoting algorithm for linear programming with linear complementarity constraints. Optimization Methods and Software, 27:89-114.,29[29] FLETCHER R & LEYFFER S. 2004. Solving mathematical programs with complementarity constraints as nonlinear programs. Optimization Methods and Software, 19:15-40.,32[32] FLETCHER R, LEYFFER S, RALPH D & SCHOLTES S. 2006. Local convergence of SQP methods for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 17:259-286.,31[31] FUKUSHIMA M, LUO Z-Q & PANG J-S. 1998. A globally convergent sequential quadratic programming algorithm for mathematical programs with linear complementarity constraints. Computational Optimization Applications, 10:5-34.,34[34] FUKUSHIMA M & TSENG P. 2002. An implementable active-set algorithm for computing a Bstationary point of a mathematical program with linear complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 12:724-739.,42[42] HU XM & RALPH D. 2004. Convergence of a penalty method for mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 123:365-390.,49[49] JIANG H & RALPH D. 1999. Smooth SQP methods for mathematical programs with nonlinear complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 10:779-808.,50[50] JIANG H & RALPH D. 2003. Extension of quasi-Newton methods to mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. Computational Optimization Applications, 25:123-150.,53[53] JÚDICE J, SHERALI H, RIBEIRO I & FAUSTINO A. 2007. A complementarity active-set algorithm for mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 136:467-481.,56[56] LEYFFER S, LÓPEZ-CALVA G & NOCEDAL J. 2004. Interior methods for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 17:52-77.,60[60] LUO Z, PANG J-S & RALPH D. 1997. Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints. Cambridge University Press, New York.,70[70] OUTRATA J, KOCVARA M & ZOWE J. 1998. Nonsmooth Approach to Optimization Problems with Equilibrium Constraints: Theory, Applications and Numerical Results. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.,76[76] RALPH D. 2007. Nonlinear programming advances in mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Royal Society.,78[78] SCHOLTES S. 1999. Active set methods for inverse complementarity problems. Technical report, Judge Institute of Management Research.,79[79] SCHOLTES S. 2000. Convergence properties of a regularization scheme for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 11:918-936.]. In this paper, we survey the most efficient techniques.

As stated before, any feasible solution (x, y, w) of the MPLCC has to satisfy n complementarity conditions xi wi = 0, i = 1, ..., n. Due to the similarity with 0 - 1 integer programming, branch-and-bound algorithms were the first techniques to be designed for the computation of a global minimum to the MPLCC [2[2] AUDET C, HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G.1999. A symmetrical linear maxmin approach to disjoint bilinear programming. Mathematical Programming 85:573-592.,6[6] AUDET C SAVARD G & ZGHAL Z. 2007. New branch-and-bound algorithm for bilevel linear programming. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 134:353-370.,12[12] BARD J & MOORE J. 1990. A branch and bound algorithm for the bilevel programming problem. SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, 11:281-292.,16[16] BURER S & VANDENBUSSCHE D. 2008. A finite branch-and-bound algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programming via semidefinite relaxations. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 113:259-282.,23[23] DE SABÓIA CHM, CAMPÊLO M & SCHEIMBERG S. 2004. A computational study of global algorithms for linear bilevel programming. Numerical Algorithms, 35:155-173.,37[37] HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G. 1992. New branch-and-bound rules for linear bilevel programming. SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, 13:1194-1217.,52[52] JÚDICE J, SHERALI H, RIBEIRO I & FAUSTINO A. 2006. A complementarity-based partitioning and disjunctive cut algorithm for mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Global Optimization, 136:89-114.,87[87] VANDEMBUSSCHE D & NEMHAUSER G. 2005.A branch-and-cut algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programs with box constraints. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 102:559-575.]. The algorithms exploit a binary tree that is generated based on the dichotomy that xi = 0 or wi = 0. Lower-bounds are computed in each node by solving some appropriate relaxed convex program in order to alleviate the search in the tree. RLT, SDP and cutting-planes [17[17] CHEN J & BURER S. 2012. Globally solving nonconvex quadratic programming problems via completely copositive programming. Mathematical Programming Computation, 4:33-52.,64[64] MITCHELL J, PANG J-S & YU B. 2012.Obtaining tighter relaxations of mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. In TERLAKY T & CURTIS F. Editors. Modeling and Optimization: Theory and Applications, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics, 21:1-23.,82[82] SHERALI HD, KRISHNAMURTHY RS & AL-KHAYYAL FA. 1998. Enumeration approach for linear complementarity problems based on a reformulation-linearization technique. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 99:481-507.] have been recommended to the LPLCC for such a goal and can also be used for the QPLCC [13[13] BAI L, MITCHELL J & PANG J-S. 2013. On convex quadratic programs with linear complementarity constraints. Computational Optimization and Applications, 54:517-554.]. The MPLCC can also be reduced into a 0 - 1 integer program [35[35] GUMUZ ZH & FLOUDAS CA. 2005. Global optimization of mixed-integer bilevel programming problems. Computational Management Science, 2:181-212.,40[40] HU J, MITCHELL J & PANG J-S. 2012. An LPLCC approach to nonconvex quadratic programs. Mathematical Programming, 133:243-277.,39[39] HU J, MITCHELL J, PANG J-S, BENNETT KP & KUNAPULI G. 2008. On the global solution of linear programs with linear complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 19:445-471.,61[61] MANGASARIAN OL. 1995. The linear complementarity problem as a separable bilinear program. Journal of Global Optimization, 6:153-161.,82[82] SHERALI HD, KRISHNAMURTHY RS & AL-KHAYYAL FA. 1998. Enumeration approach for linear complementarity problems based on a reformulation-linearization technique. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 99:481-507.] and solved by some appropriate technique.

A sequential algorithm was introduced in [47[47] JÚDICE J AND FAUSTINO A. 1992. A SLCP method for bilevel linear programming. Annals of Operations Research, 34:89-106.] for solving the LPLCC associated to a linear bilevel program and subsequently improved and applied to other LPLCC formulations [46[46] JÚDICE J & FAUSTINO A. 1991. A computational analysis of LCP methods for bilinear and concave quadratic programming. Computers and Operations Research, 18:645-654.,48[48] JÚDICE J AND FAUSTINO A. 1994. The linear-quadratic bilevel programming problem. Information Systems and Operational Research, 32:87-98.]. The method computes strongly, M-or B-stationary points of the LPLCC with strictly decreasing objective function values until terminating with an approximate global minimum that is usually a global minimum of the LPLCC.

The three different approaches mentioned above are particularly effective for the LPLCC and are also useful for solving QPLCC and MPLCC with convex objective functions. In this paper, we discuss the benefits and drawbacks of these techniques.

The organization of this paper is as follows. In Section 2 some applications and reformulations of optimization problems as MPLCC are surveyed. Section 3 addresses the computation of a feasible solution to the MPLCC. The definitions of strongly, M- and B-stationary points and algorithms for computing such points are discussed in Section 4. The most important techniques for finding global minima of LPLCC and MPLCC are reviewed in Sections 5 to 8. Finally some conclusions and topics for future research are presented in the last section of the paper.

2 APPLICATIONS AND FORMULATIONS OF NONCONVEX OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS

The MPLCC has found a large number of applications in several areas of science, engineering, economics and finance. Stackelberg games, market and traffic equilibrium models, contact problems, telecommunication network models, portfolio selection problems and machine learning are some examples of important applications of the MPLCC. We recommend [19[19] COTTLE R, PANG J-S & STONE R. 1992. The Linear Complementarity Problem. Academic Press, New York.,33[33] FACCHINEI F & PANGJ-S. 2002. Finite-Dimensional Variational Inequalities and Complementarity Problems, Vol. I and II. Springer, New York.,60[60] LUO Z, PANG J-S & RALPH D. 1997. Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints. Cambridge University Press, New York.,76[76] RALPH D. 2007. Nonlinear programming advances in mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Royal Society.] for good descriptions of these applications. The MPLCC has also been very useful as a tool for solving NP-hard optimization problems. These problems are first reformulated as MPLCCs and then solved by appropriate MPLCC techniques. Examples of important optimization problems that should be reformulated as MPLCCs are nonconvex quadratic programming, bilinear programming, bilevel programming, linear complementarity problem, eigenvalue complementarity problem, total least-squares, absolute value programming, optimization with cardinality constraints, computation of independent (or clique) number and estimation of the condition number of a matrix [1[1] AMARAL P, BOMZE I & JÚDICE J. 2014. Copositivity and constrained fractional quadratic programs. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 146:325-350. ,2[2] AUDET C, HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G.1999. A symmetrical linear maxmin approach to disjoint bilinear programming. Mathematical Programming 85:573-592.,10[10] BRÁS C, HAGER W & JÚDICE J. 2012. An investigation of feasible descent algorithms for estimating the condition number of a matrix. TOP - Journal of Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, 20:791-809.,11[11] BURDAKOV O, KANZOW C & SCHWARTZ A. On a reformulation of mathematical programs with cardinality constraints. To appear in Advances in Global Optimization.,19[19] COTTLE R, PANG J-S & STONE R. 1992. The Linear Complementarity Problem. Academic Press, New York.,22[22] DIRKSE S, FERRIS M & MEERAUS A. 2005. Mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints: automatic reformulation and solution via constrained optimization. In KEHOE T, SRINIVASAN T & WHALLEY J. Editors. Frontiers in Applied General Equilibrium Modeling, pages 67-93. Cambridge University Press.,33[33] FACCHINEI F & PANGJ-S. 2002. Finite-Dimensional Variational Inequalities and Complementarity Problems, Vol. I and II. Springer, New York.,41[41] HORST R, PARDALOS P & THOAI VN. 2003. Introduction to Global Optimization. Kluwer, New York.,40[40] HU J, MITCHELL J & PANG J-S. 2012. An LPLCC approach to nonconvex quadratic programs. Mathematical Programming, 133:243-277.,55[55] KONNO H. 1971. Bilinear programming: Part ii - aplications of bilinear programming. Technical report, Department of Operations Research, Stanford University.,60[60] LUO Z, PANG J-S & RALPH D. 1997. Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints. Cambridge University Press, New York.,61[61] MANGASARIAN OL. 1995. The linear complementarity problem as a separable bilinear program. Journal of Global Optimization, 6:153-161.,63[63] MASSARO A, PELILLO M & BOMZE I. 2002. A complementarity pivoting approach to the maximum weight clique problem. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 12:928-948.,67[67] MURTY K. 1988. Linear Complementarity, Linear and Nonlinear Programming. Heldermann Verlag, Berlin.,70[70] OUTRATA J, KOCVARA M & ZOWE J. 1998. Nonsmooth Approach to Optimization Problems with Equilibrium Constraints: Theory, Applications and Numerical Results. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.,73[73] PINTO DA COSTA A, MARTINS J, FIGUEIREDO I & JÚDICE J. 2004. The directional instability problem in systems with frictional contacts. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 139:357-384.,76[76] RALPH D. 2007. Nonlinear programming advances in mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Royal Society.,80[80] SEEGER A. 1999. Eigenvalue analysis of equilibrium processes defined by linear complementarity conditions. Linear Algebra and its Applications, 292:1-14.,87[87] VANDEMBUSSCHE D & NEMHAUSER G. 2005.A branch-and-cut algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programs with box constraints. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 102:559-575.]. Next, we address four of these reformulations.

