Merit function approach is a popular method to deal with complementarity problems, in which the complementarity problem is recast as an unconstrained minimization via merit function or complementarity function. In this paper, for the complementarity problem associated with <i>p</i>-order cone, which is a type of nonsymmetric cone complementarity problem, we show the readers how to construct merit functions for solving <i>p</i>-order cone complementarity problem. In addition, we study the conditions under which the level sets of the corresponding merit functions are bounded, and we also assert that these merit functions provide an error bound for the <i>p</i>-order cone complementarity problem. These results build up a theoretical basis for the merit method for solving <i>p</i>-order cone complementarity problem.

In this article, we extend two classes of merit functions for the second-order complementarity problem (SOCP) to infinite-dimensional SOCP. These two classes of merit functions include several popular merit functions, which are used in nonlinear complementarity problem, (NCP)/(SDCP) semidefinite complementarity problem, and SOCP, as special cases. We give conditions under which the infinite-dimensional SOCP has a unique solution and show that all these merit functions provide an error bound for infinite-dimensional SOCP and have bounded level sets. These results are very useful for designing solution methods for infinite-dimensional SOCP.

It is well known that second-order cone (SOC) programming can be regarded as a special case of positive semidefinite programming using the arrow matrix. This paper further studies the relationship between SOCs and positive semidefinite matrix cones. In particular, we explore the relationship to expressions regarding distance, projection, tangent cone, normal cone and the KKT system. Understanding these relationships will help us see the connection and difference between the SOC and its PSD reformulation more clearly.

In this paper, we study the existence of local and global saddle points for nonlinear second-order cone programming problems. The existence of local saddle points is developed by using the second-order sufficient conditions, in which a sigma-term is added to reflect the curvature of second-order cone. Furthermore, by dealing with the perturbation of the primal problem, we establish the existence of global saddle points, which can be applicable for the case of multiple optimal solutions. The close relationship between global saddle points and exact penalty representations are discussed as well.

In this paper, we study the properties of the penalized Fischer-Burmeister (FB) second-order cone (SOC) complementarity function. We show that the function possesses similar desirable properties of the FB SOC complementarity function for local convergence; for example, with the function the second-order cone complementarity problem (SOCCP) can be reformulated as a (strongly) semismooth system of equations, and the corresponding nonsmooth Newton method has local quadratic convergence without strict complementarity of solutions. In addition, the penalized FB merit function has bounded level sets under a rather weak condition which can be satisfied by strictly feasible monotone SOCCPs or SOCCPs with the Cartesian <i>R</i> ₀₁-property, although it is not continuously differentiable. Numerical results are included to illustrate the theoretical considerations.

This paper is devoted to the study of the proximal point algorithm for solving monotone second-order cone complementarity problems. The proximal point algorithm is to generate a sequence by solving subproblems that are regularizations of the original problem. After given an appropriate criterion for approximate solutions of subproblems by adopting a merit function, the proximal point algorithm is verified to have global and superlinear convergence properties. For the purpose of solving the subproblems efficiently, we introduce a generalized Newton method and show that only one Newton step is eventually needed to obtain a desired approximate solution that approximately satisfies the appropriate criterion under mild conditions. Numerical comparisons are also made with the derivative-free descent method used by Pan and Chen (Optimization 59:11731197, 2010), which confirm the theoretical results

In this paper, we consider a type of cone-constrained convex program in finite-dimensional space, and are interested in characterization of the solution set of this convex program with the help of the Lagrange multiplier. We establish necessary conditions for a feasible point being an optimal solution. Moreover, some necessary conditions and sufficient conditions are established which simplifies the corresponding results in Jeyakumar et al. (J Optim Theory Appl 123(1), 83103, 2004). In particular, when the cone reduces to three specific cones, that is, the p -order cone, p cone and circular cone, we show that the obtained results can be achieved by easier ways by exploiting the special structure of those three cones.

It is well known that complementarity functions play an important role in dealing with complementarity problems. In this paper, we propose a few new classes of complementarity functions for nonlinear complementarity problems and second-order cone complementarity problems. The constructions of such new complementarity functions are based on discrete generalization which is a novel idea in contrast to the continuous generalization of FischerBurmeister function. Surprisingly, these new families of complementarity functions possess continuous differentiability even though they are discrete-oriented extensions. This feature enables that some methods like derivative-free algorithm can be employed directly for solving nonlinear complementarity problems and second-order cone complementarity problems. This is a new discovery to the literature and we believe that such new complementarity functions

We make a unified analysis of interior proximal methods of solving convex second-order cone programming problems. These methods use a proximal distance with respect to second-order cones which can be produced with an appropriate closed proper univariate function in three ways. Under some mild conditions, the sequence generated is bounded with each limit point being a solution, and global rates of convergence estimates are obtained in terms of objective values. A class of regularized proximal distances is also constructed which can guarantee the global convergence of the sequence to an optimal solution. These results are illustrated with some examples. In addition, we also study the central paths associated with these distance-like functions, and for the linear SOCP we discuss their relations with the sequence generated by the interior proximal methods. From this, we obtain improved convergence

Given a Hilbert space H, the infinite-dimensional Lorentz/second-order cone K is introduced. For any x H, a spectral decomposition is introduced, and for any function f: R R, we define a corresponding vector-valued function f H (x) on Hilbert space H by applying f to the spectral values of the spectral decomposition of x H with respect to K. We show that this vector-valued function inherits from f the properties of continuity, Lipschitz continuity, differentiability, smoothness, as well as s-semismoothness. These results can be helpful for designing and analyzing solution methods for solving infinite-dimensional second-order cone programs and complementarity problems.