Restricted inverse optimal value problem on linear programming under weighted $l_1$ norm

TL;DR

This paper addresses the inverse optimal value problem in linear programming under weighted $l_1$ norm, proposing a linear programming formulation, a binary search algorithm for unimodular matrices, and demonstrating efficiency on classical problems.

Contribution

It formulates the inverse problem as a linear program, introduces a binary search method for unimodular matrices, and applies the approach to Hitchcock and shortest path problems.

Findings

Linear programming formulation of RIOVLP$_1$

Binary search algorithm for unimodular matrices

Efficient solution on Hitchcock and shortest path problems

Abstract

We study the restricted inverse optimal value problem on linear programming under weighted $l_1$ norm (RIOVLP $_1$). Given a linear programming problem $LP_c: \min \{cx|Ax=b,x\geq 0\}$ with a feasible solution $x^0$ and a value $K$, we aim to adjust the vector $c$ to $\bar{c}$ such that $x^0$ becomes an optimal solution of the problem LP$_{\bar c}$ whose objective value $\bar{c}x^0$ equals $K$. The objective is to minimize the distance $\|\bar c - c\|_1=\sum_{j=1}^nd_j|\bar c_j-c_j|$ under weighted $l_1$ norm.Firstly, we formulate the problem (RIOVLP$_1$) as a linear programming problem by dual theories. Secondly, we construct a sub-problem $(D^z)$, which has the same form as $LP_c$, of the dual (RIOVLP$_1$) problem corresponding to a given value $z$. Thirdly, when the coefficient matrix $A$ is unimodular, we design a binary search algorithm to calculate the critical value $z^*$ corresponding to an optimal solution of the problem (RIOVLP$_1$). Finally, we solve the (RIOV) problems on Hitchcock and shortest path problem, respectively, in $O(T_{MCF}\log\max\{d_{max},x^0_{max},n\})$ time, where we solve a sub-problem $(D^z)$ by minimum cost flow in $T_{MCF}$ time in each iteration. The values $d_{max},x^0_{max}$ are the maximum values of $d$ and $x^0$, respectively.