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Finding the global minimum of a nonconvex function is one of the key and most difficult problems of the modern optimization. In this paper we consider special classes of nonconvex problems which have a clear and distinct global minimum.

In the first part of the paper we consider two classes of «good» nonconvex functions, which can be bounded below and above by a parabolic function. This class of problems has not been widely studied in the literature, although it is rather interesting from an applied point of view. Moreover, for such problems first-order and higher-order methods may be completely ineffective in finding a global minimum. This is due to the fact that the function may oscillate heavily or may be very noisy. Therefore, our new methods use only zero-order information and are based on grid search. The size and fineness of this grid, and hence the guarantee of convergence speed and oracle complexity, depend on the «goodness» of the problem. In particular, we show that if the function is bounded by fairly close parabolic functions, then the complexity is independent of the dimension of the problem. We show that our new methods converge with a linear convergence rate $\log(1/\varepsilon)$ to a global minimum on the cube.

In the second part of the paper, we consider the nonconvex optimization problem from a different angle. We assume that the target minimizing function is the sum of the convex quadratic problem and a nonconvex «noise» function proportional to the distance to the global solution. Considering functions with such noise assumptions for zero-order methods is new in the literature. For such a problem, we use the classical gradient-free approach with gradient approximation through finite differences. We show how the convergence analysis for our problems can be reduced to the standard analysis for convex optimization problems. In particular, we achieve a linear convergence rate for such problems as well.

Experimental results confirm the efficiency and practical applicability of all the obtained methods.

A variant of the inverse method of characteristics (IMH) is presented, in whose algorithm an additional fractional time step is introduced, which makes it possible to increase the accuracy of calculations due to a more accurate approximation of the characteristics. The calculation formulas of the modified method for the equations of the one-velocity model of a gas-liquid mixture are given, with the help of which one-dimensional and also flat test problems with self-similar solutions are calculated. When solving multidimensional problems, the original system of equations is split into a number of one-dimensional subsystems, for the calculation of which the inverse method of characteristics with a fractional time step is used. Using the proposed method, the following were calculated: the one-dimensional problem of the decay of an arbitrary discontinuity in a dispersed medium; a twodimensional problem of the interaction of a homogeneous gas-liquid flow with an obstacle with an attached shock wave, as well as a flow with a centered rarefaction wave. The results of numerical calculations of these problems are compared with self-similar solutions and their satisfactory agreement is noted. On the example of the Riemann problem with a shock wave, a comparison is made with a number of conservative, non-conservative, first and higher orders of accuracy schemes, from which, in particular, it follows that the presented calculation method, i. e. MIMC, quite competitive. Despite the fact that the application of MIMC requires many times more time than the original inverse method of characteristics (IMC), calculations can be carried out with an increased time step and, in some cases, more accurate results can be obtained. It is noted that the method with a fractional time step has advantages over the IMC in cases where the characteristics of the system are significantly curvilinear. For this reason, the use of MIMC, for example, for the Euler equations is inappropriate, since for the latter the characteristics within the time step differ little from straight lines.

A nonlinear oscillatory system described by ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients is considered, in which terms that are linearly dependent on coordinates, velocities and accelerations are explicitly distinguished; nonlinear terms are written as implicit functions of these variables. For the numerical solution of the initial problem described by such a system of differential equations, the one-step Galerkin method is used. At the integration step, unknown functions are represented as a sum of linear functions satisfying the initial conditions and several given correction functions in the form of polynomials of the second and higher degrees with unknown coefficients. The differential equations at the step are satisfied approximately by the Galerkin method on a system of corrective functions. Algebraic equations with nonlinear terms are obtained, which are solved by iteration at each step. From the solution at the end of each step, the initial conditions for the next step are determined.

The corrective functions are taken the same for all steps. In general, 4 or 5 correction functions are used for calculations over long time intervals: in the first set — basic power functions from the 2nd to the 4th or 5th degrees; in the second set — orthogonal power polynomials formed from basic functions; in the third set — special linear-independent polynomials with finite conditions that simplify the “docking” of solutions in the following steps.

