  We consider a problem in eigenvalue optimization, in particular finding a
local minimizer of the spectral abscissa - the value of a parameter that
results in the smallest value of the largest real part of the spectrum of a
matrix system. This is an important problem for the stabilization of control
systems. Many systems require the spectra to lie in the left half plane in
order for them to be stable. The optimization problem, however, is difficult to
solve because the underlying objective function is nonconvex, nonsmooth, and
non-Lipschitz. In addition, local minima tend to correspond to points of
non-differentiability and locally non-Lipschitz behavior. We present a
sequential linear and quadratic programming algorithm that solves a series of
linear or quadratic subproblems formed by linearizing the surfaces
corresponding to the largest eigenvalues. We present numerical results
comparing the algorithms to the state of the art.
