Chapter 7

Linear Programming
I. Simplex Method

Ding-Zhu Du
 LP examples
• A post office requires different numbers of full-
time employees on different days of the week.
The number of full-time employees required on
each day is given in the table. Union rules state
that each full-time employee must work five
consecutive days and then receive two days off.
The post office wants to meet its daily
requirements using only full-time employees.
Formulate an LP that the post office can use to
minimize the number of full-time employees that
must be hired.
 Optimal occurs at a vertex!!!

z  4x  5 y

2 x  3 y  60

Feasible domain
 Slack Form

min ax z  4 x  5 y min x z  cx
s.t. 2 x  3 y  w  60 s.t. Ax  b
x  0, y  9, w  0. x  0.

rank ( A)  m.
 What’s a vertex?
A point x in a polyhadren  is called a vertex
if
1
x  ( y  z ), y, z    x  y  z.
2
Fundamental Theorem
Let = {x | Ax = b, x  0}.
If min cx over x   has an optimal solution,
then it can be found in vertice s of .
Proof.
Consider an optimal solution x * with maximum number
of zero components among all optimal solutions.
We will show that x * is a vertex of . By contraditi on,
suppose x * is not, that is, there exist y, z   such that
x*  ( y  z ) / 2 and x*, y, z are distinct. Since cx*  cy,
cx*  cz , and cx* = (cy+cz ) / 2, we must have
cx* = cy = cz. This means that y and z are also
optimal solutions. It follows that all feasible points on
line x*+ ( y-x*) are optimal solutions. However,  does
not contain any line. Thus, the line must have a point x'
not in , that is, x' violates at least one constraint .
Proof (cont’s).
Note that for any  , A( x*+ ( y-x*)) = b.
Thus, x' cannot vio late constraint Ax = b. Moreover,
for xi* =0, since xi*=( yi+zi ) / 2 and yi ,zi  0, we
must have zi=yi=xi *=0. Therefore, the ith component
of x*+ ( y-x*) is equal to 0 for any  . This means that
x' cannot vio late constraint xi  0. Hence, x' must
violate a constraint x j  0 for some j with x j*>0.
Now, we can easily find an optimal solution between x'
and x*, which has one more zero - component than x*,
a contradict ion.
Characterization of Vertex
Let a j denote the jth column of A. Then
a feasible point x   is a vertex if and only
if all a j for 1  j  n with x j  0 are
linearly independen t.
 Proof
If a j for x j  0 are linearly independen t, then
x j are uniquely determined by index set { j | x j  0}.
If a j for x j  0 are not linearly independen t, then ther e exists
 j for j with x j  0 such that  x j 0
 j a j  0 and not all  j
are zero. Define d  (d j ) by setting
 j if x j  0
dj  
 0 if x j  0.
Then d  0 and for sufficient ly small   0,
yz
y  x  d  , z  x  d   and x  .
2
 Basic Feasible Solution
A vertex is also called a basic feasible solution.
The index set of a maximum independen t subset
of column vec tors called a basis.
A basis is feasible if there exists a basic feasible
solution x such that I  { j | x j  0}.
Denote AI=(a j , j  I ). Then an index subset I is a
feasible basis if and only if rank ( AI ) = m = | I |
and AI1b  0.
 Optimality Condition
Each feasible basis I is associated with a basic
feasible solution x with xI  AI1b and xI  0
where I  { j | j  I }.
Moreover, x is optimal if and only if
1
cI  cI A AI  0
I

under nondegener acy condition.

 Sufficiency
Ax  b
AI xI  AI xI  b
1 1
xI  A b  A AI xI
I I
1 1
cx  cI xI  cI xI  cI A b  (cI  cI A AI ) xI
I I
1
Since cI  cI A AI  0 and xI  0, cx reaches
I

the minimum at xI  0.
Nondegeneracy Assumption
1
For every feasible basis I , A b  0. I

Remark

Under nondegener acy condition, every feasible basis

is associated with exactly one feasible basic solution.
 Necessary
1
Denote c' I  cI  cI A AI .
I

Assume for some j*  I , c' j*  0. We show that

 I
x  AI b 
1
x       is not optimal.

 I  0 
x
1 1
Denote (aij )  A A and b'  A b.
I I

Case 1. aij*  0 for all i  1,2,..., m.