Using two examples of calculating nonlinear oscillations of systems with one and two degrees of freedom, numerical studies of the accuracy of the numerical solution of initial problems at various time intervals using the Galerkin method using the specified sets of power-law correction functions are performed. The results obtained by the Galerkin method and the Adams and Runge –Kutta methods of the fourth order are compared. It is shown that the Galerkin method can obtain reliable results at significantly longer time intervals than the Adams and Runge – Kutta methods.

The paper deals with a heat wave motion problem for a degenerate second-order nonlinear parabolic equation with power nonlinearity. The considered boundary condition specifies in a plane the motion equation of the circular zero front of the heat wave. A new numerical-analytical algorithm for solving the problem is proposed. A solution is constructed stepby- step in time using difference time discretization. At each time step, a boundary value problem for the Poisson equation corresponding to the original equation at a fixed time is considered. This problem is, in fact, an inverse Cauchy problem in the domain whose initial boundary is free of boundary conditions and two boundary conditions (Neumann and Dirichlet) are specified on a current boundary (heat wave). A solution of this problem is constructed as the sum of a particular solution to the nonhomogeneous Poisson equation and a solution to the corresponding Laplace equation satisfying the boundary conditions. Since the inhomogeneity depends on the desired function and its derivatives, an iterative solution procedure is used. The particular solution is sought by the collocation method using inhomogeneity expansion in radial basis functions. The inverse Cauchy problem for the Laplace equation is solved by the null field method as applied to a circular domain with a circular hole. This method is used for the first time to solve such problem. The calculation algorithm is optimized by parallelizing the computations. The parallelization of the computations allows us to realize effectively the algorithm on high performance computing servers. The algorithm is implemented as a program, which is parallelized by using the OpenMP standard for the C++ language, suitable for calculations with parallel cycles. The effectiveness of the algorithm and the robustness of the program are tested by the comparison of the calculation results with the known exact solution as well as with the numerical solution obtained earlier by the authors with the use of the boundary element method. The implemented computational experiment shows good convergence of the iteration processes and higher calculation accuracy of the proposed new algorithm than of the previously developed one. The solution analysis allows us to select the radial basis functions which are most suitable for the proposed algorithm.

We study the computational properties of a parametric class of finite-volume schemes with customizable dissipative properties with splitting by physical processes into Lagrangian, Eulerian, and the final stages (the hybrid large-particle method). The method has a second-order approximation in space and time on smooth solutions. The regularization of a numerical solution at the Lagrangian stage is performed by nonlinear correction of artificial viscosity. Regardless of the grid resolution, the artificial viscosity value tends to zero outside the zone of discontinuities and extremes in the solution. At Eulerian and final stages, primitive variables (density, velocity, and total energy) are first reconstructed by an additive combination of upwind and central approximations weighted by a flux limiter. Then numerical divergent fluxes are formed from them. In this case, discrete analogs of conservation laws are performed.

The analysis of dissipative properties of the method using known viscosity and flow limiters, as well as their linear combination, is performed. The resolution of the scheme and the quality of numerical solutions are demonstrated by examples of two-dimensional benchmarks: a gas flow around the step with Mach numbers 3, 10 and 20, the double Mach reflection of a strong shock wave, and the implosion problem. The influence of the scheme viscosity of the method on the numerical reproduction of a gases interface instability is studied. It is found that a decrease of the dissipation level in the implosion problem leads to the symmetric solution destruction and formation of a chaotic instability on the contact surface.

Numerical solutions are compared with the results of other authors obtained using higher-order approximation schemes: CABARET, HLLC (Harten Lax van Leer Contact), CFLFh (CFLF hybrid scheme), JT (centered scheme with limiter by Jiang and Tadmor), PPM (Piecewise Parabolic Method), WENO5 (weighted essentially non-oscillatory scheme), RKGD (Runge –Kutta Discontinuous Galerkin), hybrid weighted nonlinear schemes CCSSR-HW4 and CCSSR-HW6. The advantages of the hybrid large-particle method include extended possibilities for solving hyperbolic and mixed types of problems, a good ratio of dissipative and dispersive properties, a combination of algorithmic simplicity and high resolution in problems with complex shock-wave structure, both instability and vortex formation at interfaces.

