A Trust Region Method for the Solution of the Surrogate Dual in Integer Programming

Abstract

We propose an algorithm for solving the surrogate dual of a mixed integer program. The algorithm uses a trust region method based on a piecewise affine model of the dual surrogate value function. A new and much more flexible way of updating bounds on the surrogate dual's value is proposed, in which numerical experiments prove to be advantageous. A proof of convergence is given and numerical tests show that the method performance is better than a state of the art subgradient solver. Incorporation of the surrogate dual value as a cut added to the integer program is shown to greatly reduce solution times of a standard commercial solver on a specific class of problems.