A bilevel programming problem (BPP) [8[8] BARD J. 1999. Practical Bilevel Optimization: Algorithms and Applications. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.,18[18] COLSON B, MARCOTTE P & SAVARD G. 2005. Bilevel programming: a survey. 4OR: A Quarterly Journal of Operations Research, 3:87-107.,21[21] DEMPE S. 2002. Foundations of Bilevel Programming. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordecht.] contains a hierarchy between two optimization problems, where the constraints of the leader's problem at the first level are defined as part of a parametric problem considered at a second level and called the follower's problem. In this paper we assume that the remaining constraints of the leader's problem and the constraints of the follower's problem are all linear and that the follower's function is convex and quadratic. Hence the BPP can be defined as follows:

where ƒ is a continuously differentiable function on an open set containing the feasible set of leader's problem, Ky ⊆ ℝm is a polyhedron in y and x ∈ ℝn is the optimal solution of the parametric quadratic convex program

Note that Q is a symmetric PSD matrix (i.e., xT Qx ≥ 0 for all x ∈ ℝn). Replacing the second level quadratic program by its Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions [14[14] BAZARAA M, SHERALI H & SHETTY C. 2006. Nonlinear Programming: Theory and Algorithms. John Wiley & Sons, 3rd edition.], the BPP reduces to the following MPLCC:

Hence computing a global minimum for the BPP is equivalent to finding a global minimum of the MPLCC:

It is important to note that if the follower's problem (7) contains some equalities or unrestricted variables, then some variables xi or ui are unrestricted in sign and their complementary variables wi or vi respectively are equal to zero.

The bilinear programming problem (BLP) has also been quite investigated due to its large number of applications [2[2] AUDET C, HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G.1999. A symmetrical linear maxmin approach to disjoint bilinear programming. Mathematical Programming 85:573-592.,55[55] KONNO H. 1971. Bilinear programming: Part ii - aplications of bilinear programming. Technical report, Department of Operations Research, Stanford University.,77[77] SHERALI HD & ADAMS WP. 1999. A Reformulation-Linearization Technique for Solving Discrete and Continuous Nonconvex Problems. Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht.]. It consists of minimizing a bilinear function in the variables xi and yi on a convex set defined by linear constraints. Therefore it takes the form

where Kx ⊆ ℝn and Ky ⊆ ℝm are polyhedra in the x- and y- variables, respectively. If

then BLP can be stated as follows:

The dual program of the inner program above is given by

By introducing the slack variables wi, vi and t i of the primal and dual programs (16) and (17) respectively and applying the complementarity slackness theorem [66[66] MURTY K. 1976. Linear and Combinatorial Programming. Wiley, New York.], (x, y) is an optimal solution of the BLP (13)-(15) if and only if (x, y) is a global minimum of the MPLCC

Hence a Bilinear Program is equivalent to a QPLCC. A BLP is called Disjoint if there are no constraints involving both x- and y- variables (i.e., the inequalities (14) do not exist). In this case the BLP reduces to an LPLCC of the form

As for the Bilevel Program, the QPLCC and LPLCC associated with a Bilinear Program may have some unrestricted variables wi or ti equal to zero when the inner program in (16) contains some equalities or unrestricted variables.

Consider a Quadratic Program (QP) of the form

where H in ℝn×n is symmetric, A ∈ ℝm×n, b ∈ ℝm and c ∈ ℝn. The Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions associated to a stationary point of QP are given by [19[19] COTTLE R, PANG J-S & STONE R. 1992. The Linear Complementarity Problem. Academic Press, New York.,67[67] MURTY K. 1988. Linear Complementarity, Linear and Nonlinear Programming. Heldermann Verlag, Berlin.]:

If H is a PSD matrix, then QP is convex and the solution of the Linear Complementarity Problem (LCP) (27) gives a global minimum for the QP (26) [19[19] COTTLE R, PANG J-S & STONE R. 1992. The Linear Complementarity Problem. Academic Press, New York.,67[67] MURTY K. 1988. Linear Complementarity, Linear and Nonlinear Programming. Heldermann Verlag, Berlin.]. In general, for any solution of LCP (27) the objective function is linear in the variables xi and vi, as

Hence the QP (26) is equivalent to the following LPLCC:

As before, the existence of equalities or unrestricted variables xi in the definition of the QP leads to some variables xi or ui unrestricted in sign and their complementary wi or vi equal to zero.

The Eigenvalue Complementarity Problem (EiCP) has been introduced in [80[80] SEEGER A. 1999. Eigenvalue analysis of equilibrium processes defined by linear complementarity conditions. Linear Algebra and its Applications, 292:1-14.] and used in the stability analysis of finite dimensional elastic systems with frictional contact [73[73] PINTO DA COSTA A, MARTINS J, FIGUEIREDO I & JÚDICE J. 2004. The directional instability problem in systems with frictional contacts. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 139:357-384.]. Many practical algorithms have been developed during the last years for the solution of this problem and some of its extensions [5[5] ADLY S & SEEGER A. 2011. A nonsmooth algorithm for cone-constrained eigenvalue problems. Computational Optimization and Applications, 49:299-318.,9[9] BRÁS C, FUKUSHIMA M, JÚDICE J & ROSA S. 2012. Variational inequality formulation of the asymmetric eigenvalue problem and its solution by means of gap functions. Pacific Journal of Optimization, 8:197-215.,25[25] FERNANDES L, JÚDICE J, FUKUSHIMA M&IUSEM A. 2014. On the symmetric quadratic eigenvalue complementarity problem. Optimization Methods and Software, 29:751-770.,27[27] FERNANDES L, JÚDICE J, SHERALI H & FORJAZ MA. 2014. On an enumerative algorithm for solving eigenvalue complementarity problems. Computational Optimization and Applications, 59:113-134.,28[28] FERNANDES L, JÚDICE J, SHERALI H & FUKUSHIMA M. 2014. On the computation of all the eigenvalues for the eigenvalue complementarity problem. Journal of Global Optimization, 59:307-326.,51[51] JÚDICE J, RAYDAN M, ROSA S & SANTOS S. 2008. On the solution of the symmetric eigenvalue complementarity problem by the spectral projected gradient algorithm. Numerical Algorithms, 44:391-407.,57[57] LE THI H, MOEINI M, PHAM DINH T & JÚDICE J. 2012. A DC programming approachfor solving the symmetric eigenvalue complementarity problem. Computational Optimization and Applications, 5:1097-1117.,68[68] NIU YS, PHAM DINH T, LE THI H & JÚDICE J. 2013. Efficient DC programming approaches for the asymmetric eigenvalue problem. Optimization Methods and Software, 28:812-829.,74[74] PINTO DA COSTA A & SEEGER A. 2010. Cone-constrained eigenvalue problems: theory and algorithms. Computational Optimization and Applications, 45:25-57.,75[75] QUEIROZ M, JÚDICE J & HUMES C. 2003. The symmetric eigenvalue complementarity problem. Mathematics of Computation, 73:1849-1863.,81[81] SEEGER A. 2011. Quadratic eigenvalue problems under conic constraints. SIAM Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 32:700-721.,84[84] SEEGER A & TORKI M. 2003.On eigenvalues induced by a cone constraint. Linear Algebra and its Applications, 372:181-206.]. Given a matrix A ∈ ℝn×n and a Positive Definite (PD) matrix B ∈ ℝn×n (i.e., xTBx > 0 for all x ∈ ℝn - {0}), the EiCP consists of finding a complementary eigenvalue λ ∈ ℝ1 and an associated eigenvector x ∈ ℝn - {0} satisfying the following conditions

Since the problem is homogeneous, the normalization constraint eT x = 1 (e ∈ ℝn is a vector of ones) should be added to the definition of the problem in order to prevent the null vector to be a solution of EiCP. Let y ∈ ℝn be the vector such that

i.e.,

Since the left-hand side of (33) is always nonnegative, then the EiCP is equivalent to the MPLCC:

Then (λ, x) is a solution of the EiCP (31) if and only if (λ, x, y, w) is a global minimum of the MPLCC (34)-(38) with ƒ (λ, x, y) = 0. Note that the EiCP (31) has always a solution [9[9] BRÁS C, FUKUSHIMA M, JÚDICE J & ROSA S. 2012. Variational inequality formulation of the asymmetric eigenvalue problem and its solution by means of gap functions. Pacific Journal of Optimization, 8:197-215.], and this implies that the MPLCC (34)-(38) has at least a global minimum with a null objective function value.

