Consensus-based optimization (CBO) is a versatile multi-particle optimization method for performing nonconvex and nonsmooth global optimizations in high dimensions. Proofs of global convergence in probability have been achieved for a broad class of objective functions in unconstrained optimizations. In this work we adapt the algorithm for solving constrained optimizations on compact and unbounded domains with boundary by leveraging emerging reflective boundary conditions. In particular, we close a relevant gap in the literature by providing a global convergence proof for the many-particle regime comprehensive of convergence rates. On the one hand, for the sake of minimizing running cost, it is desirable to keep the number of particles small. On the other hand, reducing the number of particles implies a diminished capability of exploration of the algorithm. Hence numerical heuristics are needed to ensure convergence of CBO in the few-particle regime. In this work, we also significantly improve the convergence and complexity of CBO by utilizing an adaptive region control mechanism and by choosing geometry-specific random noise. In particular, by combining a hierarchical noise structure with a multigrid finite element method, we are able to compute global minimizers for a constrained p-Allen-Cahn problem with obstacles, a very challenging variational problem.

Equilibrium problems in Bayesian auction games can be described as systems of differential equations. Depending on the model assumptions, these equations might be such that we do not have a rigorous mathematical solution theory. The lack of analytical or numerical techniques with guaranteed convergence for the equilibrium problem has plagued the field and limited equilibrium analysis to rather simple auction models such as single-object auctions. Recent advances in equilibrium learning led to algorithms that find equilibrium under a wide variety of model assumptions. Monotonicity and the Minty condition are the known sufficient conditions for learning algorithms to converge to an equilibrium in games. Not much is known about convergence of learning algorithms beyond these conditions. We analyze first- and second-price auctions where simple learning algorithms consistently converge to an equilibrium. The analysis is challenging, because these properties need to be shown in infinite dimensions. Interestingly, we show that neither monotonicity nor pseudo- or quasi-monotonicity holds for the respective variational inequalities (VIs). The second-price auction's equilibrium is a Minty-type solution, but the first-price auction is not. However, the analysis via infinite-dimensional VIs allows us to get ex-post guarantees for gradient-based algorithms. We show that the Bayes--Nash equilibrium is the unique solution to the VI within the class of uniformly increasing bid functions, which ensures that gradient-based algorithms attain the equilibrium in case of convergence, as also observed in numerical experiments.

Fuzzy arithmetic provides a powerful tool to introduce uncertainty into mathematical models. With Zadeh's extension principle, one can obtain a fuzzy-valued extension of any real-valued objective function. An efficient and accurate approach to computing expensive multivariate functions of fuzzy numbers is given by fuzzy arithmetic based on sparse grids. In many cases, not all uncertain input parameters carry equal weight, or the objective model exhibits separable structure. These characteristics can be exploited by dimension-adaptive algorithms. As a result, the treatment of even higher-dimensional problems becomes possible. This is demonstrated in this paper by a case study involving two large-scale finite element models in vibration engineering that are subjected to fuzzy-valued input data.

To recover or approximate smooth multivariate functions, sparse grids are superior to full grids due to a significant reduction of the required support nodes. The order of the convergence rate in the maximum norm is preserved up to a logarithmic factor. We describe three possible piecewise multilinear hierarchical interpolation schemes in detail and conduct a numerical comparison. Furthermore, we document the features of our sparse grid interpolation software package spinterp for MATLAB.

Fuzzy arithmetic provides a powerful tool to introduce uncertainty into mathematical models. With Zadeh's extension principle, one can obtain a fuzzy extension of any objective function. We consider the difficult case of the objective function being an expensive to compute multivariate function of modest dimension (say d up to 16) where only real-valued evaluations of f are permitted. This often poses a difficult problem due to non-applicability of common fuzzy arithmetic algorithms, severe overestimation, or very high computational complexity. Our approach is composed of two parts: First, we compute a surrogate function using sparse grid interpolation. Second, we perform the fuzzy-valued evaluation of the surrogate function by a suitable implementation of the extension principle based on real or interval arithmetic. The new approach gives accurate results and requires only few function evaluations.

Fuzzy arithmetic provides a powerful tool to introduce uncertainty into mathematical models. With Zadeh's extension principle, one can obtain a fuzzy-valued extension of any real-valued objective function. An efficient and accurate approach to compute expensive multivariate functions of fuzzy numbers is given by fuzzy arithmetic based on sparse grids. In this paper, we illustrate the general applicability of this new method by computing two dynamic systems subjected to uncertain parameters as well as uncertain initial conditions. The first model consists of a system of delay differential equations simulating the periodic outbreak of a disease. In the second model, we consider a multibody mechanism described by an algebraic differential equation system.