Which methods are available for NMinimize?

Question

I can't find in the documentation the list of methods available to NMinimize[]. Is there a way to get this? The NMinimize page in Documentation Center mentions only Method -> "DifferentialEvolution".

If you click on "Details and Options" you'll see the whole list. — b.gates.you.know.what, Nov 06 '13 at 11:25
Indeed, the last bullet of that sections reads: Possible settings for the Method option include "NelderMead", "DifferentialEvolution", "SimulatedAnnealing", and "RandomSearch". I note that it uses the tantalizing words "possible" and "includes", suggesting there might be many more settings. — Sjoerd C. de Vries, Nov 06 '13 at 11:29
Yes, it is not very clear. I have also found on the page tutorial/ConstrainedOptimizationGlobalNumerical the following line: NMinimize and NMaximize have several optimization methods available: Automatic, "DifferentialEvolution", "NelderMead", "RandomSearch", and "SimulatedAnnealing". I assumed there could be more methods available. — shrx, Nov 06 '13 at 11:31
You should read these tutorials Numerical Nonlinear Global Optimization and Numerical Nonlinear Global Optimization Examples. — Artes, Nov 06 '13 at 11:31
@b.gatessucks you can post your comment as an answer if you want and I'll accept it. — shrx, Nov 06 '13 at 11:33
Not sure if we shouldn't close this question as it only involved a simple manual lookup. — Sjoerd C. de Vries, Nov 06 '13 at 11:35
An other question would be: Is it possible to use something like foo::Method in order to know the different methods available? — Öskå, Nov 06 '13 at 11:44
Voting to reopen. Evidently the docs aren't enough for this one — Dr. belisarius, Aug 25 '15 at 03:28

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 06 '13 at 12:30

The complete list of possible methods is given by Optimization`NMinimizeDump`$Methods:

Optimization`NMinimizeDump`$Methods
 (* -> {Automatic, DifferentialEvolution, NelderMead, 
        SimulatedAnnealing, RandomSearch, NonlinearInteriorPoint} *)

As you can see, there is one undocumented method: NonlinearInteriorPoint. The probable reason for its being undocumented is that by itself it is not very effective as a global minimizer, so it is used instead as a postprocessing step for the other methods in order to ensure that constraints are properly enforced.

Which methods are available for NMinimize?

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