3 FINDING A FEASIBLE SOLUTION

Consider the MPLCC (1)-(5). A Linear Feasible Solution of the MPLCC is a solution (x, y, w) satisfying all the linear constraints (2)-(4). The Linear Feasible Set K of an MPLCC consists of all the linear feasible solutions. An MPLCC is said to be Linear Feasible (Infeasible) if K ≠ ∅ (K = ∅).

As stated before, the complementarity constraint (5) is equivalent to n constraints xiwi = 0, i = 1, ..., n. A solution (x, y, w) of the MPLCC is said to be Complementary if these n conditions hold, i.e., for each i = 1, ..., n, at least one of the complementary variables xi or wi is null. A Feasible Solution of the MPLCC is a linear feasible and complementary solution. The Feasible Set K of an MPLCC consists of all the feasible solutions. An MPLCC is said to be Feasible (Infeasible) if K ≠ ∅ (K =∅). Due to the complementarity constraint (5), K is usually a nonconvex set. The next example illustrates these definitions:

The linear feasible K and feasible K sets are represented in Figure 1. The set K is the dashed region and K is the union of the segment [1[1] AMARAL P, BOMZE I & JÚDICE J. 2014. Copositivity and constrained fractional quadratic programs. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 146:325-350. ,2[2] AUDET C, HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G.1999. A symmetrical linear maxmin approach to disjoint bilinear programming. Mathematical Programming 85:573-592.] in the y1-axis with the part of the straight line y1 = 2 + x1(w1 = 0) on the right of the y1-axis. It immediately follows that the MPLCC is feasible (and linear feasible) and its feasible set K is nonconvex. Furthermore there is a unique global minimum for this MPLCC, which is the point (x1 = 0, y1 = 1).

Figure 1
Linear feasible and feasible sets of the example.

Since the feasible set of an MPLCC is nonconvex, then finding a feasible solution should be in general a difficult task. In fact, such an objective consists of solving a General Linear Complementarity Problem (GLCP). This problem has been investigated in [24[24] FERNANDES L, FRIEDLANDER A, GUEDES MC & JÚDICE J. 2001. Solution of a general linear complementarity problem using smooth optimization and its application to bilinear programming and lcp. Applied Mathematics and Optimization, 43:1-19.,54[54] JÚDICE J & VICENTE LN. 1994. On the solution and complexity of a generalized linear complementarity problem. Journal of Global Optimization, 4:415-424.,88[88] YE Y. 1993. A fully polynomial-time approximation algorithm for computing a stationary point of the general linear complementarity problem. Mathematics of Operations Research, 18:334-345.] and is an interesting extension of the well-known Linear Complementarity Problem (LCP). The LCP has been intensively studied in the past several years [19[19] COTTLE R, PANG J-S & STONE R. 1992. The Linear Complementarity Problem. Academic Press, New York.,67[67] MURTY K. 1988. Linear Complementarity, Linear and Nonlinear Programming. Heldermann Verlag, Berlin.] and consists of finding a solution of the following system

As discussed in [19[19] COTTLE R, PANG J-S & STONE R. 1992. The Linear Complementarity Problem. Academic Press, New York.,67[67] MURTY K. 1988. Linear Complementarity, Linear and Nonlinear Programming. Heldermann Verlag, Berlin.] the class of the matrix M plays an important role on the complexity of the LCP. The classes of Positive Definite (PD) and Positive Semi-Definite (PSD) matrices are probably the most important ones and are defined as follows:

  • (i) M ∈ PD ⇔ xT Mx > 0 for all x ∈ ℝn − {0};

  • (ii) M ∈ PSD ⇔ xT Mx ≥ 0 for all x ∈ ℝn.

Efficient local algorithms have been proposed for the solution of the LCP for matrices of these and related classes [19[19] COTTLE R, PANG J-S & STONE R. 1992. The Linear Complementarity Problem. Academic Press, New York.,67[67] MURTY K. 1988. Linear Complementarity, Linear and Nonlinear Programming. Heldermann Verlag, Berlin.]. These classes are also very relevant for the MPLCC, as the following theorem holds [54[54] JÚDICE J & VICENTE LN. 1994. On the solution and complexity of a generalized linear complementarity problem. Journal of Global Optimization, 4:415-424.]:

Theorem 1.Consider the MPLCC (1)-(5) and let K be its linear feasible set, E be the identity matrix of order n and M be a PSD matrix. Then:

  • (i) MPLCC is feasible if and only if it is linear feasible.

  • (ii) If M ∈ PD and Ky ≠∅, then MPLCC is feasible.

  • (iii) Any stationary point of

    is a feasible solution of the MPLCC.

To illustrate this theorem, consider the MPLCC (39)-(42). Then E = [1] and M = [1] ∈ PD and the hypotheses of theorem 1 hold. Now consider the MPLCC (39)-(43). By introducing the slack variable y2 associated to x1 + y1 ≥ 1, we can write this MPLCC in the following standard form:

Now the hypotheses of Theorem 1 do not hold and a stationary point of the quadratic program (45) may not lead to a feasible solution of the MPLCC.

Theorem 1 provides a first procedure for finding a feasible solution of the MPLCC. In fact, under the hypotheses of theorem 1, the computation of a stationary point of the quadratic program (45) either shows that the MPLCC is infeasible or it gives a feasible solution of the MPLCC. This stationary point can be computed by an efficient local nonlinear programming algorithm. An active set method [36[36] GILL P, MURRAY W & WRIGHT M. 1981. Practical Optimization. Academic Press, London.,69[69] NOCEDAL J & WRIGHT M. 2006. Numerical Optimization. Springer.] such as the one implemented in MINOS [65[65] MURTAGH B & SAUNDERS A. 1983. MINOS 5.0 user's guide. Technical Report SOL 83-20, Department of Operations Research, Stanford University,], an interior-point method [24[24] FERNANDES L, FRIEDLANDER A, GUEDES MC & JÚDICE J. 2001. Solution of a general linear complementarity problem using smooth optimization and its application to bilinear programming and lcp. Applied Mathematics and Optimization, 43:1-19.,88[88] YE Y. 1993. A fully polynomial-time approximation algorithm for computing a stationary point of the general linear complementarity problem. Mathematics of Operations Research, 18:334-345.] or a DC algorithm [58[58] LE THI H & PHAM DINH T. 2011. On solving linear complementarity problems by DC programming and DCA. Computational Optimization and Applications, 50:507-524.] should be recommended for this task.

It is important to add at this stage that for most of the MPLCCs associated with applications and formulations of optimization problems discussed in Section 2, finding a feasible solution is not a difficult task. For instance, bilevel programs with no linear constraints (11) in the first level and bilinear programs lead to MPLCCs satisfying the hypotheses of theorem 1. On the other hand, the KKT conditions of a stationary point of the QP (26) give feasible solutions of the corresponding MPLCC (28)-(30). Finally, consider the problem introduced in [73[73] PINTO DA COSTA A, MARTINS J, FIGUEIREDO I & JÚDICE J. 2004. The directional instability problem in systems with frictional contacts. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 139:357-384.] of computing a positive eigenvalue λ for the EiCP (31). Hence the vector y introduced in (32) is nonnegative and

Therefore the MPLCC (34)-(38) is equivalent to

Hence the MPLCC (47) satisfies the hypotheses of theorem 1 (note that y plays the role of x and conversely).

For a general MPLCC, global optimization techniques are required for computing a feasible solution or showing that the MPLCC is infeasible. Since the constraint set of the QP (45) is K and the objective function of this program is nonnegative on K, then the following result holds:

Theorem 2.

  • (i) MPLCC (1)-(5) is linear infeasible if and only if QP (45) is infeasible.

  • (ii) (x, y, w) is a feasible solution of MPLCC (1)-(5) if and only if (x, y, w) is a global minimum of QP (45) and xTw= 0.

It follows from this theorem that the MPLCC (1)-(5) is infeasible if and only if the QP (45) is infeasible or it has a positive global optimal value. An enumerative algorithm has been proposed for finding a global minimum of the QP (45). This method [3[3] AL-KHAYYAL F. 1987. An implicit enumeration procedure for the general linear complementarity problem. Mathematical Programming Studies, 31:1-20.,45[45] JÚDICE J & FAUSTINO A.1988. An experimental investigation of enumerative methods for the linear complementarity problem. Computers and Operations Research, 15:417-426.,52[52] JÚDICE J, SHERALI H, RIBEIRO I & FAUSTINO A. 2006. A complementarity-based partitioning and disjunctive cut algorithm for mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Global Optimization, 136:89-114.] exploits the binary tree displayed in Figure 2, that is constructed based on the definition of complementary variables xi and wi.

Figure 2
Branching on enumerative method.

In each node of the tree the algorithm computes a stationary point of the following Quadratic Program (QP):

where Fx and Fw are the sets defined by the fixed x- and w- variables in the path of the tree from the root to this node. Now, either the program (48) is infeasible and the node is pruned, or a stationary point (x, y, w) can be computed by a local optimization algorithm. Two cases may occur:

  • (i) If xTw = 0, then (x, y, w) is a feasible solution of the MPLCC (1)-(5).

  • (ii) xTw > 0 and two nodes have to be generated for a pair of complementary variables (xi, wi) such that xi > 0 and wi > 0.

A good implementation of an enumerative algorithm requires some heuristic rules for selecting the pair of complementary variables and for choosing a node from the set of open nodes of the tree to be investigated next. These issues are discussed in [45[45] JÚDICE J & FAUSTINO A.1988. An experimental investigation of enumerative methods for the linear complementarity problem. Computers and Operations Research, 15:417-426.]. Furthermore, the stationary points of the quadratic programs of the form (48) can be computed by using an active-set method [36[36] GILL P, MURRAY W & WRIGHT M. 1981. Practical Optimization. Academic Press, London.,69[69] NOCEDAL J & WRIGHT M. 2006. Numerical Optimization. Springer.], such as MINOS [65[65] MURTAGH B & SAUNDERS A. 1983. MINOS 5.0 user's guide. Technical Report SOL 83-20, Department of Operations Research, Stanford University,].

