Relaxation schemes for mathematical programmes with switching constraints

Abstract

Switching-constrained optimization problems form a difficult class of mathematical programmes since their feasible set is almost disconnected while standard constraint qualifications are likely to fail at several feasible points. That is why the application of standard methods from nonlinear programming does not seem to be promising in order to solve such problems. In this paper, we adapt several relaxation methods which are well known from the numerical treatment of mathematical programmes with complementarity constraints to the setting of switching-constrained optimization. A detailed convergence analysis is provided for the adapted relaxation schemes of Scholtes as well as Kanzow and Schwartz. While Scholtes' method and the relaxation scheme of Steffensen and Ulbrich only find weakly stationary points in general, it is shown that the adapted relaxation scheme of Kanzow and Schwartz is capable of identifying Mordukhovich-stationary points of switching-constrained programmes under suitable assumptions. Some computational experiments and a numerical comparison of the proposed methods based on examples from logical programming, switching control, and portfolio optimization close the paper.