Journal of Nonlinear and Variational Analysis

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DOI: 10.23952/jnva.10.2026.3.08

Volume 10, Issue 3, 1 June 2026, Pages 661-686

 

Abstract. A number of optimization algorithms have been inspired by the physics of Newtonian motion. Here, we ask the question: do algorithms themselves obey some “natural laws of motion,” and can they be derived by an application of these laws? We explore this question by positing the theory that optimization algorithms may be considered as some manifestation of hidden algorithm primitives that obey certain universal non-Newtonian dynamics. This natural physics of optimization is developed by equating the terminal transversality conditions of an optimal control problem to the generalized Karush/John-Kuhn-Tucker conditions of an optimization problem. Through this equivalence formulation, the data functions of a given constrained optimization problem generate a natural vector field that permeates an entire hidden space with information on the optimality conditions. An “action-at-a-distance” operation via a Pontryagin-type minimum principle produces a local action to deliver a globalized result by way of a Hamilton-Jacobi inequality. An inverse-optimal algorithm is generated by performing control jumps that dissipate quantized “energy” defined by a search Lyapunov function. Illustrative applications of the proposed theory show that a large number of algorithms can be generated and explained in terms of the new mathematical physics of optimization.

 

How to Cite this Article:
I. M. Ross, On the mathematics of the natural physics of optimization, J. Nonlinear Var. Anal. 10 (2026), 661-686.