The enumerative algorithm looks for a stationary point of the complementarity gap function having a zero objective function value in order to find a feasible solution of an MPLCC. This stopping criterion of the null value of the objective function of QP (45) alleviates very much the search in the tree and makes the algorithm to terminate in general with a small number of nodes. If an MPLCC is linear feasible and infeasible, then an extensive search needs to be typically performed in the tree before the algorithm terminates. Hence the algorithm is particularly suitable for finding a feasible solution but is almost impractical when dealing with an infeasible MPLCC that is linear feasible.

Absolute value programming (AVP) has also been shown to be an interesting approach for solving the LCP [62[62] MANGASARIAN OL. 2007. Absolute value programming. Computational Optimization and Applications, 36:43-53.] and can be useful for computing a feasible solution of the MPLCC (1)-(5) or showing that this problem is infeasible. Let E = In be the identity matrix of order n.As discussed in [62[62] MANGASARIAN OL. 2007. Absolute value programming. Computational Optimization and Applications, 36:43-53.], by scaling the square matrix M if necessary, In - M is nonsingular and the GLCP (2)-(5) can be reduced to the following system:

where |z| = [|Zi|] ∈ ℝn. It immediately follows from (50) and (51) that w = x -z in any solution of the system. According to [62[62] MANGASARIAN OL. 2007. Absolute value programming. Computational Optimization and Applications, 36:43-53.], let s ∈ ℝn and t ∈ ℝn be two additional vectors and consider the following concave program (CP):

where ρ is a positive real number (may be equal to one) and e ∈ Rn is a vector of ones. Since the objective function is nonnegative on the feasible set of CP (53), the following result holds:

Theorem 3. (s, t, x, y, z) is a global minimum of CP (53) with ƒ (s, t, x, y, z) = 0 if and only if (x, y, w) is a feasible solution of MPLCC (1)-(5), where w = x - z.

It is interesting to note that the CP (53) is a DC program and can be solved by a DC algorithm [59[59] LE THI H & PHAM DINH T. 2005. The DC (difference of convex functions) programming and DCA revisited with DC models of real world nonconvex optimization problems. Annals of Operations Research, 133:23-46.]. Alternatively, a sequential linear programming (SLP) algorithm introduced in [62[62] MANGASARIAN OL. 2007. Absolute value programming. Computational Optimization and Applications, 36:43-53.] can be applied to find a stationary point of CP (53). The main drawback of this approach is that there is no theoretical guarantee that these methods find a global minimum of the CP. However, numerical experiments reported in [62[62] MANGASARIAN OL. 2007. Absolute value programming. Computational Optimization and Applications, 36:43-53.] indicate that the SLP algorithm is, in general, able to terminate successfully with a solution of the LCP. Hence, this approach appears to be interesting to exploit in the future for computing a feasible solution of an MPLCC.

Finding a feasible solution of the MPLCC (1)-(5) or showing that this problem is infeasible can also be done by using 0 - 1 Linear Integer Programming. Consider the GLCP (2)-(5) and let Ky be written in the standard form:

where A ∈ ℝt×m and b ∈ ℝt. If there is y ∈ Ky such that Ny = -q, then (x = 0, y, w = 0 ) is a feasible solution of the MPLCC (1)-(5). Otherwise, consider the following 0 - 1 Linear Integer Program:

where e ∈ ℝn is a vector of ones. Then the following result holds [41[41] HORST R, PARDALOS P & THOAI VN. 2003. Introduction to Global Optimization. Kluwer, New York.]:

Theorem 4.

  • (i) LIP (55) is feasible.

  • (ii) If {yKy : Ny = -q} =∅

    then LIP (55) has a feasible solution (y, α, u, v, z) with α > 0 if and only if

    is a feasible solution of MPLCC (1)-(5).

It follows from this theorem that MPLCC is infeasible if and only if LIP (55) has a global maximum (y, α, u, v, z) with α = 0. Note that this theorem confirms that finding a feasible solution for an MPLCC is easier than showing that such a problem is infeasible. In fact, computing a feasible solution of LIP (55) with α > 0 is sufficient to find a feasible solution of MPLCC, while a certificate of infeasibility requires the computation of a global maximum of LIP (55). The existence of very efficient codes for 0 -1 Linear Integer Programming makes this approach quite useful in practice.

4 FINDING A STATIONARY POINT

If (w, y, w) is a global minimum of MPLCC (1)-(5) then [41[41] HORST R, PARDALOS P & THOAI VN. 2003. Introduction to Global Optimization. Kluwer, New York.] it satisfies

for all feasible directions d = [dx, dy, dw], where ∇ƒ (z) represents the gradient of ƒ at z = (x, y, w) and dx ∈ ℝn , dy ∈ ℝm and dw ∈ ℝn contain the components of d associated to x, y and w respectively. In this case the vector z is said to be a Stationary Point of ƒ on the feasible set K of the MPLCC (1)-(5).

As in nonlinear programming [14[14] BAZARAA M, SHERALI H & SHETTY C. 2006. Nonlinear Programming: Theory and Algorithms. John Wiley & Sons, 3rd edition.,69[69] NOCEDAL J & WRIGHT M. 2006. Numerical Optimization. Springer.], it is important to derive KKT-type characterizations of stationary points for the design of local algorithms that deal with the MPLCC. To introduce these conditions, consider the MPLCC (1)-(5) and let K be the polyhedron given by (54). For any feasible solution z = (x, y, w) of the MPLCC (1)-(5), the following sets may be considered

It follows from the definition of a complementary solution that IxIw = {1, ..., n}. A feasible solution z = (x, y, w) is said to be Nondegenerate (Degenerate) if and only if IxIw = ∅ (IxIw ≠ ∅). Hence, for any degenerate feasible solution there exists at least a pair of complementary variables (xi, wi) such that xi = 0 and wi = 0. On the other hand, any nondegenerate solution z = (x, y, w) satisfies

If z = (x, y, w) is a nondegenerate stationary point of ƒ on K, then it is a stationary point of the following nonlinear program with linear constraints

Due to (59), the constraints (64) and (67) are inactive at z = (x, y, w) and z satisfies the following KKT conditions [69[69] NOCEDAL J & WRIGHT M. 2006. Numerical Optimization. Springer.]

where ∇x ƒ (x, y) and ∇y ƒ (x, y) are vectors with the components of the gradient of ƒ at z corresponding to the x- and y- variables respectively, and λ ∈ ℝp, α ∈ ℝn , β ∈ ℝn , γ ∈ ℝm , ν ∈ ℝt are the Lagrange multipliers associated to the constraints (61), (66)-(67), (64)-(65), (63) and (62) respectively.

Consider now the case of a degenerate stationary point x = (x, y, w). A first characterization of such a point can be obtained from the definition of nonlinear programs NLP(L) for all the subsets L of IxIw. This leads to the concept of B-Stationary Point (BSP) [30[30] FANG HR, LEYFFER S & MUNSON T. 2012. A pivoting algorithm for linear programming with linear complementarity constraints. Optimization Methods and Software, 27:89-114.] as a vector z =(x, y, w) that is a stationary point of all the NLP(L) of the form

where LIx Iw and

Hence any global minimum of MPLCC (1)-(5) is a B-stationary point of ƒ on K [30[30] FANG HR, LEYFFER S & MUNSON T. 2012. A pivoting algorithm for linear programming with linear complementarity constraints. Optimization Methods and Software, 27:89-114.,76[76] RALPH D. 2007. Nonlinear programming advances in mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Royal Society.,83[83] SCHEEL H & SCHOLTES S. 2000. Mathematical programs with complementarity constraints: Stationarity, optimality and sensitivity. Mathematics of Operations Research, 25:1-22.]. However, a certificate for B-stationarity may be quite demanding for a degenerate feasible solution when its associated set IxIw has a relatively large number of elements [30[30] FANG HR, LEYFFER S & MUNSON T. 2012. A pivoting algorithm for linear programming with linear complementarity constraints. Optimization Methods and Software, 27:89-114.]. The concepts of Strongly Stationary Point (SSP) and M-Stationary Point (MSP) have been introduced in the literature [30[30] FANG HR, LEYFFER S & MUNSON T. 2012. A pivoting algorithm for linear programming with linear complementarity constraints. Optimization Methods and Software, 27:89-114.,38[38] HOEISEL T, KANZOW C & SCHWARTZ A. 2013. Theoretical and numerical comparison of relaxation methods for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. Mathematical Programming, 137:257-288.,76[76] RALPH D. 2007. Nonlinear programming advances in mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Royal Society.,83[83] SCHEEL H & SCHOLTES S. 2000. Mathematical programs with complementarity constraints: Stationarity, optimality and sensitivity. Mathematics of Operations Research, 25:1-22.] and are more accessible for embedding with an algorithm. Their definitions are as follows:

  • (i) z = (x, y, w) is a SSP of ƒ on K if it satisfies the conditions (68)-(73) with

  • (ii) z = (x, y, w) is an MSP of ƒ on K if it satisfies the conditions (68)-(73) with

Note that any global minimum of MPLCC (1)-(5) is an MSP of ƒ on K [38[38] HOEISEL T, KANZOW C & SCHWARTZ A. 2013. Theoretical and numerical comparison of relaxation methods for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. Mathematical Programming, 137:257-288.], but it may be not a SSP [83[83] SCHEEL H & SCHOLTES S. 2000. Mathematical programs with complementarity constraints: Stationarity, optimality and sensitivity. Mathematics of Operations Research, 25:1-22.]. Furthermore any SSP is an MSP [38[38] HOEISEL T, KANZOW C & SCHWARTZ A. 2013. Theoretical and numerical comparison of relaxation methods for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. Mathematical Programming, 137:257-288.] and a BSP [30[30] FANG HR, LEYFFER S & MUNSON T. 2012. A pivoting algorithm for linear programming with linear complementarity constraints. Optimization Methods and Software, 27:89-114.]. Finally, for a nondegenerate feasible solution z = (x, y, w), SSP, MSP and BSP are the same thing, as IxIw = ∅.

