An Example of Singularity in Nonlinear Systems

Abstract

Certain practical constrained global optimization problems have to date defied practical solution with interval branch and bound methods. The exact mechanism causing the difficulty has been difficult to pinpoint. Here, an example is given where the equality constraint set has higher-order singularities and degenerate manifolds of singularities on the feasible set. The reason that this causes problems is discussed, and ways of fixing it are suggested.