Title
Convergence Properties of the Nelder--Mead Simplex Method in Low Dimensions
Abstract
The Nelder--Mead simplex algorithm, first published in 1965, is an enormously popular direct search method for multidimensional unconstrained minimization. Despite its widespread use, essentially no theoretical results have been proved explicitly for the Nelder--Mead algorithm. This paper presents convergence properties of the Nelder--Mead algorithm applied to strictly convex functions in dimensions 1 and 2. We prove convergence to a minimizer for dimension 1, and various limited convergence results for dimension 2. A counterexample of McKinnon gives a family of strictly convex functions in two dimensions and a set of initial conditions for which the Nelder--Mead algorithm converges to a nonminimizer. It is not yet known whether the Nelder--Mead method can be proved to converge to a minimizer for a more specialized class of convex functions in two dimensions.
Year
DOI
Venue
1998
10.1137/S1052623496303470
SIAM Journal on Optimization
Keywords
Field
DocType
direct search methods,Nelder-Mead simplex methods,nonderivative optimization
Convergence (routing),Discrete mathematics,Mathematical optimization,Simplex algorithm,Direct search,Minification,Convex function,Nelder–Mead method,Counterexample,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
9
1
1052-6234
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
837
74.36
5
Authors
4
Search Limit
100837
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jeffrey C. Lagarias11049139.02
James A. Reeds286484.20
Margaret H. Wright31233182.31
Paul E. Wright497499.85