The algebraic characterization of SSP and MSP and the ability to compute an initial feasible solution of an MPLCC enable the design of a complementarity active-set (CASET) algorithm for solving the MPLCC. The algorithm was initially proposed in [78[78] SCHOLTES S. 1999. Active set methods for inverse complementarity problems. Technical report, Judge Institute of Management Research.] and subsequently improved, implemented and tested in [53[53] JÚDICE J, SHERALI H, RIBEIRO I & FAUSTINO A. 2007. A complementarity active-set algorithm for mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 136:467-481.]. Feasibility (i.e., linear feasibility and complementarity) are maintained throughout the process and the algorithm terminates with a SSP or an MSP under reasonable hypotheses.

Consider now the case where the objective function is linear, i.e.,

for given vectors c ∈ ℝn and d ∈ ℝm. This leads to the so-called Linear Programming Problem with Linear Complementarity Constraints (LPLCC). As in linear programming, if an LPLCC has a global optimal solution then there is at least a global minimum that is a Basic Feasible Solution (BFS) of the linear feasible set Ke. It is then possible to design a modified version of the wellknown simplex method which solves the LPLCC by only using BFS of its linear feasible set K. This algorithm is known as the Basis Restricted Simplex (BRS) method [20[20] CAMPELO M & SCHEIMBERG S. 2000. A note on a modified simplex approach for solving bilevel linear programming problems. European Journal of Operational Research, 126:454-458.,71[71] ONAL H. 1993. A modified simplex approach for solving bilevel linear programming problems. European Journal of Operational Research, 67:126-135.] and its steps are presented below.

BRS METHOD

  • Let z = (x, y, w) be a BFS,

    and α, β, γ be the dual variables associated to w ≥ 0, x ≥ 0, y ≥ 0, respectively.

  • If αi ≥ 0, βi ≥ 0, for all iLx Lw and γi ≥ 0, for all iLy ,then z =(x, y, w) is an MSP and terminate.

  • Let r be an index of a nonbasic variable zr that does not satisfy the previous conditions.

  • Change the nonbasic variable zr with a basic variable zt updating the sets of basic and nonbasic variables, as in simplex method, to obtain a new BFS .

  • Repeat with z. instead of

It follows from the description of the steps of the BRS method that the algorithm is a simple extension of the simplex method which uses a modified rule for the choice of the nonbasic variables for the purpose of maintaining complementarity (i.e. feasibility of LPLCC) during the whole procedure. The algorithm is guaranteed to terminate with an MSP provided an usual anti-cycle rule [66[66] MURTY K. 1976. Linear and Combinatorial Programming. Wiley, New York.] is used. Note that the CASET algorithm reduces to this BRS method when BFS of the linear feasible set are used in each iteration of the former method. Finally an extension of the BRS method has been recently proposed in [30[30] FANG HR, LEYFFER S & MUNSON T. 2012. A pivoting algorithm for linear programming with linear complementarity constraints. Optimization Methods and Software, 27:89-114.], which guarantees in theory the termination in a BSP.

The CASET and BRS algorithms were implemented using MINOS environment [53[53] JÚDICE J, SHERALI H, RIBEIRO I & FAUSTINO A. 2007. A complementarity active-set algorithm for mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 136:467-481.,65[65] MURTAGH B & SAUNDERS A. 1983. MINOS 5.0 user's guide. Technical Report SOL 83-20, Department of Operations Research, Stanford University,]. Computational experience reported in [53[53] JÚDICE J, SHERALI H, RIBEIRO I & FAUSTINO A. 2007. A complementarity active-set algorithm for mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 136:467-481.] shows that the CASET and BRS algorithms are quite efficient in practice for computing a SSP or an MSP. Computing a BSP for an LPLCC is usually more demanding but the extension of the BRS algorithm for dealing with this case also performs very well and seems to outperform other alternative local techniques, such as penalty, regularization, smoothing, nonsmooth, interior-point and SQP approaches that have been designed for mathematical programs with linear and nonlinear complementarity constraints and can also be applied to the MPLCC [30[30] FANG HR, LEYFFER S & MUNSON T. 2012. A pivoting algorithm for linear programming with linear complementarity constraints. Optimization Methods and Software, 27:89-114.].

5 FINDING A GLOBAL MINIMUM

A feasible solution z = (x, y, w) ∈ K of the MPLCC (1)-(5) is a Global Minimum of ƒ on K if

There are some special instances of the MPLCC where such objective is relatively easy to be fulfilled. Next, we discuss two of these cases.

Consider an MPLCC whose feasible set is defined by the constraints (2)-(5) with E = In the identity matrix of order n and M a PSD matrix, i.e., MPLCC satisfies the hypotheses of Theorem 1. Furthermore assume that the objective function only depends on the y- variables, i.e.

and is convex on the polyhedron Ky. Consider the Relaxed Convex Program

Hence:

  • (i) If RCP is infeasible, then MPLCC (1)-(5) is linear infeasible.

  • (ii) Let z = (x, y, w) be an optimal solution of RCP (81). If xTw = 0, then z is a global minimum of MPLCC (1)-(5) with ƒ given by (80). Otherwise [19[19] COTTLE R, PANG J-S & STONE R. 1992. The Linear Complementarity Problem. Academic Press, New York.] the LCP

    has a solution (y, ) and () is a global minimum of MPLCC (1)-(5) with ƒ given by (80)., ,

  • (iii) If RCP (81) is unbounded, then the MPLCC is unbounded.

Note that, if M ∈ PD, then RCP (81) can be replaced by the simpler convex program

as LCP (82) has always a solution for each y [19[19] COTTLE R, PANG J-S & STONE R. 1992. The Linear Complementarity Problem. Academic Press, New York.].

Another interesting case that often appears in applications of the MPLCC is when the global optimal value is known, i.e., ƒ (x, y, w) = ℓ in (79) where ℓ is a real number. Hence the MPLCC has a global minimum if and only if the program

has a global minimum with an optimal value equal to zero. Finding a global minimum of (84) can be done efficiently by an enumerative method similar to the one described in Section 3 for finding a feasible solution of an MPLCC. An interesting example of such an approach is the enumerative algorithm discussed in [27[27] FERNANDES L, JÚDICE J, SHERALI H & FORJAZ MA. 2014. On an enumerative algorithm for solving eigenvalue complementarity problems. Computational Optimization and Applications, 59:113-134.] for computing a solution of the Eigenvalue Complementarity Problem (31).

Apart from these and other similar instances, finding a global minimum of an MPLCC is a quite difficult task. In the next section we discuss the most important approaches for this goal, namely a sequential algorithm, branch-and-bound methods and 0 - 1 Integer Programming.

6 A SEQUENTIAL ALGORITHM FOR LPLCC

This algorithm was introduced in [47[47] JÚDICE J AND FAUSTINO A. 1992. A SLCP method for bilevel linear programming. Annals of Operations Research, 34:89-106.] for solving the Linear Bilevel Programming Problem by exploiting its reduction to an LPLCC and was subsequently expanded to deal with a general LPLCC [46[46] JÚDICE J & FAUSTINO A. 1991. A computational analysis of LCP methods for bilinear and concave quadratic programming. Computers and Operations Research, 18:645-654.,48[48] JÚDICE J AND FAUSTINO A. 1994. The linear-quadratic bilevel programming problem. Information Systems and Operational Research, 32:87-98.]. In the initial iteration of the sequential algorithm, a stationary point (SSP, MSP or BSP) is computed by using the techniques discussed in Sections 3 and 4. In each iteration, a stationary point is at hand and the algorithm proceeds as follows:

  • (i) In a Feasibility Phase, a feasible solution , = () of the LPLCC with an objective function given by (78) is computed such that,

    or a certificate is given showing that such a solution does not exist.

  • (ii) If is computed in the Feasibility Phase, then an Optimization Phase is applied where a new stationary point is computed by CASET or BRS methods with as the initial point.

The algorithm requires an update rule for guaranteeing that the condition (85) holds. In practice, this is done by using a real number λ defined by

where γ is a given positive and small real number. The Feasibility Phase searches a feasible solution z = (x, y, w) of the LPLCC defined by the constraints (2)-(5) together with the cut

The problem of finding a feasible solution of this augmented LPLCC is NP-hard [54[54] JÚDICE J & VICENTE LN. 1994. On the solution and complexity of a generalized linear complementarity problem. Journal of Global Optimization, 4:415-424.]. Hence the enumerative method or the 0 - 1 integer programming approach discussed in Section 3 should be used to either compute such a feasible solution or show that the augmented LPLCC is infeasible. In this latter case the last stationary point z = (x, y, w) computed by the sequential algorithm is an ε-approximate global minimum of the LPLCC, with

As discussed in Section 3, giving a certificate of optimality (i.e., showing that the augmented LPLCC is infeasible) is much more difficult than finding a feasible solution of LPLCC satisfying (87). Computational experience with this sequential algorithm shows that the algorithm is in general efficient to compute an ε-global minimum that is usually a global minimum of the LPLCC. Furthermore, in general the algorithm faces difficulties in providing a certificate of optimality.

The design of a more efficient procedure to provide a certificate of global optimality has been the subject of intense research. An interesting approach is to design an underestimating optimization problem whose global minimum is relatively easy to compute and yields a positive lower bound for the program defined by (45) and (87). Then the augmented LPLCC is declared infeasible. In particular SDP [16[16] BURER S & VANDENBUSSCHE D. 2008. A finite branch-and-bound algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programming via semidefinite relaxations. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 113:259-282.] and RLT [82[82] SHERALI HD, KRISHNAMURTHY RS & AL-KHAYYAL FA. 1998. Enumeration approach for linear complementarity problems based on a reformulation-linearization technique. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 99:481-507.] techniques may be useful in this extent. Despite promising results in some cases, much research has to be done to assure the general efficiency of these techniques in practice.

