A systematic search method for obtaining multiple local optimal solutions of nonlinear programming problems

The authors propose a systematic method to find several local minima for general nonlinear optimizatioin problems. They develop some analytical results for a quasi-gradient system and reflected gradient system and apply them to explore the topological aspects of the critical points of the objective function. By properly switching between a quasi-gradient system and a reflected gradient system, the proposed method can obtain a set of local minima.