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FindMinimum

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg41235] FindMinimum
  • From: Gabriel Molina-Terriza <gamote at ap.univie.ac.at>
  • Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 03:20:02 -0400 (EDT)
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Hello,

I am a newby in this group, so I hope to learn a lot about Mathematica and 
help if possible.

Now, my problem. I am using FindMinimum to minimize a Likelihood function. 
The function to be minimized has 81 variables and it is a sum of simpler 
functions, which only contains polynomials or divisions of polynomials of 
the variables. In any case, I don't know why, Mathematica is not able to 
find the Gradient of this simpler functions. Another problem is that the 
sum is a quite large one, it may contain up to 6500 elements (each element 
being one of the simple functions). Do you think that Mathematica is the 
right tool to make such a calculation? Is the sum too large for 
Mathematica? Should I try harder to find the Gradient of the function?

Finally a more generic question, how can I take the output of FindMinimum 
and use it for other variables?, For example the ouput is usually of the 
form t1 -> 1.00, how can I make t1=1.00 or x=1.00, without typing it directly?

I attach part of the program I made, I save you the initialitation of the 
variables:







...

FindMinimum[Re[L[t1,...,t81]][[1]],{t1,0,.1},...,{t81,0,.1},Evaluate[PrecisionGoal->7]]

Where, F is a trangular matrix with the variables, v is a list of the 6500 
vectors, w is a list with the norms of The Fv vectors. Band  Num is a list 
of numbers, vartrac is the sum of the variables squared, and I think that's 
all. If you find any better solution to all this lines, just tell me. 
Thanks a lot!!!

Gabriel




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