Vol. 00, No. 00, Month 200x, 1–21 USER GUIDE GlobSol User Guide R. Baker Kearfott, Department of Mathematics, University of Louisiana, U.L. Box 4-1010, Lafayette, Louisiana, 70504-1010, USA (
[email protected]). (Received 00 Month 200x; in final form 00 Month 200x) We explain installation and use of the GlobSol package for mathematically rigorous bounds on all solutions to constrained and unconstrained global optimization problems, as well as non- linear systems of equations. This document should be of use both to people with optimization problems to solve and to people incorporating GlobSol’s components into other systems or providing interfaces to GlobSol. Keywords: nonconvex optimization; global optimization; GlobSol; constraint propagation 2000 AMS Subject Classifications: 90C30; 65K05; 90C26; 65G20 1. Introduction and Purpose GlobSol is an open-source, self-contained package for finding validated solutions to unconstrained and constrained global optimization problems, and for finding rigorous enclosures to all solutions to systems of nonlinear equations. GlobSol is distributed under the Boost license [3]. GlobSol uses a branch and bound algo- rithm for this purpose. Thus, the structure of GlobSol’s underlying algorithm is somewhat similar to that of many optimization packages, such as BARON [18]. However, GlobSol’s goal is to provide rigorous bounds on all possible solutions. That is, GlobSol’s output consists of lists of small intervals or interval vectors within which GlobSol has proven with the rigor of a mathematical proof that any possible solutions of the problem posed must lie1. (This is done by careful design of algorithms and use of directed rounding.) GlobSol is thus well-suited to solv- ing problems in which such bounds and guarantees are desired or important; for problems where such guarantees are not necessary, other software may solve the problems more efficiently, or may solve a wider range of problems.