Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 February 2016
This work develops a class of stochastic global optimization algorithms that are Kiefer-Wolfowitz (KW) type procedures with an added perturbing noise and partial step size restarting. The motivation stems from the use of KW-type procedures and Monte Carlo versions of simulated annealing algorithms in a wide range of applications. Using weak convergence approaches, our effort is directed to proving the convergence of the underlying algorithms under general noise processes.
This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grants DMS-9877090 and DMS-9971608.