Tangencies and Polynomial Optimization

Given a polynomial function $f \colon \mathbb{R}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ and a unbounded basic closed semi-algebraic set $S \subset \mathbb{R}^n,$ in this paper we show that the conditions listed below are characterized exactly in terms of the so-called {\em tangency variety} of $f$ on $S$: (i) The $f$ is bounded from below on $S;$ (ii) The … Read more

The Sard theorem for essentially smooth locally Lipschitz maps and applications in optimization

The classical Sard theorem states that the set of critical values of a $C^{k}$-map from an open set of $\R^n$ to $\R^p$ ($n\geq p$) has Lebesgue measure zero provided $k\geq n-p+1$. In the recent paper by Barbet, Dambrine, Daniilidis and Rifford, the so called “preparatory Sard theorem” for a compact countable set $I$ of $C^k$ … Read more

On types of degenerate critical points of real polynomial functions

In this paper, we consider the problem of identifying the type (local minimizer, maximizer or saddle point) of a given isolated real critical point $c$, which is degenerate, of a multivariate polynomial function $f$. To this end, we introduce the definition of faithful radius of $c$ by means of the curve of tangency of $f$. … Read more

The Euclidean distance degree of an algebraic variety

The nearest point map of a real algebraic variety with respect to Euclidean distance is an algebraic function. For instance, for varieties of low rank matrices, the Eckart-Young Theorem states that this map is given by the singular value decomposition. This article develops a theory of such nearest point maps from the perspective of computational … Read more

Aubin Property and Uniqueness of Solutions in Cone Constrained Optimization

We discuss conditions for the Aubin property of solutions to perturbed cone constrained programs, by using and refining results given in \cite{KlaKum02}. In particular, we show that constraint nondegeneracy and hence uniqueness of the multiplier is necessary for the Aubin property of the critical point map. Moreover, we give conditions under which the critical point … Read more