Global Optimization of Multiplicative Programs

This paper develops global optimization algorithms for linear multiplicative and generalized linear multiplicative programs based upon the lower bounding procedure of Ryoo and Sahinidis [30] and new greedy branching schemes that are applicable in the context of any rectangular branch-and-bound algorithm. Extensive computational results are presented on a wide range of problems from the literature, including quadratic and bilinear programs, and randomly generated large-scale multiplicative programs. It is shown that our algorithms make possible for the first time the solution of large and complex multiplicative programs to global optimality.