7 BRANCH-AND-BOUND ALGORITHMS

Consider again the MPLCC (1)-(5). Similar to the enumerative method, a branch-and-bound algorithm for the LPLCC exploits a binary tree of the form presented in Figure 2, which is constructed based on the dichotomy that xi = 0 or wi = 0 for the pairs of complementary variables. The simplest technique of this type has been introduced by Bard and Moore in [12[12] BARD J & MOORE J. 1990. A branch and bound algorithm for the bilevel programming problem. SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, 11:281-292.] for finding a global minimum of a linear bilevel program by exploiting its LPLCC formulation. This method can be applied to an MPLCC with a convex function without any modification. For each node k of the binary tree generated by the branch-and-bound algorithm, a lower bound for the optimal value of the MPLCC is computed by solving the so-called relaxed convex program RCP(k) that is obtained from the MPLCC (1)-(5) by omitting the complementarity constraint (5) and adding some equalities zi = 0, where zi is an xi- or wi- variable that was fixed along the branches on the path from the root to the current node k. For instance, the RCP(5) associated with node 5 of the binary tree of Figure 2 takes the following form:

If the optimal solution (x, y, w) obtained for this RCP(k) satisfies the complementarity condition (5), then ƒ (x, y) is an upper-bound for the global optimal value of the MPLCC. The tree is then pruned at the node k and a new open node is investigated. If (x, y, w) is not a complementary solution, then there must exist at least an index i such that xi > 0 and wi > 0. A branching is then performed from the current node k and two nodes (k +1) and (k +2) are generated such that respectively restrict xi = 0 and wi = 0. Termination of the algorithm occurs when there is no open node whose lower bound is smaller than the best upper bound computed by the algorithm. In this case the solution (x, y, w) associated with this upper bound is a global minimum for the MPLCC.

The branch-and-bound algorithm should include good heuristics rules for choosing the open node and the pair of complementary variables for branching. The algorithm terminates in a finite number of iterations (nodes) with a global minimum or with a certificate that the MPLCC is either infeasible or unbounded. Computational experience reported in [2[2] AUDET C, HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G.1999. A symmetrical linear maxmin approach to disjoint bilinear programming. Mathematical Programming 85:573-592.,6[6] AUDET C SAVARD G & ZGHAL Z. 2007. New branch-and-bound algorithm for bilevel linear programming. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 134:353-370.,23[23] DE SABÓIA CHM, CAMPÊLO M & SCHEIMBERG S. 2004. A computational study of global algorithms for linear bilevel programming. Numerical Algorithms, 35:155-173.,46[46] JÚDICE J & FAUSTINO A. 1991. A computational analysis of LCP methods for bilinear and concave quadratic programming. Computers and Operations Research, 18:645-654.,47[47] JÚDICE J AND FAUSTINO A. 1992. A SLCP method for bilevel linear programming. Annals of Operations Research, 34:89-106.,48[48] JÚDICE J AND FAUSTINO A. 1994. The linear-quadratic bilevel programming problem. Information Systems and Operational Research, 32:87-98.] indicates that the algorithm is not very efficient for dealing with MPLCC, as the number of nodes tends to greatly increase with the number n of pairs of complementary variables.

During the past several years, a number of methodologies have been recommended by many authors to improve the Bard and Moore branch-and-bound algorithm when the objective function is linear (LPLCC) [2[2] AUDET C, HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G.1999. A symmetrical linear maxmin approach to disjoint bilinear programming. Mathematical Programming 85:573-592.,6[6] AUDET C SAVARD G & ZGHAL Z. 2007. New branch-and-bound algorithm for bilevel linear programming. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 134:353-370.,16[16] BURER S & VANDENBUSSCHE D. 2008. A finite branch-and-bound algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programming via semidefinite relaxations. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 113:259-282.,23[23] DE SABÓIA CHM, CAMPÊLO M & SCHEIMBERG S. 2004. A computational study of global algorithms for linear bilevel programming. Numerical Algorithms, 35:155-173.,37[37] HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G. 1992. New branch-and-bound rules for linear bilevel programming. SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, 13:1194-1217.,87[87] VANDEMBUSSCHE D & NEMHAUSER G. 2005.A branch-and-cut algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programs with box constraints. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 102:559-575.]. These improvements have been concerned with the quality of the lower bounds and upper bounds and the branching procedure. Cutting planes [2[2] AUDET C, HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G.1999. A symmetrical linear maxmin approach to disjoint bilinear programming. Mathematical Programming 85:573-592.,6[6] AUDET C SAVARD G & ZGHAL Z. 2007. New branch-and-bound algorithm for bilevel linear programming. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 134:353-370.,64[64] MITCHELL J, PANG J-S & YU B. 2012.Obtaining tighter relaxations of mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. In TERLAKY T & CURTIS F. Editors. Modeling and Optimization: Theory and Applications, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics, 21:1-23.,87[87] VANDEMBUSSCHE D & NEMHAUSER G. 2005.A branch-and-cut algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programs with box constraints. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 102:559-575.], RLT [82[82] SHERALI HD, KRISHNAMURTHY RS & AL-KHAYYAL FA. 1998. Enumeration approach for linear complementarity problems based on a reformulation-linearization technique. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 99:481-507.] and SDP [16[16] BURER S & VANDENBUSSCHE D. 2008. A finite branch-and-bound algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programming via semidefinite relaxations. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 113:259-282.,17[17] CHEN J & BURER S. 2012. Globally solving nonconvex quadratic programming problems via completely copositive programming. Mathematical Programming Computation, 4:33-52.] have been used for computing better lower bounds than the ones given by the relaxed linear programs. On the other hand, some ideas of combinatorial optimization have been employed to design more efficient branching strategies that lead to better upper bounds for the branch-and-bound method [2[2] AUDET C, HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G.1999. A symmetrical linear maxmin approach to disjoint bilinear programming. Mathematical Programming 85:573-592.,6[6] AUDET C SAVARD G & ZGHAL Z. 2007. New branch-and-bound algorithm for bilevel linear programming. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 134:353-370.,23[23] DE SABÓIA CHM, CAMPÊLO M & SCHEIMBERG S. 2004. A computational study of global algorithms for linear bilevel programming. Numerical Algorithms, 35:155-173.,37[37] HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G. 1992. New branch-and-bound rules for linear bilevel programming. SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, 13:1194-1217.]. Computational experiments reported in [2[2] AUDET C, HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G.1999. A symmetrical linear maxmin approach to disjoint bilinear programming. Mathematical Programming 85:573-592.,6[6] AUDET C SAVARD G & ZGHAL Z. 2007. New branch-and-bound algorithm for bilevel linear programming. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 134:353-370.,16[16] BURER S & VANDENBUSSCHE D. 2008. A finite branch-and-bound algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programming via semidefinite relaxations. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 113:259-282.,23[23] DE SABÓIA CHM, CAMPÊLO M & SCHEIMBERG S. 2004. A computational study of global algorithms for linear bilevel programming. Numerical Algorithms, 35:155-173.,37[37] HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G. 1992. New branch-and-bound rules for linear bilevel programming. SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, 13:1194-1217.,87[87] VANDEMBUSSCHE D & NEMHAUSER G. 2005.A branch-and-cut algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programs with box constraints. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 102:559-575.] clearly indicate that these techniques portend significant improvements for the efficiency of branch-and-bound methods in general.

Another improvement of the Bard and Moore algorithm has been proposed in [52[52] JÚDICE J, SHERALI H, RIBEIRO I & FAUSTINO A. 2006. A complementarity-based partitioning and disjunctive cut algorithm for mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Global Optimization, 136:89-114.] for an LPLCC satisfying the hypotheses of Theorem 1. Contrary to the Bard and Moore method, this so-called complementarity branch-and-bound (CBB) algorithm uses feasible solutions of the LPLCC throughout the process. Therefore, the CASET or BRS algorithms can be applied at each node with a significant improvement on the quality of the upper bounds. Disjunctive cuts are recommended to find lower bounds for the LPLCC. Computational experience reported in [52[52] JÚDICE J, SHERALI H, RIBEIRO I & FAUSTINO A. 2006. A complementarity-based partitioning and disjunctive cut algorithm for mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Global Optimization, 136:89-114.] indicates that the CBB algorithm outperforms Bard and Moore method in general, and appears to be a promising approach for the computation of a global minimum for the LPLCC and even for QPLCC and MPLCC with convex objective functions.

8 INTEGER PROGRAMMING

Consider the MPLCC (1)-(5), where ƒ is convex on Ky given by (54). If K is the feasible set of the MPLCC, let θ be a positive real number such that

If this number θ exists, then each complementarity constraint xiwi =0 can be replaced by

By applying this transformation to each one of the constraints xiwi = 0, i = 1, ..., n, the MPLCC reduces to the following mixed-integer program (MIP)

Therefore a global minimum for the MPLCC can be found by computing a global minimum to this MIP [85[85] SAHINIDIS NV & TAWARLANI M. 2005. BARON 7.2.5: Global Optimization of Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programs. User's Manual. ,86[86] TAWARLANI M & SAHINIDIS NV. 2004. Global optimization of mixed-integer nonlinear programs: a theoretical and computational study. Mathematical Programming, 99:563-591.]. It is important to add that such an equivalence also provides a certificate of infeasibility and unboundedness for the MPLCC from those pertaining to the MIP. This approach has been used by some authors for finding a global minimum of the LPLCC [35[35] GUMUZ ZH & FLOUDAS CA. 2005. Global optimization of mixed-integer bilevel programming problems. Computational Management Science, 2:181-212.]. Note that the integer programming approach for solving the MPLCC is much more interesting in this last case, as MIP is a linear integer program and there exist very efficient codes for dealing with this optimization problem.