Ligand protected metal nanoclusters (NCs) have gained much attention due to their unique physicochemical properties and potential applications in material science. Noble metal NCs protected with thiolate ligands have been of interest because of their long-term stability. The detailed structures of most of the ligandstabilized metal NCs remain unknown due to the absence of crystal structure data for them. Theoretical calculations using quantum chemistry techniques appear as one of the most promising tools for determining the structure and electronic properties of NCs. That is why finding a cost-effective strategy for calculations is such an important and challenging task. In this work, we compare the performance of different theoretical methods of geometry optimization and absorption spectra calculation for silver-thiolate complexes. We show that second order Moller–Plesset perturbation theory reproduces nicely the geometries obtained at a higher level of theory, in particular, with RI-CC2 method. We compare the absorption spectra of silver-thiolate complexes simulated with different methods: EOM-CCSD, RI-CC2, ADC(2) and TDDFT. We show that the absorption spectra calculated with the ADC(2) method are consistent with the spectra obtained with the EOM-CCSD and RI-CC2 methods. CAM-B3LYP functional fails to reproduce the absorption spectra of the silver-thiolate complexes. However, M062X global hybrid meta-GGA functional seems to be a nice compromise regarding its low computational costs. In our previous study, we have already demonstrated that M062X functional shows good accuracy as compared to ADC(2) ab initio method predicting the excitation spectra of silver nanocluster complexes with nucleobases.

Image denoising is one of the fundamental problems in digital image processing. This problem usually refers to the reconstruction of an image from an observed image degraded by noise. There are many factors that cause this degradation such as transceiver equipment, or environmental influences, etc. In order to obtain higher quality images, many methods have been proposed for image denoising problem. Most image denoising method are based on total variation (TV) regularization to develop efficient algorithms for solving the related optimization problem. TV-based models have become a standard technique in image restoration with the ability to preserve image sharpness.

In this paper, we focus on Poisson noise usually appearing in photon-counting devices. We propose an effective regularization model based on combination of first-order and fractional-order total variation for image reconstruction corrupted by Poisson noise. The proposed model allows us to eliminate noise while edge preserving. An efficient alternating minimization algorithm is employed to solve the optimization problem. Finally, provided numerical results show that our proposed model can preserve more details and get higher image visual quality than recent state-of-the-art methods.

The article describes a mathematical model that simulates performance of a hierarchical organization during an early stage of a crisis. A distinguished feature of this stage of crisis is presence of so called early warning signals containing information on the approaching event. Employees are capable of catching the early warnings and of preparing the organization for the crisis based on the signals’ meaning. The efficiency of the preparation depends on both parameters of the organization and parameters of the crisis. The proposed simulation agentbased model is implemented on Java programming language and is used for conducting experiments via Monte- Carlo method. The goal of the experiments is to compare how centralized and decentralized organizational structures perform during sudden and smoldering crises. By centralized organizations we assume structures with high number of hierarchy levels and low number of direct reports of every manager, while decentralized organizations mean structures with low number of hierarchy levels and high number of direct reports of every manager. Sudden crises are distinguished by short early stage and low number of warning signals, while smoldering crises are defined as crises with long lasting early stage and high number of warning signals not necessary containing important information. Efficiency of the organizational performance during early stage of a crisis is measured by two parameters: percentage of early warnings which have been acted upon in order to prepare organization for the crisis, and time spent by top-manager on working with early warnings. As a result, we show that during early stage of smoldering crises centralized organizations process signals more efficiently than decentralized organizations, while decentralized organizations handle early warning signals more efficiently during early stage of sudden crises. However, occupation of top-managers during sudden crises is higher in decentralized organizations and it is higher in centralized organizations during smoldering crises. Thus, neither of the two classes of organizational structures is more efficient by the two parameters simultaneously. Finally, we conduct sensitivity analysis to verify the obtained results.

