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arXiv:2604.04417

An Alternating Primal Heuristic for Nonconvex MIQCQP with Dynamic Convexification and Parallel Local Branching

Yongzheng Dai, Chen Chen

Published Apr 6, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We develop a novel primal heuristic for nonconvex Mixed-Integer Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programs (MIQCQPs). The method is built around a convex approximation that is dynamically adjusted within a feasibility-pump-style alternating heuristic. Approximations are adjusted based on the structure of the MIQCQP instance. Additionally, parallelized local branching is incorporated to further refine detected solutions. This paper builds upon the second-place finalist submission in the 2025 Land-Doig MIP Computational Competition. Our results are validated with computational experiments on instances from QPLIB, finding feasible solutions for three previously unsolved cases and improving the best-known solutions for fifteen instances within five minutes of runtime.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2604.04417

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We develop a novel primal heuristic for nonconvex Mixed-Integer Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programs (MIQCQPs). The method is built around a convex approximation that is dynamically adjusted within a feasibility-pump-style alternating heuristic. Approximations are adjusted based on the structure of the MIQCQP instance. Additionally, parallelized local branching is incorporated to further refine detected solutions. This paper builds upon the second-place finalist submission in the 2025 Land-Doig MIP Computational Competition. Our results are validated with computational experiments on instances from QPLIB, finding feasible solutions for three previously unsolved cases and improving the best-known solutions for fifteen instances within five minutes of runtime.
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Abstract This paper presents a novel technique to compute Lagrangian bounds for nonconvex mixed-integer quadratically constrained quadratic programming problems presenting a separable structure (i.e., a separable problems) such as those arising in deterministic equivalent representations of two-stage stochastic programming problems. In general, the nonconvex nature of these models still poses a challenge to the available solvers, which do not consistently perform well for larger-scale instances. Therefore, we propose an appealing alternative algorithm that allows for overcoming computational performance issues. Our novel technique, named the p-Lagrangian decomposition, is a decomposition method that combines Lagrangian decomposition with mixed-integer programming-based relaxations. These relaxations are obtained using the reformulated normalised multiparametric disaggregation technique and can be made arbitrarily precise by means of a precision parameter p. We provide a technical analysis showing the convergent behaviour of the approach as the approximation is made increasingly precise. We observe that the proposed method presents significant reductions in computational time when compared with a previously proposed techniques in the literature and the direct employment of a commercial solver. Moreover, our computational experiments show that the employment of a simple heuristic can recover solutions with small duality gaps.
This is Part II of a study on mixed-integer programming (MIP) relaxation techniques for the solution of non-convex mixed-integer quadratically constrained quadratic programs (MIQCQPs). We set the focus on MIP relaxation methods for non-convex continuous variable products and extend the well-known MIP relaxation normalized multi-parametric disaggregation technique (NMDT), applying a sophisticated discretization to both variables. We refer to this approach as doubly discretized normalized multiparametric disaggregation technique (D-NMDT). In a comprehensive theoretical analysis, we underline the theoretical advantages of the enhanced method D-NMDT compared to NMDT. Furthermore, we perform a broad computational study to demonstrate its effectiveness in terms of producing tight dual bounds for MIQCQPs. Finally, we compare D-NMDT to the separable MIP relaxations from Part I and a state-of-the-art MIQCQP solver.