An obvious drawback of this approach lies on the need of using a large positive constant θ that may not even exist. In practice, a large value for θ is chosen (usually θ = 1000), but this can prevent the computation of a global minimum of the MPLCC. An idea for avoiding the use of a large constant has been introduced for the LPLCC in [39[39] HU J, MITCHELL J, PANG J-S, BENNETT KP & KUNAPULI G. 2008. On the global solution of linear programs with linear complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 19:445-471.] and has subsequently been applied to the special case of the LPLCC associated with nonconvex quadratic programs [40[40] HU J, MITCHELL J & PANG J-S. 2012. An LPLCC approach to nonconvex quadratic programs. Mathematical Programming, 133:243-277.]. The MIP (92) is considered as a multiparametric linear program LP(θ, z) on the parameters θ and z. Given any values of θ and z, the dual DLP(θ, z) of this linear program does not depend on the values of θ and z. By recognizing this fact and using a minimax integer programming formulation of MIP (92), a Benders decomposition technique has been designed in [39[39] HU J, MITCHELL J, PANG J-S, BENNETT KP & KUNAPULI G. 2008. On the global solution of linear programs with linear complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 19:445-471.] that uses extreme points and unbounded rays of the dual constraint set. This algorithm has been shown to converge in a finite number of iterations into a global minimum of the LPLCC or to give a certificate of infeasibility or unboundedness [40[40] HU J, MITCHELL J & PANG J-S. 2012. An LPLCC approach to nonconvex quadratic programs. Mathematical Programming, 133:243-277.,39[39] HU J, MITCHELL J, PANG J-S, BENNETT KP & KUNAPULI G. 2008. On the global solution of linear programs with linear complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 19:445-471.]. Simple (or disjunctive) cuts and a recovery procedure for obtaining a feasible solution of the LPLCC from a linear feasible solution are recommended in a preprocessing phase to enhance the efficiency of the algorithm [39[39] HU J, MITCHELL J, PANG J-S, BENNETT KP & KUNAPULI G. 2008. On the global solution of linear programs with linear complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 19:445-471.]. Computational experiments reported in [40[40] HU J, MITCHELL J & PANG J-S. 2012. An LPLCC approach to nonconvex quadratic programs. Mathematical Programming, 133:243-277.,39[39] HU J, MITCHELL J, PANG J-S, BENNETT KP & KUNAPULI G. 2008. On the global solution of linear programs with linear complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 19:445-471.] indicate that the method is in general efficient in practice. Furthermore, the preprocessing phase has a very important impact on the computational performance of the algorithm. The possible use of the sequential algorithm discussed in Section 6 in the preprocessing phase seems to be an interesting topic for future research.

9 CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, we have reviewed a number of applications and formulations of important optimization problems as mathematical programs with linear complementarity constraints (MPLCC). Algorithms for finding a feasible solution for the MPLCC were discussed. Active-set, interiorpoint and DC methods and absolute value programming seem to work well for special cases, but not in general. An enumerative method that incorporates a local quadratic solver can efficiently find such a solution in general. Linear Integer Programming can also be useful for such a goal. A complementarity active set method is recommended for finding a strongly stationary, an M-stationary or a B-stationary point for the MPLCC. The algorithm reduces to a Basis Restricted Simplex method for the LPLCC if only Basic Feasible Solutions of the Linear Feasible Set are employed. Computing a global minimum of an LPLCC is a much more difficult task that can be done by using a sequential algorithm or by branch-and-bound methods applied directly to the LPLCC or to an equivalent linear integer program. These two latter approaches can also be useful for dealing with QPLCC and MPLCC with convex objective functions. Despite the promising numerical performance of these techniques for computing a feasible solution, a stationary point, and a global minimum for the MPLCC, much research has to be done on finding better methodologies and more efficient certificates of optimality.

Another important topic for future research is the development of more efficient techniques for the solution of some of the optimization problems that can be formulated as MPLCCs. The Eigenvalue Complementarity Problem and Optimization with Cardinality Constraints are two important examples of these problems that have received much attention recently and should continue to be investigated in the near future.

