Strategies

Box Properties

(In release 2.7)

The box (IntervalVector class) is the central concept in Ibex and often this structure is too simple and required to be extended.

Consider for example a search tree, such as the one performed by ibexsolve. Assume you have several contractors involved in this search that need to calculate at some point the image of the current box by a function f. Imagine also that this function has quite a long expression so that calculating an image takes significant time:

// A contractor
class MyCtc : public Ctc {
public:
  void contract(IntervalVector& box) {
    Interval y = f.eval(box); // this line is assumed to be expensive
    // ...
  }
};

Note: For simplicity, we assume from now on that f is a fixed object that has been declared somewhere in the context (it could also be given in argument of all objects).

Recalculating this image each time a contractor is called represents a waste of time if the box hasn’t changed meanwhile. One would like to store this information in the box. This is the kind of things ‘’box properties’’ allow to do.

All is based on the Bxp interface. This Bxp interface allows to extend the simple IntervalVector data structure and to make this extension being propagated through a strategy (search tree). The extended box is then visible by all operators involved in the strategy (contractors, bisectors, cell buffers, etc.).

Note that the name of this interface is a trigram (like Ctc or Bsc) just to encourage programers to prefix subclasses by Bxp (this is a recommended usage). A box property, such as the image of the box by a given function, has to be a subclass of Bxp so let us name it BxpImage:

class BxpImage : public Bxp {
public:
  // to be completed...

  Interval image;
};

Of course, this class contains a field named image that will store the information. We could also add whatever data needed.

Constructor

It is natural to ask the constructor of BxpImage to take a box in argument and to set the image field appropriately.

The constructor of the mother class Bxp also requires an identifying number. Here is why. A box property is actually a set of instances of the Bxp interface: if the solver handles 1000 boxes at a given time, every box has it own image, hence its specific instance of BxpImage. These 1000 instances represent the same ‘’property’’ and since there may be other properties attached to the boxes at the same time, we can retreive a given property thanks to its id field. (Note: using the class name directly as identifier would be too restrictive as there may be different BxpImage properties attached to different functions f). You can simply fix this identifier to any random long number or use the next_id() function of Ibex as follows:

class BxpImage : public Bxp {
public:
  BxpImage(const IntervalVector& box) :
    Bxp(id), image(f.eval(box)) { }

  // to be completed...

  Interval image;
  static const long id;
};

const long BxpImage::id = next_id();

Note: In the case of several BxpImage properties (one for each function f) you can store identifying numbers in a map structure (see examples in the Ibex code).

To avoid confusion, we call for now “property value” an instance of the same property. So, BxpImage is a property (or a set of properties, one for each f) and the instances of BxpImage are property values.

Property update

The next step is to specify how property values are updated when the box is modified. This amounts to implement an update(...) function as follows. This function will be called at different points of the stragegy, through the trust chain principle to be explained further.

  void update(const BoxEvent& event, const BoxProperties& prop) {
    image = f.eval(event.box);
  }

Note that a smarter implementation is often desired. This is however not enough. You also have to state how the property is transformed when the box is copied (copies occur in a search each time a box is bisected or, e.g., to perform some temporary computations). This is done by implementing the copy() function:

  Bxp* copy(const IntervalVector& box, const BoxProperties& prop) const {
    return new BxpImage(*this); // implicit copy constructor is fine
  }

Using properties

Now, let us modify the implementation of our contractor. To take benefit of properties, two steps are required. First, we have to override the add_property function of the Ctc interface. This function is called by all strategies at initialization. This function takes as argument the initial box (of the search) and a container for property values: an instance of BoxProperties. This object basically just stores pointers to Bxp*, except that it can handle inter-dependencies.

Second, we have to override a variant of the contract function, which takes in argument not only the box, but also a ContractContext object which contains, among other things, the current property values container (again, an instance of BoxProperties). The BoxProperties class works like a simple map: by using the bracket operator [...] with the property id inside the brackets, you get the corresponding property value associated to the box:

class MyCtc : public Ctc {
public:

  /* Add the required property inside the map.
   * (This function is automatically called by the search). */
  void add_property(IntervalVector& box, BoxProperties& prop) {
    // if the property is not already in the list
    // (which is possible since another operator requiring it may
    // have already added it)
    if (!prop[BxpImage::id])
      // create an initial property value, and add it
      prop.add(new BxpImage(box));
  }

