Let @math be a linear matrix, or pencil, generated by given symmetric matrices @math of size @math with rational entries. The set of real vectors x such that the pencil is positive semidefinite is a convex semi-algebraic set called spectrahedron, described by a linear matrix inequality (LMI). We design an exact algorithm that, up to genericity assumptions on the input matrices, computes an exact algebraic representation of at least one point in the spectrahedron, or decides that it is empty. The algorithm does not assume the existence of an interior point, and the computed point minimizes the rank of the pencil on the spectrahedron. The degree @math of the algebraic representation of the point coincides experimentally with the algebraic degree of a generic semidefinite program associated to the pencil. We provide explicit bounds for the complexity of our algorithm, proving that the maximum number of arithmetic operations that are performed is essentially quadratic in a multilinear B 'ezout bound of @math . When @math (resp. @math ) is fixed, such a bound, and hence the complexity, is polynomial in @math (resp. @math ). We conclude by providing results of experiments showing practical improvements with respect to state-of-the-art computer algebra algorithms.
A first algorithmic solution to deciding the emptiness of general semi-algebraic sets is given by Cylindrical Algebraic Decomposition algorithm @cite_45 ; however its runtime is doubly exponential in the number @math of variables. The first singly exponential algorithm is given in @cite_17 , and has led to a series of works (see e.g. @cite_5 @cite_33 ) culminating with algorithms designed in @cite_35 based on the so-called critical points method. This method is based on the general idea which consists in computing minimizers maximizers of a well-chosen function reaching its extrema in each connected component of the set under study. Applying @cite_35 to problem requires @math bit operations. Note that our technique for dealing with sets @math is based on the idea underlying the critical point method. Also, in the arithmetic complexity model, our complexity estimates are more precise (the complexity constant in the exponent is known) and better. This technique is also related to algorithms based on polar varieties for grabbing sample points in semi-algebraic sets; see for example @cite_44 @cite_48 @cite_52 @cite_47 and its application to polynomial optimization @cite_54 .
@cite_35 @cite_33 @cite_48 @cite_54 @cite_52 @cite_44 @cite_45 @cite_5 @cite_47 @cite_17
2949730746 2170546552 2129732816 1982831910
We consider the problem of computing critical points of the restriction of a polynomial map to an algebraic variety. This is of first importance since the global minimum of such a map is reached at a critical point. Thus, these points appear naturally in non-convex polynomial optimization which occurs in a wide range of scientific applications (control theory, chemistry, economics,...). Critical points also play a central role in recent algorithms of effective real algebraic geometry. Experimentally, it has been observed that Gr "obner basis algorithms are efficient to compute such points. Therefore, recent software based on the so-called Critical Point Method are built on Gr "obner bases engines. Let @math be polynomials in @math of degree @math , @math be their complex variety and @math be the projection map @math . The critical points of the restriction of @math to @math are defined by the vanishing of @math and some maximal minors of the Jacobian matrix associated to @math . Such a system is algebraically structured: the ideal it generates is the sum of a determinantal ideal and the ideal generated by @math . We provide the first complexity estimates on the computation of Gr "obner bases of such systems defining critical points. We prove that under genericity assumptions on @math , the complexity is polynomial in the generic number of critical points, i.e. @math . More particularly, in the quadratic case D=2, the complexity of such a Gr "obner basis computation is polynomial in the number of variables @math and exponential in @math . We also give experimental evidence supporting these theoretical results. Mulmuley [Mul12a] recently gave an explicit version of Noether’s Normalization lemma for ring of invariants of matrices under simultaneous conjugation, under the conjecture that there are deterministic black-box algorithms for polynomial identity testing (PIT). He argued that this gives evidence that constructing such algorithms for PIT is beyond current techniques. In this work, we show this is not the case. That is, we improve Mulmuley’s reduction and correspondingly weaken the conjecture regarding PIT needed to give explicit Noether Normalization. We then observe that the weaker conjecture has recently been nearly settled by the authors ([FS12]), who gave quasipolynomial size hitting sets for the class of read-once oblivious algebraic branching programs (ROABPs). This gives the desired explicit Noether Normalization unconditionally, up to quasipolynomial factors. As a consequence of our proof we give a deterministic parallel polynomial-time algorithm for deciding if two matrix tuples have intersecting orbit closures, under simultaneous conjugation. We also study the strength of conjectures that Mulmuley requires to obtain similar results as ours. We prove that his conjectures are stronger, in the sense that the computational model he needs PIT algorithms for is equivalent to the well-known algebraic branching program (ABP) model, which is provably stronger than the ROABP model. Finally, we consider the depth-3 diagonal circuit model as defined by Saxena [Sax08], as PIT algorithms for this model also have implications in Mulmuley’s work. Previous work (such as [ASS12] and [FS12]) have given quasipolynomial size hitting sets for this model. In this work, we give a much simpler construction of such hitting sets, using techniques of Shpilka and Volkovich [SV09]. We study the convergence properties of an alternating proximal minimization algorithm for nonconvex structured functions of the type: L(x,y)=f(x)+Q(x,y)+g(y), where f and g are proper lower semicontinuous functions, defined on Euclidean spaces, and Q is a smooth function that couples the variables x and y. The algorithm can be viewed as a proximal regularization of the usual Gauss-Seidel method to minimize L. We work in a nonconvex setting, just assuming that the function L satisfies the Kurdyka-Łojasiewicz inequality. An entire section illustrates the relevancy of such an assumption by giving examples ranging from semialgebraic geometry to “metrically regular” problems. Our main result can be stated as follows: If L has the Kurdyka-Łojasiewicz property, then each bounded sequence generated by the algorithm converges to a critical point of L. This result is completed by the study of the convergence rate of the algorithm, which depends on the geometrical properties of the function L around its critical points. When specialized to @math and to f, g indicator functions, the algorithm is an alternating projection mehod (a variant of von Neumann's) that converges for a wide class of sets including semialgebraic and tame sets, transverse smooth manifolds or sets with “regular” intersection. To illustrate our results with concrete problems, we provide a convergent proximal reweighted l1 algorithm for compressive sensing and an application to rank reduction problems. In this paper, we consider conic programming problems whose constraints consist of linear equalities, linear inequalities, a nonpolyhedral cone, and a polyhedral cone. A convenient way for solving this class of problems is to apply the directly extended alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to its dual problem, which has been observed to perform well in numerical computations but may diverge in theory. Ideally, one should find a convergent variant which is at least as efficient as the directly extended ADMM in practice. We achieve this goal by designing a convergent semiproximal ADMM (called sPADMM3c for convenience) for convex programming problems having three separable blocks in the objective function with the third part being linear. At each iteration, the proposed sPADMM3c takes one special block coordinate descent (BCD) cycle with the order @math , instead of the usual @math Gauss--Seidel BCD cycle used in the nonconvergent directly extended 3-block ADMM, for updating the variable blocks. Our numerical experiments demonstrate that the convergent method is at least 20 faster than the directly extended ADMM with unit step-length for the vast majority of about 550 large-scale doubly nonnegative semidefinite programming problems with linear equality and or inequality constraints. This confirms that at least for conic convex programming, one can design a convergent and efficient ADMM with a special BCD cycle of updating the variable blocks.