Introduction Many science and engineering applications require the user to find solutions to systems of nonlinear constraints over real numbers or to optimize a nonlinear function subject to nonlinear constraints. This includes applications such the modeling of chemical engineering processes and of electrical circuits, robot kinematics, chemical equilibrium problems, and design problems (e.g., nuclear reactor design). The field of global optimization is the study of methods to find all solutions to systems of nonlinear constraints and all global optima to optimization problems. Nonlinear problems raise many issues from a computation standpoint. On the one hand, deciding if a set of polynomial constraints has a solution is NP-hard. In fact, Canny [ Canny, 1988 ] and Renegar [ Renegar, 1988 ] have shown that the problem is in PSPACE and it is not known whether the problem lies in NP. Nonlinear programming problems can be so hard that some methods are designed only to solve probl

This paper presents Newton, a branch & prune algorithm to find all isolated solutions of a system of polynomial constraints. Newton can be characterized as a global search method which uses intervals for numerical correctness and for pruning the search space early. The pruning in Newton consists in enforcing at each node of the search tree a unique local consistency condition, called box-consistency, which approximates the notion of arc-consistency well-known in artificial intelligence. Box-consistency is parametrized by an interval extension of the constraint and can be instantiated to produce the Hansen-Segupta's narrowing operator (used in interval methods) as well as new operators which are more effective when the computation is far from a solution. Newton has been evaluated on a variety of benchmarks from kinematics, chemistry, combustion, economics, and mechanics. On these benchmarks, it outperforms the interval methods we are aware of and compares well with state-of-the-art continuation methods. Limitations of Newton (e.g., a sensitivity to the size of the initial intervals on some problems) are also discussed. Of particular interest is the mathematical and programming simplicity of the method.

. Compared to standard numerical methods for initial value problems (IVPs) for ordinary differential equations (ODEs), validated methods for IVPs for ODEs have two important advantages: if they return a solution to a problem, then (1) the problem is guaranteed to have a unique solution, and (2) an enclosure of the true solution is produced. The authors survey Taylor series methods for validated solutions of IVPs for ODEs, describe several such methods in a common framework, and identify areas for future research. Key words. initial value problems, ordinary differential equations, interval arithmetic, Taylor series methods. AMS subject classifications. 65L05, 65G10, 65L60. 1. Introduction. We consider validated numerical methods for the solution of the autonomous initial-value problems (IVPs) y 0 (t) = f(y); y(t 0 ) = y 0 ; (1.1) where t 2 [t 0 ; T ] for some T ? t 0 . Here t 0 ; T 2 R,f 2 C k\Gamma1 (D), D ` R n is an open set, f : D ! R n , and y 0 2 D. For expositional c...

. The role of the interval subdivision selection rule is investigated in branch-and-bound algorithms for global optimization. The class of rules that allow convergence for the model algorithm is characterized, and it is shown that the four rules investigated satisfy the conditions of convergence. A numerical study with a wide spectrum of test problems indicates that there are substantial differences between the rules in terms of the required CPU time, the number of function and derivative evaluations and space complexity, and two rules can provide substantial improvements in efficiency. Key words. global optimization, interval arithmetic, interval subdivision AMS subject classifications. 65K05, 90C30 Abbreviated title: Subdivision directions in interval methods. 1. Introduction. Interval subdivision methods for global optimization [7, 21] aim at providing reliable solutions to global optimization problems min x2X f(x) (1) where the objective function f : IR n ! IR is continuo...

. Interval Newton methods in conjunction with generalized bisection can form the basis of algorithms that find all real roots within a specified box X ae R n of a system of nonlinear equations F (X) = 0 with mathematical certainty, even in finite-precision arithmetic. In such methods, the system F (X) = 0 is transformed into a linear interval system 0 = F (M) +F 0 (X)( ~ X \Gamma M); if interval arithmetic is then used to bound the solutions of this system, the resulting box ~ X contains all roots of the nonlinear system. We may use the interval Gauss--Seidel method to find these solution bounds. In order to increase the overall efficiency of the interval Newton / generalized bisection algorithm, the linear interval system is multiplied by a preconditioner matrix Y before the interval Gauss--Seidel method is applied. Here, we review results we have obtained over the past few years concerning computation of such preconditioners. We emphasize importance and connecting relationships,...

We discuss floating-point filters as a means of restricting the precision needed for arithmetic operations while still computing the exact result. We show that interval techniques can be used to speed up the exact evaluation of geometric predicates and describe an efficient implementation of interval arithmetic that is strongly influenced by the rounding modes of the widely used IEEE 754 standard. Using this approach we engineer an efficient floating-point filter for the computation of the sign of a determinant that works for arbitrary dimensions. We validate our approach experimentally, comparing it with other static, dynamic and semi-static filters. 1

. This paper discusses the mathematical formulation of and solution attempts for the so-called protein folding problem. The static aspect is concerned with how to predict the folded (native, tertiary) structure of a protein, given its sequence of amino acids. The dynamic aspect asks about the possible pathways to folding and unfolding, including the stability of the folded protein. From a mathematical point of view, there are several main sides to the static problem: -- the selection of an appropriate potential energy function; -- the parameter identification by fitting to experimental data; and -- the global optimization of the potential. The dynamic problem entails, in addition, the solution of (because of multiple time scales very stiff) ordinary or stochastic differential equations (molecular dynamics simulation), or (in case of constrained molecular dynamics) of differential-algebraic equations. A theme connecting the static and dynamic aspect is the determination and formation of...

An environment for general research into and prototyping of algorithms for reliable constrained and unconstrained global nonlinear optimization and reliable enclosure of all roots of nonlinear systems of equations, with or without inequality constraints, is being developed. This environment should be portable, easy to learn, use, and maintain, and sufficiently fast for some production work. The motivation, design principles, uses, and capabilities for this environment are outlined. The environment includes an interval data type, a symbolic form of automatic differentiation to obtain an internal representation for functions, a special technique to allow conditional branches with operator overloading and interval computations, and generic routines to give interval and non-interval function and derivative information. Some of these generic routines use a special version of the backward mode of automatic differentiation. The package also includes dynamic data structures for exhaustive sear...

. In order to generate valid convex lower bounding problems for nonconvex twice--differentiable optimization problems, a method that is based on second-- order information of general twice--differentiable functions is presented. Using interval Hessian matrices, valid lower bounds on the eigenvalues of such functions are obtained and used in constructing convex underestimators. By solving several nonlinear example problems, it is shown that the lower bounds are sufficiently tight to ensure satisfactory convergence of the ffBB, a branch and bound algorithm which relies on this underestimation procedure [3]. Key words: convex underestimators; twice--differentiable; interval anlysis; eigenvalues 1. Introduction The mathematical description of many physical phenomena, such as phase equilibrium, or of chemical processes generally requires the introduction of nonconvex functions. As the number of local solutions to a nonconvex optimization problem cannot be predicted a priori, the identifi...

This paper deals with the problem of safety verification of non-linear hybrid systems. We start from a classical method that uses interval arithmetic to check whether trajectories can move over the boundaries in a rectangular grid. We put this method into an abstraction refinement framework and improve it by developing an additional refinement step that employs interval constraint propagation to add information to the abstraction without introducing new grid elements. Moreover, the resulting method allows switching conditions, initial states and unsafe states to be described by complex constraints instead of sets that correspond to grid elements. Nevertheless, the method can be easily implemented since it is based on a well-defined set of constraints, on which one can run any constraint propagation based solver. Tests of such an implementation are promising.