  /* Contract a box with associated properties. */
  void contract(IntervalVector& box, ContractContext& context) {
    // Get the desired property from the map, by its id
    // (a cast is necessary because all properties are typed Bxp*)
    BxpImage* bxp=(BxpImage*) context.prop[BxpImage::id];

    if (bxp==NULL) {
      // This happens if the property is not present.
      // It is much more safe to handle this case
      // ...
    } else {
      // Obtain directly the image (without recalculating it)
      Interval y=bxp->image;
      // .....
    }
  }
};

Lazy update

So far, we have centralized in a unique place the result of the image computation which is already good but not optimal at all. Worse, the running time of our program will likely be longer than without introducing this property! Indeed, the update function will be called basically whenever an operator change the box, which means that the funtion f will be evaluated again and again!

This event-oriented design of a property can be sometimes interesting but, clearly, it does not fit well here.

What we actually want is the function to postpone the evaluation at the latest time, that is, when someone requires it. This is called laziness. This principle can be simply applied here as follows:

class BxpImage : public Bxp {
public:
  // The class contains 2 new fields:
  // box: a reference to the box needs to be stored
  // to perform the evaluation at any time.
  // up2date: memorize whether the image is up to date.
  BxpImage(const IntervalVector& box) : Bxp(id), box(box), up2date(false) { }

  void update(const BoxEvent& event, const BoxProperties& prop) {
    // do nothing for the moment!
    up2date=false;
  }

  Bxp* copy(const IntervalVector& box, const BoxProperties& prop) const {
    return new BxpImage(box,image,up2date);
  }

  // Return the image of f.
  const Interval& get() {
    if (!up2date) {
      image = f.eval(box);
      up2date=true;
    }
    return image;
  }

  static const long id;

protected:
  BxpImage(const IntervalVector& box, const Interval& image, bool up2date) :
    Bxp(id), box(box), image(image), up2date(up2date) { }

  const IntervalVector& box;
  Interval image;
  bool up2date;
};

It is easy to adapt this code so that an update is performed only when the box modification is significant (e.g., when a contraction removes more than 1% of a component width).

Dependencies

It may happen that a property is based on another one. Imagine that you want to create a property that stores the width of the function image (of course, this example is caricatural as the width is not something you really need to store). You can extend the BxpImage class but you can also create a separate property, say BxpImageWidth.

The BxpImageWidth need to “see” the BxpImage property in the update_xxx(...) function. This is why there is also a BoxProperties map in the argument of these functions. Furthermore, we must be sure that the BxpImage is updated before BxpImageWidth. To this end, we simply have to add the identifier of BxpImage in the dependencies of BxpImageWidth. This must be done in the constructor of BxpImageWidth as shown in the following code.

class BxpImageWidth : public Bxp {
public:
  BxpImageWidth(const IntervalVector& box) : Bxp(id), w(box.max_diam()) {
  // dependencies is a field inherited from Bxp
    dependencies.push_back(BxpImage::id);
  }

  void update(const BoxEvent& event, const BoxProperties& prop) {
    BxpImage* bxp=(BxpImage*) prop[BxpImage::id];

    if (bxp==NULL) {
      // This happens if the property is not present.
      // It is much more safe to handle this case
      // ...
    } else {
     // note: we lose laziness here
      w=bxp->get().diam();
    }
  }

  double w; // the width
  static const long id;
};

For the sake of concision, we haven’t used laziness in this code. A lazy variant is necessary here.

Trust chain principle

The trust chain principle is the following:

  • Property values are always up-to-date when given to argument of a function.

Consider a function that handles properties (e.g., an implementation of the contract variant with BoxProperties, as above). It the box is modified at several points in the code, it is not necessary to perform updates as long as properties are not used elsewhere. The update can be postponed to the point where property values are transmitted to another function or, on last resort, before returning.

Note that updating all property values can be simply done via the update function of BoxProperties (this also allows to respect dependencies).

As a consequence, if the function does not modify itself the box (would it calls other functions that potentially modify it), it does not have to perform at all any update of property values.

COV files

File Input/Output operations in Ibex are based on the COV format.

The COV format is actually a family of formats because Ibex is a library upon which different executables are built, each handling different types of data. There is no one-fits-all definition in this context. When we talk about ‘programs’ we mean not only the official ones supplied with the library itself (like ibexsolve, ibexopt, …) but all the programs that can be potentially developed by Ibex users.