REFERENCES

  • [1]
    AMARAL P, BOMZE I & JÚDICE J. 2014. Copositivity and constrained fractional quadratic programs. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 146:325-350.
  • [2]
    AUDET C, HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G.1999. A symmetrical linear maxmin approach to disjoint bilinear programming. Mathematical Programming 85:573-592.
  • [3]
    AL-KHAYYAL F. 1987. An implicit enumeration procedure for the general linear complementarity problem. Mathematical Programming Studies, 31:1-20.
  • [4]
    ANITESCU M. 2005. On using the elastic mode in nonlinear programming approaches for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 15:1203-1236.
  • [5]
    ADLY S & SEEGER A. 2011. A nonsmooth algorithm for cone-constrained eigenvalue problems. Computational Optimization and Applications, 49:299-318.
  • [6]
    AUDET C SAVARD G & ZGHAL Z. 2007. New branch-and-bound algorithm for bilevel linear programming. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 134:353-370.
  • [7]
    ANITESCU M, TSENG P & WRIGHT SJ. 2007. Elastic-mode algorithms for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints: global convergence and stationarity properties. Mathematical Programming, 110:337-371.
  • [8]
    BARD J. 1999. Practical Bilevel Optimization: Algorithms and Applications Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
  • [9]
    BRÁS C, FUKUSHIMA M, JÚDICE J & ROSA S. 2012. Variational inequality formulation of the asymmetric eigenvalue problem and its solution by means of gap functions. Pacific Journal of Optimization, 8:197-215.
  • [10]
    BRÁS C, HAGER W & JÚDICE J. 2012. An investigation of feasible descent algorithms for estimating the condition number of a matrix. TOP - Journal of Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, 20:791-809.
  • [11]
    BURDAKOV O, KANZOW C & SCHWARTZ A. On a reformulation of mathematical programs with cardinality constraints. To appear in Advances in Global Optimization.
  • [12]
    BARD J & MOORE J. 1990. A branch and bound algorithm for the bilevel programming problem. SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, 11:281-292.
  • [13]
    BAI L, MITCHELL J & PANG J-S. 2013. On convex quadratic programs with linear complementarity constraints. Computational Optimization and Applications, 54:517-554.
  • [14]
    BAZARAA M, SHERALI H & SHETTY C. 2006. Nonlinear Programming: Theory and Algorithms John Wiley & Sons, 3rd edition.
  • [15]
    BENSON H, SENA, SHANNO D & VANDERBEI R. 2005. Interior-point algorithms, penaltymethods and equilibrium problems. Computational Optimization and Applications, 34:155-182.
  • [16]
    BURER S & VANDENBUSSCHE D. 2008. A finite branch-and-bound algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programming via semidefinite relaxations. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 113:259-282.
  • [17]
    CHEN J & BURER S. 2012. Globally solving nonconvex quadratic programming problems via completely copositive programming. Mathematical Programming Computation, 4:33-52.
  • [18]
    COLSON B, MARCOTTE P & SAVARD G. 2005. Bilevel programming: a survey. 4OR: A Quarterly Journal of Operations Research, 3:87-107.
  • [19]
    COTTLE R, PANG J-S & STONE R. 1992. The Linear Complementarity Problem Academic Press, New York.
  • [20]
    CAMPELO M & SCHEIMBERG S. 2000. A note on a modified simplex approach for solving bilevel linear programming problems. European Journal of Operational Research, 126:454-458.
  • [21]
    DEMPE S. 2002. Foundations of Bilevel Programming Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordecht.
  • [22]
    DIRKSE S, FERRIS M & MEERAUS A. 2005. Mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints: automatic reformulation and solution via constrained optimization. In KEHOE T, SRINIVASAN T & WHALLEY J. Editors. Frontiers in Applied General Equilibrium Modeling, pages 67-93. Cambridge University Press.
  • [23]
    DE SABÓIA CHM, CAMPÊLO M & SCHEIMBERG S. 2004. A computational study of global algorithms for linear bilevel programming. Numerical Algorithms, 35:155-173.
  • [24]
    FERNANDES L, FRIEDLANDER A, GUEDES MC & JÚDICE J. 2001. Solution of a general linear complementarity problem using smooth optimization and its application to bilinear programming and lcp. Applied Mathematics and Optimization, 43:1-19.
  • [25]
    FERNANDES L, JÚDICE J, FUKUSHIMA M&IUSEM A. 2014. On the symmetric quadratic eigenvalue complementarity problem. Optimization Methods and Software, 29:751-770.
  • [26]
    FACCHINEI F, JIANG H & QI L. 1999. A smoothing method for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints. Mathematical Programming, 85:107-134.
  • [27]
    FERNANDES L, JÚDICE J, SHERALI H & FORJAZ MA. 2014. On an enumerative algorithm for solving eigenvalue complementarity problems. Computational Optimization and Applications, 59:113-134.
  • [28]
    FERNANDES L, JÚDICE J, SHERALI H & FUKUSHIMA M. 2014. On the computation of all the eigenvalues for the eigenvalue complementarity problem. Journal of Global Optimization, 59:307-326.
  • [29]
    FLETCHER R & LEYFFER S. 2004. Solving mathematical programs with complementarity constraints as nonlinear programs. Optimization Methods and Software, 19:15-40.
  • [30]
    FANG HR, LEYFFER S & MUNSON T. 2012. A pivoting algorithm for linear programming with linear complementarity constraints. Optimization Methods and Software, 27:89-114.
  • [31]
    FUKUSHIMA M, LUO Z-Q & PANG J-S. 1998. A globally convergent sequential quadratic programming algorithm for mathematical programs with linear complementarity constraints. Computational Optimization Applications, 10:5-34.
  • [32]
    FLETCHER R, LEYFFER S, RALPH D & SCHOLTES S. 2006. Local convergence of SQP methods for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 17:259-286.
  • [33]
    FACCHINEI F & PANGJ-S. 2002. Finite-Dimensional Variational Inequalities and Complementarity Problems, Vol. I and II Springer, New York.
  • [34]
    FUKUSHIMA M & TSENG P. 2002. An implementable active-set algorithm for computing a Bstationary point of a mathematical program with linear complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 12:724-739.
  • [35]
    GUMUZ ZH & FLOUDAS CA. 2005. Global optimization of mixed-integer bilevel programming problems. Computational Management Science, 2:181-212.
  • [36]
    GILL P, MURRAY W & WRIGHT M. 1981. Practical Optimization Academic Press, London.
  • [37]
    HANSEN P, JAUMARD B & SAVARD G. 1992. New branch-and-bound rules for linear bilevel programming. SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, 13:1194-1217.
  • [38]
    HOEISEL T, KANZOW C & SCHWARTZ A. 2013. Theoretical and numerical comparison of relaxation methods for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. Mathematical Programming, 137:257-288.
  • [39]
    HU J, MITCHELL J, PANG J-S, BENNETT KP & KUNAPULI G. 2008. On the global solution of linear programs with linear complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 19:445-471.
  • [40]
    HU J, MITCHELL J & PANG J-S. 2012. An LPLCC approach to nonconvex quadratic programs. Mathematical Programming, 133:243-277.
  • [41]
    HORST R, PARDALOS P & THOAI VN. 2003. Introduction to Global Optimization Kluwer, New York.
  • [42]
    HU XM & RALPH D. 2004. Convergence of a penalty method for mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 123:365-390.
  • [43]
    IBARAKI T. 1971. Complementarity programming. Operations Research, 19:1523-1529.
  • [44]
    JEROSLOW RG. 1978. Cutting-planes for complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, 16:56-62.
  • [45]
    JÚDICE J & FAUSTINO A.1988. An experimental investigation of enumerative methods for the linear complementarity problem. Computers and Operations Research, 15:417-426.
  • [46]
    JÚDICE J & FAUSTINO A. 1991. A computational analysis of LCP methods for bilinear and concave quadratic programming. Computers and Operations Research, 18:645-654.
  • [47]
    JÚDICE J AND FAUSTINO A. 1992. A SLCP method for bilevel linear programming. Annals of Operations Research, 34:89-106.
  • [48]
    JÚDICE J AND FAUSTINO A. 1994. The linear-quadratic bilevel programming problem. Information Systems and Operational Research, 32:87-98.
  • [49]
    JIANG H & RALPH D. 1999. Smooth SQP methods for mathematical programs with nonlinear complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 10:779-808.
  • [50]
    JIANG H & RALPH D. 2003. Extension of quasi-Newton methods to mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. Computational Optimization Applications, 25:123-150.
  • [51]
    JÚDICE J, RAYDAN M, ROSA S & SANTOS S. 2008. On the solution of the symmetric eigenvalue complementarity problem by the spectral projected gradient algorithm. Numerical Algorithms, 44:391-407.
  • [52]
    JÚDICE J, SHERALI H, RIBEIRO I & FAUSTINO A. 2006. A complementarity-based partitioning and disjunctive cut algorithm for mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Global Optimization, 136:89-114.
  • [53]
    JÚDICE J, SHERALI H, RIBEIRO I & FAUSTINO A. 2007. A complementarity active-set algorithm for mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 136:467-481.
  • [54]
    JÚDICE J & VICENTE LN. 1994. On the solution and complexity of a generalized linear complementarity problem. Journal of Global Optimization, 4:415-424.
  • [55]
    KONNO H. 1971. Bilinear programming: Part ii - aplications of bilinear programming. Technical report, Department of Operations Research, Stanford University.
  • [56]
    LEYFFER S, LÓPEZ-CALVA G & NOCEDAL J. 2004. Interior methods for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 17:52-77.
  • [57]
    LE THI H, MOEINI M, PHAM DINH T & JÚDICE J. 2012. A DC programming approachfor solving the symmetric eigenvalue complementarity problem. Computational Optimization and Applications, 5:1097-1117.
  • [58]
    LE THI H & PHAM DINH T. 2011. On solving linear complementarity problems by DC programming and DCA. Computational Optimization and Applications, 50:507-524.
  • [59]
    LE THI H & PHAM DINH T. 2005. The DC (difference of convex functions) programming and DCA revisited with DC models of real world nonconvex optimization problems. Annals of Operations Research, 133:23-46.
  • [60]
    LUO Z, PANG J-S & RALPH D. 1997. Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints Cambridge University Press, New York.
  • [61]
    MANGASARIAN OL. 1995. The linear complementarity problem as a separable bilinear program. Journal of Global Optimization, 6:153-161.
  • [62]
    MANGASARIAN OL. 2007. Absolute value programming. Computational Optimization and Applications, 36:43-53.
  • [63]
    MASSARO A, PELILLO M & BOMZE I. 2002. A complementarity pivoting approach to the maximum weight clique problem. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 12:928-948.
  • [64]
    MITCHELL J, PANG J-S & YU B. 2012.Obtaining tighter relaxations of mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. In TERLAKY T & CURTIS F. Editors. Modeling and Optimization: Theory and Applications, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics, 21:1-23.
  • [65]
    MURTAGH B & SAUNDERS A. 1983. MINOS 5.0 user's guide. Technical Report SOL 83-20, Department of Operations Research, Stanford University,
  • [66]
    MURTY K. 1976. Linear and Combinatorial Programming Wiley, New York.
  • [67]
    MURTY K. 1988. Linear Complementarity, Linear and Nonlinear Programming Heldermann Verlag, Berlin.
  • [68]
    NIU YS, PHAM DINH T, LE THI H & JÚDICE J. 2013. Efficient DC programming approaches for the asymmetric eigenvalue problem. Optimization Methods and Software, 28:812-829.
  • [69]
    NOCEDAL J & WRIGHT M. 2006. Numerical Optimization Springer.
  • [70]
    OUTRATA J, KOCVARA M & ZOWE J. 1998. Nonsmooth Approach to Optimization Problems with Equilibrium Constraints: Theory, Applications and Numerical Results Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.
  • [71]
    ONAL H. 1993. A modified simplex approach for solving bilevel linear programming problems. European Journal of Operational Research, 67:126-135.
  • [72]
    PANG J-S & FUKUSHIMA M. 1999. Complementarity constraint qualifications and simplified B-stationarity conditions for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints. Computational Optimization Applications, 13:111-136.
  • [73]
    PINTO DA COSTA A, MARTINS J, FIGUEIREDO I & JÚDICE J. 2004. The directional instability problem in systems with frictional contacts. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 139:357-384.
  • [74]
    PINTO DA COSTA A & SEEGER A. 2010. Cone-constrained eigenvalue problems: theory and algorithms. Computational Optimization and Applications, 45:25-57.
  • [75]
    QUEIROZ M, JÚDICE J & HUMES C. 2003. The symmetric eigenvalue complementarity problem. Mathematics of Computation, 73:1849-1863.
  • [76]
    RALPH D. 2007. Nonlinear programming advances in mathematical programming with complementarity constraints. Royal Society.
  • [77]
    SHERALI HD & ADAMS WP. 1999. A Reformulation-Linearization Technique for Solving Discrete and Continuous Nonconvex Problems Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht.
  • [78]
    SCHOLTES S. 1999. Active set methods for inverse complementarity problems. Technical report, Judge Institute of Management Research.
  • [79]
    SCHOLTES S. 2000. Convergence properties of a regularization scheme for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 11:918-936.
  • [80]
    SEEGER A. 1999. Eigenvalue analysis of equilibrium processes defined by linear complementarity conditions. Linear Algebra and its Applications, 292:1-14.
  • [81]
    SEEGER A. 2011. Quadratic eigenvalue problems under conic constraints. SIAM Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 32:700-721.
  • [82]
    SHERALI HD, KRISHNAMURTHY RS & AL-KHAYYAL FA. 1998. Enumeration approach for linear complementarity problems based on a reformulation-linearization technique. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 99:481-507.
  • [83]
    SCHEEL H & SCHOLTES S. 2000. Mathematical programs with complementarity constraints: Stationarity, optimality and sensitivity. Mathematics of Operations Research, 25:1-22.
  • [84]
    SEEGER A & TORKI M. 2003.On eigenvalues induced by a cone constraint. Linear Algebra and its Applications, 372:181-206.
  • [85]
    SAHINIDIS NV & TAWARLANI M. 2005. BARON 7.2.5: Global Optimization of Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programs User's Manual.
  • [86]
    TAWARLANI M & SAHINIDIS NV. 2004. Global optimization of mixed-integer nonlinear programs: a theoretical and computational study. Mathematical Programming, 99:563-591.
  • [87]
    VANDEMBUSSCHE D & NEMHAUSER G. 2005.A branch-and-cut algorithm for nonconvex quadratic programs with box constraints. Mathematical Programming, Series A, 102:559-575.
  • [88]
    YE Y. 1993. A fully polynomial-time approximation algorithm for computing a stationary point of the general linear complementarity problem. Mathematics of Operations Research, 18:334-345.
  • [89]
    YE JJ. 1999. Optimality conditions for optimization problems with complementarity constraints. SIAM Journal on Optimization, 9:374-387.
  • [90]
    YE JJ. 2005. Necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints. Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 307:350-369.

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    Sep-Dec 2014

History

  • Received
    03 Jan 2014
  • Accepted
    18 Feb 2014
Sociedade Brasileira de Pesquisa Operacional Rua Mayrink Veiga, 32 - sala 601 - Centro, 20090-050 Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brasil, Tel.: +55 21 2263-0499, Fax: +55 21 2263-0501 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil
E-mail: sobrapo@sobrapo.org.br