Case 1. aij*  0 for all i  1,2,..., m.
Then for any   0,
0 if j  I and j  j *
( ) 
x j   if j  j *
 b' a  if j  I and a  1
 i ij* ij

is a feasible solution. Hence, the object

function v alue goes to   as   .
1
So, xI  0 and xI  A b do not give an
I

optimal solution.
Case 2. aij*  0 for some i  1,2,..., m.
Choose i * such that
bi*  bi 
 min  | aij*  0  .
ai* j*  aij  
Let j ' I with ai* j '  1.
Set I '  ( I \ { j '})  { j*}. (pivoting)
Then I ' is a new feasible basis with basic feasible
solution of object function v alue
b'i*
c I b  c' j*  cI b
ai* j*
since b'i*  0 by nondegener acy assumption .
 Simplex Method
The proof of necessarit y gives a method to
solve the linear proprommin g, called simplex
method.
 Simplex Table
min z  3x1  x2  2 x3
s.t. x1  x2  3 x3  x4  30
2 x1  2 x2  5 x3  x5  24
4 x1  x2  2 x3  x6  36
x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 , x5 , x6  0

z  3 1  2 0 0 0
30 1 1 3 1 0 0
24 2 2 5 0 1 0
36 4 1 2 0 0 1
I 0  {4,5,6}

z  3 1  2
30 1 1 3 1
24 2 2 5 1
36 4 1 2 1
I1  ({4,5,6} \ {5})  {2}

z  3 1  2
30 1 1 3 1
12 1 1 5/2 1/2
36 4 1 2 1
 I1  ({4,5,6} \ {5})  {2}

z  12  2 0 1/2 1/2
18 0 0 1/2 1 1/ 2
12 1 1 5/2 1/2
24 3 0  1/ 2  1/2 1
 I1  {4,2,6}

z  12  2 0 1/2 1/2
18 0 0 1/2 1 1/ 2
12 1 1 5/2 1/2
24 3 0  1/ 2  1/2 1
 I 2  ({4,2,6} \ {6})  {1}

z  12  2 0 1/2 1/2
18 0 0 1/2 1 1/ 2
12 1 1 5/2 1/2
8 1 0  1/ 6  1/6 1/3
 I 2  {4,2,1}

z  28 0 0 1/6 1/6 2/3

18 0 0 1/2 1  1 / 2
4 0 1 8/3 2/3 1/ 3
8 1 0  1/ 6  1/6 1/3
 Puzzle 1
How do we find the 1st basic feasible solution or the 1st
feasible basis ?
Artificial Feasible Basis

min z1  z2    zm
s.t. Ax  Iz  b
x  0, z  0
 z1 
 
 z2 
where z   

 
z 
 m
 Puzzle 2
When nondegener acy assumption does not hold, how to
solve LP?
 lexicographical ordering
Consider t wo vectors x=( x1,x2 ,..., xn ) and
y=( y1,y2 ,...,yn ). x is said to be lexicograp hically
larger tha n y, written as x >L y, if
x1=y1, ..., xi 1=yi 1, xi  yi for some 1  i  n. A vector
x is lexicograp hocally positive if x >L 0.
 Method
Initially, rearrange the ordering of n columns such that
the initial feasible basis is placed at the first m columns.
This makes that every row in the initial simplex ta ble except
the top row is lexicograp hically positive.
 Method(cont’)
For choice of i' , we choose
b'i ' a 'i '1 a 'i 'n
i' such that ( , , ... ) is the lexicograp hocally smallest
a 'i ' j ' a 'i ' j ' a 'i ' j '
b'i a 'i1 a 'in
one among ( , , ... ) for a 'ij '  0.
a 'ij ' a 'ij ' a 'ij '
This choice guarantees that the lexicograp hically positvenes s
of all rows other than the top row will be preserved under
pivoting.
 Method (cont’)
Since all rows other than the top row are lexicograp hically positive, each
pivot will make the top decreasse strictly in lexicograp hical ordering.
Therefore, the above additional rules guarantee that the algorithm visit each
feasible basis at most once and the objective function v alue is nonincreas ing.
Therefore, the algorithm either finds nonexisten ce of optimal solution or find
an optimal feasible basic solution w ith feasible basis I such that
c - c I AI1 A  0.
 Theorem
If the linear programmin g has an optimal solution,
then it has an optimal basic feasible solution associated with feasible
basis I such that c - c I AI1 A  0.
Moreove, if a feasible basis I satisfies c - c I AI1 A  0, then the basic
feasible solution associated with I is optimal.
 Puzzle 3
What is the running time of Simplex Method?
 Complexity of LP

Simplex Method runs in exponentia l time.

Ellepsoid Method runs in O(n 6 ) time.
Interior Point Method runs in O(n 3.5 ) time.

Given an optimal solution, an optimal extreme point

cn be computed in polynomial - time.
Thanks, End