The second part presents numerical studies of the parameters of the lower ionosphere at altitudes of 40–90 km when heated by powerful high-frequency radio waves of various frequencies and powers. The problem statement is considered in the first part of the article. The main attention is paid to the interrelation between the energy and kinetic parameters of the disturbed $D$-region of the ionosphere in the processes that determine the absorption and transformation of the radio beam energy flux in space and time. The possibility of a significant difference in the behavior of the parameters of the disturbed region in the daytime and at nighttime, both in magnitude and in space-time distribution, is shown. In the absence of sufficiently reliable values of the rate constants for a number of important kinetic processes, numerical studies were carried out in stages with the gradual addition of individual processes and kinetic blocks corresponding at the same time to a certain physical content. It is shown that the energy thresholds for inelastic collisions of electrons with air molecules are the main ones. This approach made it possible to detect the effect of the emergence of a self-oscillating mode of changing parameters if the main channel for energy losses in inelastic processes is the most energy-intensive process — ionization. This effect may play a role in plasma studies using high-frequency inductive and capacitive discharges. The results of calculations of the ionization and optical parameters of the disturbed $D$-region for daytime conditions are presented. The electron temperature, density, emission coefficients in the visible and infrared ranges of the spectrum are obtained for various values of the power of the radio beam and its frequency in the lower ionosphere. The height-time distribution of the absorbed radiation power is calculated, which is necessary in studies of higher layers of the ionosphere. The influence on the electron temperature and on the general behavior of the parameters of energy losses by electrons on the excitation of vibrational and metastable states of molecules has been studied in detail. It is shown that under nighttime conditions, when the electron concentration begins at altitudes of about 80 km, and the concentration of heavy particles decreases by two orders of magnitude compared to the average $D$-region, large-scale gas-dynamic motion can develop with sufficient radio emission power The algorithm was developed based on the McCormack method and two-dimensional gas-dynamic calculations of the behavior of the parameters of the perturbed region were performed with some simplifications of the kinetics.

The paper constructs and studies a generalized model describing two-component systems of reaction – diffusion type with power nonlinearity, considering the influence of external noise. A methodology has been developed for analyzing the generalized model, which includes linear stability analysis, nonlinear stability analysis, and numerical simulation of the system’s evolution. The linear analysis technique uses basic approaches, in which the characteristic equation is obtained using a linearization matrix. Nonlinear stability analysis realized up to third-order moments inclusively. For this, the functions describing the dynamics of the components are expanded in Taylor series up to third-order terms. Then, using the Novikov theorem, the averaging procedure is carried out. As a result, the obtained equations form an infinite hierarchically subordinate structure, which must be truncated at some point. To achieve this, contributions from terms higher than the third order are neglected in both the equations themselves and during the construction of the moment equations. The resulting equations form a set of linear equations, from which the stability matrix is constructed. This matrix has a rather complex structure, making it solvable only numerically. For the numerical study of the system’s evolution, the method of variable directions was chosen. Due to the presence of a stochastic component in the analyzed system, the method was modified such that random fields with a specified distribution and correlation function, responsible for the noise contribution to the overall nonlinearity, are generated across entire layers. The developed methodology was tested on the reaction – diffusion model proposed by Barrio et al., according to the results of the study, they showed the similarity of the obtained structures with the pigmentation of fish. This paper focuses on the system behavior analysis in the neighborhood of a non-zero stationary point. The dependence of the real part of the eigenvalues on the wavenumber has been examined. In the linear analysis, a range of wavenumber values is identified in which Turing instability occurs. Nonlinear analysis and numerical simulation of the system’s evolution are conducted for model parameters that, in contrast, lie outside the Turing instability region. Nonlinear analysis found noise intensities of additive noise for which, despite the absence of conditions for the emergence of diffusion instability, the system transitions to an unstable state. The results of the numerical simulation of the evolution of the tested model demonstrate the process of forming spatial structures of Turing type under the influence of additive noise.