The common point of these programs is that they usually calculate sets with boxes, because this is what Ibex is all about. More precisely, they calculate boxes that form a covering of some set, whence the name ‘COV’.

So, instead of creating a monolithic file format for each program, we can imagine a file format made of two parts:

  • a part common to all programs containing a description of the covering;

  • a part specific to each program gathering additional information handled by the proram.

This way, all the programs can now exchange data by extracting from a file the common part. Let us call this part after the corresponding C++ class: CovList.

In fact, we can go a step further. In a covering of a set, we often distinguish inner boxes, that is, the ones that are proven to be inside the set, and unknwon boxes, the other ones. But not all programs do. So, instead of replacing the CovList by a more elaborated structure, we rather insert an intermediate level of information in the format; now, a program that makes a distinction between inner and unknown boxes has an associated file format made of three parts:

  • the CovList part that tells which boxes form the covering

  • the CovIUList part that tells which among the CovList boxes are inner (<-> ‘I’), the other being implicitly unknown (<-> ‘U’).

  • the part specific to the program

This way, the program can communicate with another one handling inner boxes. But it can still communicate with all the other programs through the CovList level.

This principle can be extended to any level and gives rise to a hierarchy of formats, where each level refines the semantics of the previous one. This is how the COV format works. This principle allows programs to store and exchange data at the right level and without restriction on what amount of data they actually need. The top-level format is not CovList in fact, but something more general simply called Cov, because we may represent a covering by something else than a list (example: a quadtree).

The file format managed by ibexsolve is called CovSolverData and is 5 levels below the root format Cov. We have:

  • Cov: a covering (root format)

  • CovList: a Cov described by a list of boxes

  • CovIUList: a Covlist with some boxes marked as inner

  • CovIBUList: a CovIUlist with some boxes marked as boundary

  • CovManifold: a CovIBUList with some boxes marked as solutions (i.e., they enclose a subset of the manifold in a precise way).

  • CovSolverData: a CovManifold with additional data related to the solving process

First example

We illustrate the usage of COV files with ibexsolve. Let us first solve a simple problem, like an inequality:

// create a simple inequality x^2+y^2<=1.
const ExprSymbol& x=ExprSymbol::new_("x");
const ExprSymbol& y=ExprSymbol::new_("y");
SystemFactory fac;
fac.add_var(x);
fac.add_var(y);
fac.add_ctr(sqr(x)+sqr(y)<=1);

System sys(fac);

// run the solver with a coarse precision (1.0)
// to have a limited number of boxes
DefaultSolver solver(sys,1);

// we set a very short storage capacity
// to have a partial solving only.
solver.cell_limit = 12;

solver.solve(sys.box);

The result of the solver is a COV object we can access to with the get_data function. So, we can cast the returned object to a CovList and access to the result as a simple list of boxes:

const CovList& cov = solver.get_data();
output << "The list contains " << cov.size() << " boxes" << endl;
for (size_t i=0; i<cov.size(); i++) {
  output << "box n°" << i << " = " << cov[i] << endl;
}

The output is:

The list contains 7 boxes
box n°0 = ([-0.99503768772846, -0.09999999999999997] ; [-0.9949874371066201, -0.09949874371066191])
box n°1 = ([-1, -0.09999999999999997] ; [-0.09949874371066192, 0.3930200376571151])
box n°2 = ([-0.9195299070720865, -0.09999999999999997] ; [0.393020037657115, 0.9949874371066201])
box n°3 = ([-0.09999999999999998, 0.3927443466979792] ; [-1, -0.09999999999999997])
box n°4 = ([0.3927443466979791, 0.9949874371066201] ; [-0.9196476924000722, -0.09999999999999997])
box n°5 = ([-0.09999999999999998, 0.3950000000000002] ; [-0.09999999999999998, 1])
box n°6 = ([0.3950000000000001, 1] ; [-0.09999999999999998, 1])

We can also cast the object to a CovIUList and access to the result as two lists: the list of inner boxes and the list of unknown boxes:

const CovIUList& cov = solver.get_data();
output << "Inner boxes:" << endl;
for (size_t i=0; i<cov.nb_inner(); i++) {
  output << "inner n°" << i << " = " << cov.inner(i) << endl;
}
output << endl << "Unknown boxes:" << endl;
for (size_t i=0; i<cov.nb_unknown(); i++) {
  output << "unknown n°" << i << " = " << cov.unknown(i) << endl;
}

