$\def\array#1#2{\left[ \begin{array}{#1} #2 \end{array}\right]}$

1. Primal Dual Interior Point MethodPermalink

In addition to the Barrier Method, there is another method to solve the convex problems with inequality constraints: the Primal-Dual Interior Point Method.

Compared with the barrier method, there are some characteristics in the interior point method. First of all, the barrier method runs the newton raphson method several times along with barrier parameter t, but the interior point method runs it only once. Secondly, in the procedure of the barrier method, the target variables have to be in the feasible set, but in the interior point method, they don’t have to be. Third, it could be more efficient but less intuitive.

It is based on the perturbed KKT condition. Let’s remark the perturbed KKT condition in the barrier method.

Perturbed KKT Conditions

• $\nabla f(x) + \sum u_i \nabla h_j (x) + A^t v =0$
• $u_i \cdot h_i(x) = - (1/t), i=1,2,…,m$
• $h_i(x) \leq 0 , Ax=b, u_i \geq 0$

Notice that the perturbed KKT condition is a modified version of the original KKT condition that complementary slackness conditions are lessened.

We can see it as a nonlinear system.

$r(x,u,v) = \array{c}{\nabla f(x) + Dh(x)^tu + A^tv \\ -diag(u)h(x) - (\frac{1}{t})1 \\ Ax-b} = 0$ where $h(x) = \array{c}{h_1(x) \\ \vdots \\ h_m(x)}$ and $Dh(x) = \array{c}{\nabla h_1(x)^t \\ \vdots \\ \nabla h_m(x)^t}$

By solving the equation, we can derive primal-dual optimal value. For this system, let’s solve them with the newton’s updates $F(y+\nabla y) \approx F(y) + DF(y) \nabla y =0 \Rightarrow \nabla y = -(DF(y))^{-1}F(y)$.

To solve the equation, there are several methods.

Barrier Method Approach

Solving the problem with the barrier method is equivalent to solving the perturbed KKT condition with $u_i$ fixed as $u_i = -\frac{1}{t h_i(x)}$. Therefore, in the Barrier Method, we’ll omit the second line.

$r(x,v) = \array{c}{\nabla f(x) -\sum \frac{\nabla h_i(x)}{t h_i(x)} + A^tv \\ Ax-b} = 0$

For $F(y) = r(x,v)$, $DF(y)\nabla y = -F(y)$ is as follows.

$DF(y) = \array{cc}{\frac{\nabla f(x) - \sum \nabla h_i(x)/t h_i(x) + A^tv }{\delta x} & \frac{\nabla f(x) - \sum \nabla h_i(x)/t h_i(x) + A^tv }{\delta v} \\ \frac{Ax-b}{\delta x} & \frac{Ax-b}{\delta v }}$

​ $= \array{cc}{ \nabla^2 f(x) + \frac{1}{t}\sum_{i=1}^{n}\frac{\delta}{\delta x} \frac{\nabla h_i(x)}{h_i(x)} & A \\ A & 0}$

Then, the equation becomes as follows

And by using them we can derive the iterative equation as $y^+ = y + \nabla y$.

The above equation generates the same results with the barrier method with equality constraints. Note previous posting.

Interior Point Method

In the interior point method, it approaches the equation without omitting the second line. It will generate the following result.

$r(x,u,v) = \array{c}{r_{dual} \\ r_{cent} \\ r_{prim}} = \array{c}{\nabla f(x) + Dh(x)^t u + A^t v \\ -diag(u) h(x) - \frac{1}{t} \textbf{1} \\ Ax -b}$

Then the equation would be

$DF(y) = \array{ccc}{\nabla^2f(x) + \sum_{i=1}^{m}u_i \nabla^2h_i(x) & Dh(x)^t & A^t \\ -diag(u) Dh(x) & - diag(h(x)) & 0 \\ A & 0 &0 }$

By using them, we can design Newton’s iterative equation as below.

And likewise, we can design the newton’s update $y^+ = y + \nabla y$

The newton’s equation with above matrix is called as Primal - Dual Interior Point Method

2. Implementation of Interior Point MethodPermalink

Because it has a really complicated structure, it might not work well in reality. Therefore, we have to use additional theorems to implement it.

Surrogate Duality Gap

In the Barrier method, the duality gap is $\frac{m}{t}$ (t is the barrier parameter on the objective function). Therefore, we use $\frac{m}{t}$ as criteria to fit appropriate t to make it under the predetermined tolerance $\epsilon$.

Similarly, we need a criterion to fit the interior point method. Let’s see below.

$g(u^{\ast},v^{\ast}) = f(x^{\ast}) + u^{\ast t}h(x)+ v^{\ast t}(Ax^{\ast}-b)$

​ $= f(x^{\ast}) + u^{\ast t}h(x)$

$\Rightarrow g(u^\ast , v^\ast) - f(x^{\ast}) \leq -u^{\ast t}h(x) =: \eta$

The value $\eta$ is called a surrogate duality gap. However, it is only a theoretical value because it cannot guarantee $r_{dual} =0$ and $r_{prim} =0$ in reality. Therefore, we use the combination of them as criteria; $\eta, (\parallel r_{prim}\parallel_2^2 + \parallel r_{dual} \parallel_2^2)$.

Backtracking Line search

When using the interior point method, we have to use backtracking line search to guarantee feasibility as follows.

start with $s_{\max} \leq 1$ $(s_{\max} = \min ( 1, -u_i / \nabla u_i : \nabla u_i <0 ) )$

• This will makes $u_i+s_{\max}\nabla u_i >0$ (Dual feasibility)

With parameters $(\alpha, \beta) \in (0,1)^2$, set $s= 0.999 s_{\max}$ and $s= \beta s$ until $\begin{cases} h_i(x^+) <0 \mbox{ (Primal Feasibility)}\\ \parallel r(x^+,u^+, v^+) \parallel _2 \leq (1-\alpha s) \parallel r(x,u,v)\parallel_2 \mbox{ (Central Pass})\end{cases}$

By using two techniques, we can implement interior point method as follow

1. Set initial value $x^{(0)} \mbox{ such that } h_i(x^{(0)})<0, u^{(0)} >0 , v^{(0)}, \eta^{(0)} = - h(x^{(0)})^t u^{(o)}$
2. Compute update direction $\nabla y = -(DF(y))^{-1}F(y)$
3. Use backtracking line search to determine a step size s
4. Update $y^+ = y + s \cdot \nabla y$
5. Compute $\epsilon+ = -h(x^+)^t u^+$
6. Repeat 2~5 and stop if $\eta^+ \leq \epsilon$ and $(\parallel r_{prim}\parallel_2^2 + \parallel r_{dual} \parallel_2^2)^{1/2} \leq \epsilon$

Boyd,S. & Vandenberghe, L. (2004) Convex Optimization.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Press
Tibshirani,R. “Barrier Method” Convex Optimization, Oct. 2019, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh