Completely positive reformulations for polynomial optimization

Polynomial optimization encompasses a very rich class of problems in which both the objective and constraints can be written in terms of polynomials on the decision variables. There is a well established body of research on quadratic polynomial optimization problems based on reformulations of the original problem as a conic program over the cone of completely positive matrices, or its conic dual, the cone of copositive matrices. As a result of this reformulation approach, novel solution schemes for quadratic polynomial optimization problems have been designed by drawing on conic programming tools, and the extensively studied cones of completely positive and of copositive matrices. In particular, this approach has been applied to solve key combinatorial optimization problems. Along this line of research, we consider polynomial optimization problems that are not necessarily quadratic. For this purpose, we use a natural extension of the cone of completely positive matrices; namely, the cone of completely positive tensors. We provide a general characterization of the class of polynomial optimization problems that can be formulated as a conic program over the cone of completely positive tensors. As a consequence of this characterization, it follows that recent related results for quadratic problems can be further strengthened and generalized to higher order polynomial optimization problems. Also, we show that the conditions underlying the characterization are conceptually the same, regardless of the degree of the polynomials defining the problem. To illustrate our results, we discuss in further detail special and relevant instances of polynomial optimization problems.     

Completely positive and completely positive semidefinite tensor relaxations for polynomial optimization

Completely positive (CP) tensors, which correspond to a generalization of CP matrices, allow to reformulate or approximate a general polynomial optimization problem (POP) with a conic optimization problem over the cone of CP tensors. Similarly, completely positive semidefinite (CPSD) tensors, which correspond to a generalization of positive semidefinite (PSD) matrices, can be used to approximate general POPs with a conic optimization problem over the cone of CPSD tensors. In this paper, we study CP and CPSD tensor relaxations for general POPs and compare them with the bounds obtained via a Lagrangian relaxation of the POPs. This shows that existing results in this direction for quadratic POPs extend to general POPs. Also, we provide some tractable approximation strategies for CP and CPSD tensor relaxations. These approximation strategies show that, with a similar computational effort, bounds obtained from them for general POPs can be tighter than bounds for these problems obtained by reformulating the POP as a quadratic POP, which subsequently can be approximated using CP and PSD matrices. To illustrate our results, we numerically compare the bounds obtained from these relaxation approaches on small scale fourth-order degree POPs.     

Column sufficient tensors and tensor complementarity problems

Stimulated by the study of sufficient matrices in linear complementarity problems, we study column sufficient tensors and tensor complementarity problems. Column sufficient tensors constitute a wide range of tensors that include positive semi-definite tensors as special cases. The inheritance property and invariant property of column sufficient tensors are presented. Then, various spectral properties of symmetric column sufficient tensors are given. It is proved that all H-eigenvalues of an even-order symmetric column sufficient tensor are nonnegative, and all its Z-eigenvalues are nonnegative even in the odd order case. After that, a new subclass of column sufficient tensors and the handicap of tensors are defined. We prove that a tensor belongs to the subclass if and only if its handicap is a finite number. Moreover, several optimization models that are equivalent with the handicap of tensors are presented. Finally, as an application of column sufficient tensors, several results on tensor complementarity problems are established.     

Finding the Maximum Eigenvalue of Essentially Nonnegative Symmetric Tensors via Sum of Squares Programming

Finding the maximum eigenvalue of a tensor is an important topic in tensor computation and multilinear algebra. Recently, for a tensor with nonnegative entries (which we refer it as a nonnegative tensor), efficient numerical schemes have been proposed to calculate its maximum eigenvalue based on a Perron–Frobenius-type theorem. In this paper, we consider a new class of tensors called essentially nonnegative tensors, which extends the concept of nonnegative tensors, and examine the maximum eigenvalue of an essentially nonnegative tensor using the polynomial optimization techniques. We first establish that finding the maximum eigenvalue of an essentially nonnegative symmetric tensor is equivalent to solving a sum of squares of polynomials (SOS) optimization problem, which, in its turn, can be equivalently rewritten as a semi-definite programming problem. Then, using this sum of squares programming problem, we also provide upper and lower estimates for the maximum eigenvalue of general symmetric tensors. These upper and lower estimates can be calculated in terms of the entries of the tensor. Numerical examples are also presented to illustrate the significance of the results.     

非线性半定规划若干进展

讨论非线性半定规划的四个专题, 包括半正定矩阵锥的变分分析、非凸半定规划问题的最优性条件、非凸半定规划问题的扰动分析和非凸半定规划问题的增广Lagrange方法.     

非线性半定规划若干进展

讨论非线性半定规划的四个专题,包括半正定矩阵锥的变分分析、非凸半定规划问题的最优性条件、非凸半定规划问题的扰动分析和非凸半定规划问题的增广Lagrange方法．     

Linear operators and positive semidefiniteness of symmetric tensor spaces

We study symmetric tensor spaces and cones arising from polynomial optimization and physical sciences.We prove a decomposition invariance theorem for linear operators over the symmetric tensor space,which leads to several other interesting properties in symmetric tensor spaces.We then consider the positive semidefiniteness of linear operators which deduces the convexity of the Frobenius norm function of a symmetric tensor.Furthermore,we characterize the symmetric positive semidefinite tensor(SDT)cone by employing the properties of linear operators,design some face structures of its dual cone,and analyze its relationship to many other tensor cones.In particular,we show that the cone is self-dual if and only if the polynomial is quadratic,give specific characterizations of tensors that are in the primal cone but not in the dual for higher order cases,and develop a complete relationship map among the tensor cones appeared in the literature.     

The minimal cone for conic linear programming

It is known that the minimal cone for the constraint system of a conic linear programming problem is a key component in obtaining strong duality without any constraint qualification. For problems in either primal or dual form, the minimal cone can be written down explicitly in terms of the problem data. However, due to possible lack of closure, explicit expressions for the dual cone of the minimal cone cannot be obtained in general. In the particular case of semidefinite programming, an explicit expression for the dual cone of the minimal cone allows for a dual program of polynomial size that satisfies strong duality. In this paper we develop a recursive procedure to obtain the minimal cone and its dual cone. In particular, for conic problems with so-called nice cones, we obtain explicit expressions for the cones involved in the dual recursive procedure. As an example of this approach, the well-known duals that satisfy strong duality for semidefinite programming problems are obtained. The relation between this approach and a facial reduction algorithm is also discussed.     

On computing minimal <Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis>-eigenvalue of sign-structured tensors

Finding the minimal H-eigenvalue of tensors is an important topic in tensor computation and numerical multilinear algebra. This paper is devoted to a sum-of-squares (SOS) algorithm for computing the minimal H-eigenvalues of tensors with some sign structures called extended essentially nonnegative tensors (EEN-tensors), which includes nonnegative tensors as a subclass. In the even-order symmetric case, we first discuss the positive semi-definiteness of EEN-tensors, and show that a positive semi-definite EEN-tensor is a nonnegative tensor or an M-tensor or the sum of a nonnegative tensor and an M-tensor, then we establish a checkable sufficient condition for the SOS decomposition of EEN-tensors. Finally, we present an efficient algorithm to compute the minimal H-eigenvalues of even-order symmetric EEN-tensors based on the SOS decomposition. Numerical experiments are given to show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.     

Strong duality in robust semi-definite linear programming under data uncertainty

This article develops the deterministic approach to duality for semi-definite linear programming problems in the face of data uncertainty. We establish strong duality between the robust counterpart of an uncertain semi-definite linear programming model problem and the optimistic counterpart of its uncertain dual. We prove that strong duality between the deterministic counterparts holds under a characteristic cone condition. We also show that the characteristic cone condition is also necessary for the validity of strong duality for every linear objective function of the original model problem. In addition, we derive that a robust Slater condition alone ensures strong duality for uncertain semi-definite linear programs under spectral norm uncertainty and show, in this case, that the optimistic counterpart is also computationally tractable.     

Conic mixed-integer rounding cuts

A conic integer program is an integer programming problem with conic constraints. Many problems in finance, engineering, statistical learning, and probabilistic optimization are modeled using conic constraints. Here we study mixed-integer sets defined by second-order conic constraints. We introduce general-purpose cuts for conic mixed-integer programming based on polyhedral conic substructures of second-order conic sets. These cuts can be readily incorporated in branch-and-bound algorithms that solve either second-order conic programming or linear programming relaxations of conic integer programs at the nodes of the branch-and-bound tree. Central to our approach is a reformulation of the second-order conic constraints with polyhedral second-order conic constraints in a higher dimensional space. In this representation the cuts we develop are linear, even though they are nonlinear in the original space of variables. This feature leads to a computationally efficient implementation of nonlinear cuts for conic mixed-integer programming. The reformulation also allows the use of polyhedral methods for conic integer programming. We report computational results on solving unstructured second-order conic mixed-integer problems as well as mean–variance capital budgeting problems and least-squares estimation problems with binary inputs. Our computational experiments show that conic mixed-integer rounding cuts are very effective in reducing the integrality gap of continuous relaxations of conic mixed-integer programs and, hence, improving their solvability. This research has been supported, in part, by Grant # DMI0700203 from the National Science Foundation.     

Detecting copositivity of a symmetric matrix by an adaptive ellipsoid-based approximation scheme

It is co-NP-complete to decide whether a given matrix is copositive or not. In this paper, this decision problem is transformed into a quadratic programming problem, which can be approximated by solving a sequence of linear conic programming problems defined on the dual cone of the cone of nonnegative quadratic functions over the union of a collection of ellipsoids. Using linear matrix inequalities (LMI) representations, each corresponding problem in the sequence can be solved via semidefinite programming. In order to speed up the convergence of the approximation sequence and to relieve the computational effort of solving linear conic programming problems, an adaptive approximation scheme is adopted to refine the union of ellipsoids. The lower and upper bounds of the transformed quadratic programming problem are used to determine the copositivity of the given matrix.     

Improved approximation results on standard quartic polynomial optimization

In this paper, we consider the problem of approximately solving standard quartic polynomial optimization (SQPO). Using its reformulation as a copositive tensor programming, we show how to approximate the optimal solution of SQPO by using a series of polyhedral cones to approximate the cone of copositive tensors. The established quality of approximation is sharper than the ones studied in the literature. As an interesting extension, we also propose some approximation bounds on multi-homogenous polynomial optimization problems.     

Tight wavelet frames via semi-definite programming

In this paper we state the “oblique extension principle” as a problem of semi-definite programming. Using this optimization technique we show that the existence of a tight frame is equivalent to the existence of a certain matrix from a cone of positive semi-definite matrices, whose entries satisfy linear constraints. We also discuss how to use the optimization techniques to reduce the number of frame generators in univariate and multivariate cases. We apply our results for constructing tight frames for several subdivision schemes.     

Duality for semi-definite and semi-infinite programming

In this article, we study semi-definite and semi-infinite programming problems (SDSIP), which includes semi-infinite linear programs and semi-definite programs as special cases. We establish that a uniform duality between the homogeneous (SDSIP) and its Lagrangian-type dual problem is equivalent to the closedness condition of certain cone. Moreover, this closedness condition was assured by a generalized canonically closedness condition and a Slater condition. Corresponding results for the nonhomogeneous (SDSIP) problem were obtained by transforming it into an equivalent homogeneous (SDSIP) problem.     

Construction of proximal distances over symmetric cones

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the study of proximal distances defined over symmetric cones, which include the non-negative orthant, the second-order cone and the cone of positive semi-definite symmetric matrices. Specifically, our first aim is to provide two ways to build them. For this, we consider two classes of real-valued functions satisfying some assumptions. Then, we show that its corresponding spectrally defined function defines a proximal distance. In addition, we present several examples and some properties of this distance. Taking into account these properties, we analyse the convergence of proximal-type algorithms for solving convex symmetric cone programming (SCP) problems, and we study the asymptotic behaviour of primal central paths associated with a proximal distance. Finally, for linear SCP problems, we provide a relationship between the proximal sequence and the primal central path.     

整数规划新进展

整数规划是对全部或部分决策变量为整数的最优化问题的模型、算法及应用等的研究, 是运筹学和管理科学中应用最广泛的优化模型之一. 首先简要回顾整数规划的历史和发展进程, 概述线性和非线性整数规划的一些经典方法. 然后着重讨论整数规划若干新进展, 包括0-1二次规划的半定规划~(SDP)~松弛和随机化方法, 带半连续变量和稀疏约束的优化问题的整数规划模型和方法, 以及0-1二次规划的协正锥规划表示和协正锥的层级半定规划~(SDP)~逼近. 最后, 对整数规划未来研究方向进行展望并对一些公开问题进行讨论.     

A relaxed cutting plane method for semi-infinite semi-definite programming

In this paper, we develop two discretization algorithms with a cutting plane scheme for solving combined semi-infinite and semi-definite programming problems, i.e., a general algorithm when the parameter set is a compact set and a typical algorithm when the parameter set is a box set in the m-dimensional space. We prove that the accumulation point of the sequence points generated by the two algorithms is an optimal solution of the combined semi-infinite and semi-definite programming problem under suitable assumption conditions. Two examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the typical algorithm.     

High-order sum-of-squares structured tensors:theory and applications

Tensor decomposition is an important research area with numerous applications in data mining and computational neuroscience.An important class of tensor decomposition is sum-of-squares(SOS)tensor decomposition.SOS tensor decomposition has a close connection with SOS polynomials,and SOS polynomials are very important in polynomial theory and polynomial optimization.In this paper,we give a detailed survey on recent advances of high-order SOS tensors and their applications.It first shows that several classes of symmetric structured tensors available in the literature have SOS decomposition in the even order symmetric case.Then,the SOS-rank for tensors with SOS decomposition and the SOS-width for SOS tensor cones are established.Further,a sharper explicit upper bound of the SOS-rank for tensors with bounded exponent is provided,and the exact SOS-width for the cone consists of all such tensors with SOS decomposition is identified.Some potential research directions in the future are also listed in this paper.     

Completely positive reformulations of polynomial optimization problems with linear constraints

A polynomial optimization problem (POP) is an optimization problem in which both the objective and constraints can be written in terms of polynomials on the decision variables. Recently, it has been shown that under appropriate assumptions POPs can be reformulated as conic problems over the cone of completely positive tensors; which generalize the set of completely positive matrices. Here, we show that by explicitly handling the linear constraints in the formulation of the POP, one obtains a generalization of the completely positive reformulation of quadratically constrained quadratic programs recently introduced by Bai et al. (Math Program 1–28, 2016).