The output is:

Inner boxes:

Unknown boxes:
unknown n°0 = ([-0.99503768772846, -0.09999999999999997] ; [-0.9949874371066201, -0.09949874371066191])
unknown n°1 = ([-1, -0.09999999999999997] ; [-0.09949874371066192, 0.3930200376571151])
unknown n°2 = ([-0.9195299070720865, -0.09999999999999997] ; [0.393020037657115, 0.9949874371066201])
unknown n°3 = ([-0.09999999999999998, 0.3927443466979792] ; [-1, -0.09999999999999997])
unknown n°4 = ([0.3927443466979791, 0.9949874371066201] ; [-0.9196476924000722, -0.09999999999999997])
unknown n°5 = ([-0.09999999999999998, 0.3950000000000002] ; [-0.09999999999999998, 1])
unknown n°6 = ([0.3950000000000001, 1] ; [-0.09999999999999998, 1])

We jump now directly to the CovSolverData format. Among other things, the format distinguishes two types of boxes in the unknown boxes in the CovManifold view:

  • the boxes that have reached the precision (1.0) and which could neither be proven to be inner or outer. They are also called unknown at the CovSolverData level.

  • the boxes that have not been processed because the solving process was interrupted for whatever reason (time out or cell overflow). They are called pending boxes.

We can seen now that the solver was actually interrupted because of the cell limit we fixed:

const CovSolverData& cov = solver.get_data();
output << "Inner boxes:" << endl;
for (size_t i=0; i<cov.nb_inner(); i++) {
  output << "inner n°" << i << " = " << cov.inner(i) << endl;
}
output << endl << "Unknown boxes:" << endl;
for (size_t i=0; i<cov.nb_unknown(); i++) {
  output << "unknown n°" << i << " = " << cov.unknown(i) << endl;
}
output << endl << "Pending boxes:" << endl;
for (size_t i=0; i<cov.nb_pending(); i++) {
  output << "Pending n°" << i << " = " << cov.pending(i) << endl;
}

The output is:

Inner boxes:

Unknown boxes:
unknown n°0 = ([-0.99503768772846, -0.09999999999999997] ; [-0.9949874371066201, -0.09949874371066191])
unknown n°1 = ([-1, -0.09999999999999997] ; [-0.09949874371066192, 0.3930200376571151])
unknown n°2 = ([-0.9195299070720865, -0.09999999999999997] ; [0.393020037657115, 0.9949874371066201])
unknown n°3 = ([-0.09999999999999998, 0.3927443466979792] ; [-1, -0.09999999999999997])
unknown n°4 = ([0.3927443466979791, 0.9949874371066201] ; [-0.9196476924000722, -0.09999999999999997])

Pending boxes:
Pending n°0 = ([-0.09999999999999998, 0.3950000000000002] ; [-0.09999999999999998, 1])
Pending n°1 = ([0.3950000000000001, 1] ; [-0.09999999999999998, 1])

Exchanging data between IbexSolve and IbexOpt

The power of COV files is now illustrated by feeding the optimizer with the output of the solver and vice versa.

To this end, we consider a problem where we optimize a simple criterion (x+y) over the inequality x^2+y^2<=1. But instead of running the optimizer with the overall problem, we treat the constraint and the criterion separately: we first produce a covering of the constraint with the solver and then apply the unconstrained optimizer on the covering.

We have already built in the previous example the system sys. Let us run the solver with a higher precision:

// solve the problem with boundary boxes
// of diameter < 0.1
DefaultSolver solver(sys,0.1,0.1);
solver.solve(sys.box);

Let us now build the system representing the unconstrained optimization problem:

SystemFactory opt_fac;
opt_fac.add_var(x);
opt_fac.add_var(y);
opt_fac.add_goal(x+y);

System opt(opt_fac);

And now, we run the optimizer on the solver output:

DefaultOptimizer optim(opt);

// run the optimizer with solver data as input covering:
optim.optimize(solver.get_data());

output << " best bound=" << optim.get_loup() << endl;

The output is:

 best bound=-1.48244

Let us do it now in the other way around. We first run the optimizer on the objective function abs(x^2+y^2-1) so that the whole unit circle is made of global minima. However, if we set the problem like this, the optimizer quickly converges to a unique global minimum because it resorts to some ‘anticipated’ bounding techniques. To force the optimizer to keep all the circle, we replace the constant 1 by an interval thicker than the optimizer precision:

// build the problem "minimize |x^2+y^2-1|"
// -------------------------------------
Function g("x","y","abs(x^2+y^2-[0.9,1.1])");
SystemFactory opt_fac;
opt_fac.add_var(g.args());
opt_fac.add_goal(g);
System opt(opt_fac);

// we need bounded domain for unconstrained optimization:
opt.box[0]=Interval(-100,100);
opt.box[1]=Interval(-100,100);
// -------------------------------------

Then we run the optimizer. We fix a timeout to prevent him from bisecting again and again inside the thick circle. This way, we obtain a coarse approximation of the circle. If we want to communicate the result to the solver, an extra instruction is also necessary; Indeed, by default, the optimizer generates a COV file in the extended space, that is, it generates 3 dimensional boxes, the third dimension corresponding to the objective values. By default, a box in the optimizer data is ([x],[y],f([x],[y]). If we feed the solver with such boxes, it will refuse with a dimension mismatching error message. So we need to configure the optimizer so that only variables domains are produced.

// solve it
DefaultOptimizerConfig optim_config(opt); // 1 is a very coarse precision
Optimizer optim(optim_config);
optim.timeout=1;
optim.extended_COV = false;
optim.optimize(opt.box);

We can now build the solver to solve a constraint, like x-y=0.

// Build the system "solve x+y=0"
// -------------------------------------
Function f("x","y","x-y");
NumConstraint c(f);
SystemFactory sys_fac;
sys_fac.add_var(g.args());
sys_fac.add_ctr(c);
System sys(sys_fac);
// -------------------------------------

and feed it with the optimizer data:

// solve the problem
DefaultSolver solver(sys,0.1,0.1);
solver.solve(optim.get_data());
output << solver.get_data() << endl;

The output indeeds contains a sequence of boxes enclosing the intersection of the unit circle and the line x=y:

 solution n°1 = ([-0, 0.06080690561079815] ; [0, 0.06080690561079815])
 solution n°2 = ([0.06080690561079814, 0.1351264569128848] ; [0.06080690561079814, 0.1351264569128848])
 solution n°3 = ([0.1351264569128847, 0.2094460082149714] ; [0.1351264569128847, 0.2094460082149714])
 solution n°4 = ([0.2094460082149713, 0.3002810153619661] ; [0.2094460082149713, 0.3002810153619661])
 solution n°5 = ([0.300281015361966, 0.3746005666640527] ; [0.300281015361966, 0.3746005666640527])
 solution n°6 = ([0.3746005666640526, 0.4654355738110474] ; [0.3746005666640526, 0.4654355738110474])
 solution n°7 = ([0.4654355738110473, 0.5562705809580422] ; [0.4654355738110473, 0.5562705809580422])
 solution n°8 = ([0.5562705809580421, 0.6062298348888893] ; [0.5562705809580421, 0.6062298348888893])
 solution n°9 = ([0.6062298348888892, 0.6672911452488134] ; [0.6062298348888892, 0.6672911452488134])
 solution n°10 = ([0.6672911452488133, 0.7416106965509001] ; [0.6672911452488133, 0.7416106965509001])
 solution n°11 = ([0.7416106965509, 0.8324457036978949] ; [0.7416106965509, 0.8324457036978949])
 solution n°12 = ([0.8324457036978948, 0.9232807108448897] ; [0.8324457036978948, 0.9232807108448897])
 solution n°13 = ([0.9232807108448896, 0.9732399647757368] ; [0.9232807108448896, 0.9732399647757368])
 solution n°14 = ([0.9732399647757367, 1.034301275135661] ; [0.9732399647757367, 1.034301275135661])
 solution n°15 = ([1.03430127513566, 1.125136282282656] ; [1.03430127513566, 1.125136282282656])
 solution n°16 = ([1.125136282282655, 1.175095536213503] ; [1.125136282282655, 1.175095536213503])
 solution n°17 = ([1.175095536213502, 1.236156846573427] ; [1.175095536213502, 1.236156846573427])
 solution n°18 = ([1.236156846573426, 1.286116100504275] ; [1.236156846573426, 1.286116100504275])
 solution n°19 = ([1.286116100504274, 1.347177410864199] ; [1.286116100504274, 1.347177410864199])
 solution n°20 = ([1.347177410864198, 1.408238721224123] ; [1.347177410864198, 1.408238721224123])
 solution n°21 = ([1.408238721224122, 1.48286921166403] ; [1.408238721224122, 1.48286921166403])
 solution n°22 = ([-1.211995277094166, -1.162295895762822] ; [-1.211995277094166, -1.162295895762822])
 solution n°23 = ([-1.162295895762823, -1.101552207468959] ; [-1.162295895762823, -1.101552207468959])
 solution n°24 = ([-1.10155220746896, -1.040808519175096] ; [-1.10155220746896, -1.040808519175096])
 solution n°25 = ([-1.040808519175097, -0.9665662334825967] ; [-1.040808519175097, -0.9665662334825967])
 solution n°26 = ([-0.9665662334825968, -0.9058225451887335] ; [-0.9665662334825968, -0.9058225451887335])
 solution n°27 = ([-0.9058225451887336, -0.831580259496234] ; [-0.9058225451887336, -0.831580259496234])
 solution n°28 = ([-0.8315802594962341, -0.7573379738037345] ; [-0.8315802594962341, -0.7573379738037345])
 solution n°29 = ([-0.7573379738037346, -0.6665974024017908] ; [-0.7573379738037346, -0.6665974024017908])
 solution n°30 = ([-0.6665974024017909, -0.6058537141079276] ; [-0.6665974024017909, -0.6058537141079276])
 solution n°31 = ([-0.6058537141079277, -0.5316114284154281] ; [-0.6058537141079277, -0.5316114284154281])
 solution n°32 = ([-0.5316114284154282, -0.4573691427229287] ; [-0.5316114284154282, -0.4573691427229287])
 solution n°33 = ([-0.4573691427229288, -0.3666285713209849] ; [-0.4573691427229288, -0.3666285713209849])
 solution n°34 = ([-0.366628571320985, -0.2923862856284854] ; [-0.366628571320985, -0.2923862856284854])
 solution n°35 = ([-0.2923862856284855, -0.2016457142265417] ; [-0.2923862856284855, -0.2016457142265417])
 solution n°36 = ([-0.2016457142265418, -0.1109051428245979] ; [-0.2016457142265418, -0.1109051428245979])
 solution n°37 = ([-0.110905142824598, -0.06099782855352885] ; [-0.110905142824598, -0.06099782855352885])
 solution n°38 = ([-0.06099782855352886, 0] ; [-0.06099782855352886, -0])

Bisectors

A bisector is an operator that takes a box \([x]\) as input and returns two sub-boxes \(([x]^{(1)},[x]^{(2)})\) that form a partition of \([x]\), that is, \([x]=[x]^{(1)}\cup[x]^{(2)}\). This partition is obtained by selecting one component \([x_i]\) and splitting this interval at some point.

Each bisector implements a specific strategy for chosing the component. The bisection point in the interval is defined as a ratio of the interval width, e.g., a ratio of 0.5 corresponds to the midpoint.

Bisecting each component in turn

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Bisecting the largest component

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Setting different precision for variables

In real-world applications, variables often correspond to physical quantities with different units. The order of magnitude greatly varies with the unit. For example, consider Coulomb’s law:

\[F=k_e\frac{q_1q_2}{r^2}\]

applied to two charges \(q_1\) and \(q_2\) or ~1e-6 coulomb, with a distance \(r\) of ~1e-2 meter. With Coulomb’s contant ~ 1e10, the resulting force will be in the order of 1e2 Newton.

If one introduces Coulomb’s equation in a solver, using a bisector that handles variables uniformly, i.e., that uses the same precision value for all of them, is certainly not adequate.

Each bisector can be given a vector of different precisions (one for each variable) instead of a unique value. We just have to give a Vector in argument in place of a double. For instance, with the round-robin bisector:

    double _prec[]={1e-8,1e-8,1e-4,1};

    Vector prec(4,_prec);

    RoundRobin rr(prec);

Respecting proportions of a box

If you want to use a relative precision that respects the proportion betweeen the interval widths of an “initial” box, you can simply initialize the vector of precision like this:

Vector prec=1e-07*box.diam(); // box is the initial domain

The Smear Function

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Smear function with maximum impact

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Smear function with maximal sum of impacts

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Smear function with maximal normalized impact

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Smear function with maximal sum of normalized impacts

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maximal sum of impacts

Cell buffers

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Cell Stack

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Cell Heap

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