Shuzhong Zhang - Böcker

For a long time the techniques of solving linear optimization (LP) problems improved only marginally. In the mid 1970s however, a revolutionary discovery changed everything. A new "golden age" for optimization started, which is continuing up to the current time. What is the cause of the excitement? Techniques of linear programming formed previously an isolated body of knowledge. Then suddenly a tunnel was built linking it with a rich and promising land, part of which was already cultivated, part of which was completely unexplored. These revolutionary new techniques are now applied to solve conic linear problems. This makes it possible to model and solve large classes of essentially nonlinear optimization problems as efficiently as LP problems. This volume gives an overview of developments in "High Performance Optimization Techniques". The first part is a treatment of interior point methods for semidefinite programming problems. The second part reviews research topics and results in the area of convex optimization.

For a long time the techniques of solving linear optimization (LP) problems improved only marginally. Fifteen years ago, however, a revolutionary discovery changed everything. A new `golden age' for optimization started, which is continuing up to the current time. What is the cause of the excitement? Techniques of linear programming formed previously an isolated body of knowledge. Then suddenly a tunnel was built linking it with a rich and promising land, part of which was already cultivated, part of which was completely unexplored. These revolutionary new techniques are now applied to solve conic linear problems. This makes it possible to model and solve large classes of essentially nonlinear optimization problems as efficiently as LP problems. This volume gives an overview of the latest developments of such `High Performance Optimization Techniques'. The first part is a thorough treatment of interior point methods for semidefinite programming problems. The second part reviews today's most exciting research topics and results in the area of convex optimization. Audience: This volume is for graduate students and researchers who are interested in modern optimization techniques.

Polynomial optimization have been a hot research topic for the past few years and its applications range from Operations Research, biomedical engineering, investment science, to quantum mechanics, linear algebra, and signal processing, among many others. In this brief the authors discuss some important subclasses of polynomial optimization models arising from various applications, with a focus on approximations algorithms with guaranteed worst case performance analysis. The brief presents a clear view of the basic ideas underlying the design of such algorithms and the benefits are highlighted by illustrative examples showing the possible applications. This timely treatise will appeal to researchers and graduate students in the fields of optimization, computational mathematics, Operations Research, industrial engineering, and computer science.