In this paper we present two Fenchel-type dual problems for a DC (difference of convex functions) optimization primal one. They have been built by means of the c-conjugation scheme, a pattern of conjugation which has been shown to be suitable for evenly convex functions. We study characterizations of weak, strong and stable strong duality for both pairs of primal-dual problems. We also give conditions which relate the existence of strong and stable strong duality for both pairs.
This paper develops a geometric approach of variational analysis for the case of convex objects considered in locally convex topological spaces and also in Banach space settings. Besides deriving in this way new results of convex calculus, we present an overview of some known achievements with their unified and simplified proofs based on the developed geometric variational schemes.
In this paper, we introduce a definition of Fenchel conjugate and Fenchel biconjugate on Hadamard manifolds based on the tangent bundle. Our definition overcomes the inconvenience that the conjugate depends on the choice of a certain point on the manifold, as previous definitions required. On the other hand, this new definition still possesses properties known to hold in the Euclidean case. It even yields a broader interpretation of the Fenchel conjugate in the Euclidean case itself. Most prominently, our definition of the Fenchel conjugate provides a Fenchel-Moreau Theorem for geodesically co…
In this paper we concern the vector problem of the model: \begin{align*} ({\rm VP})\quad\qquad &\rm{WInf} \{F(x): x\in C,\; G(x)\in -S\}. \end{align*} where $X, Y, Z$ are locally convex Hausdorff topological vector spaces, $F\colon X\rightarrow Y\cup\{+\infty_{Y}\}$ and $G\colon X\rightarrow Z\cup\{+\infty_{Z}\}$ are proper mappings, $C$ is a nonempty convex subset of $X$, and $S$ is a non-empty closed, convex cone in $Z$. Several new presentations of epigraphs of composite conjugate mappings associated to (VP) are established under variant qualifying conditions. The significance of these repr…
Given two couplings between "primal" and "dual" sets, we prove a general implication that relates an inequality involving "primal" sets to a reverse inequality involving the "dual" sets.% More precisely, let be given two "primal" sets $\PRIMAL$, $\PRIMALBIS$and two "dual" sets $\DUAL$, $\DUALBIS$, together with two {coupling} functions \(\PRIMAL \overset{\coupling}{\leftrightarrow} \DUAL \) and \(\PRIMALBIS \overset{\couplingbis}{\leftrightarrow} \DUALBIS \). We define a new coupling \(\SumCoupling{\coupling}{\couplingbis} \) between the "primal" product set~$\PRIMAL \times \PRIMALBIS$ and the…
We show that the Laplace approximation of a supremum by Lp-norms has interesting consequences in optimization. For instance, the logarithmic barrier functions (LBF) of a primal convex problem P and its dual appear naturally when using this simple approximation technique for the value function g of P or its Legendre-Fenchel conjugate. In addition, minimizing the LBF of the dual is just evaluating the Cramer transform of the Laplace approximation of g. Finally, this technique permits to sometimes define an explicit dual problem in cases when the Legendre-Fenchel conjugate of g cannot be derived …
To a function with values in the power set of a pre--ordered, separated locally convex space a family of scalarizations is given which completely characterizes the original function. A concept of a Legendre--Fenchel conjugate for set-valued functions is introduced and identified with the conjugates of the scalarizations. The concept of conjugation is connected to the notion of $(*,s)$--dualities and duality results are provided.
A pointed convex cone naturally induces a partial order, and further a notion of nondecreasingness for functions. We consider extended real-valued functions defined on the cone. Monotone conjugates for these functions can be defined in an analogous way to the standard convex conjugate. The only difference is that the supremum is taken over the cone instead of the entire space. We give sufficient conditions for the cone under which the corresponding Fenchel-Moreau biconjugation identity holds for proper, convex, lower semicontinuous, and nondecreasing functions defined on the cone. In addition,…
To a function with values in the power set of a pre-ordered, separated locally convex space a family of scalarizations is given which completely characterizes the original function. A concept of a Legendre-Fenchel conjugate for set-valued functions is introduced and identified with the conjugates of the scalarizations. Using this conjugate, weak and strong duality results are proven.
The method of characteristics is extended to set-valued Hamilton-Jacobi equations. This problems arises from a calculus of variations' problem with a multicriteria Lagrangian function: through an embedding into a set-valued framework, a set-valued Hamilton-Jacobi equation is derived, where the Hamiltonian function is the Fenchel conjugate of the Lagrangian function. In this paper a method of characteristics is described and some results are given for the Fenchel conjugate.
The so-called l0 pseudonorm on Rd counts the number of nonzero components of a vector. It is used in sparse optimization, either as criterion or in the constraints, to obtain solutions with few nonzero entries. For such problems, the Fenchel conjugacy fails to provide relevant analysis: indeed, the Fenchel conjugate of the characteristic function of the level sets of the l0 pseudonorm is minus infinity, and the Fenchel biconjugate of the l0 pseudonorm is zero. In this paper, we display a class of conjugacies that are suitable for the l0 pseudonorm. For this purpose, we suppose given a (source)…
Two-stage stochastic algorithm for solving large-scale (non)-convex separable optimization problems under affine constraints
Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, CentraleSupélec, Inria, Laboratoire des Signaux et Systèmes（巴黎萨克雷大学）；Fédération de Mathématiques de CentraleSupélec France（中央理工-高等电力学院数学联合会）；EDF R&D（法国电力集团研发中心）；Inria, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University（法国国家信息与自动化研究所）
In this paper we study the general minimization vector problem (P), concerning a perturbation mapping, defined in locally convex Hausdorff topological vector spaces where the "WInf" stands for the weak infimum with respect to an ordering generated by a convex cone $K$. Several representations of the epigraph of the conjugate mapping of the perturbation mapping are established. From these, variants vector Farkas lemmas are then proved. Armed with these basic tools, the {\it dual} and the so-called {\it loose dual problem} of (P) are defined, and then stable strong duality results between these …
For the existence of strong duality in convex optimization regularity conditions play an indisputable role. We mainly deal in this paper with regularity conditions formulated by means of different generalizations of the notion of interior of a set. The primal-dual pair we investigate is a general one expressed in the language of a perturbation function and by employing its Fenchel-Moreau conjugate. After providing an overview on the generalized interior-point conditions that exist in the literature we introduce several new ones formulated by means of the quasi interior and quasi-relative inter…
In this paper, we introduce new properties of the relative interior calculus for nearly convex sets, functions, and set-valued mappings. These properties are important for the development of duality theory in optimization. Then we investigate optimal value functions defined by nearly convex functions and nearly convex set-valued mappings, and derive the near convexity of the optimal value function under a qualification condition. We also develop formulas for subgradients and Fenchel conjugates of this class of functions, and explore their applications to duality theory.
The so-called l0 pseudonorm on R d counts the number of nonzero components of a vector. It is well-known that the l0 pseudonorm is not convex, as its Fenchel biconjugate is zero. In this paper, we introduce a suitable conjugacy, induced by a novel coupling, Caprac, having the property of being constant along primal rays, like the l0 pseudonorm. The Caprac coupling belongs to the class of one-sided linear couplings, that we introduce. We show that they induce conjugacies that share nice properties with the classic Fenchel conjugacy. For the Caprac conjugacy, induced by the coupling Caprac, we p…
We consider the problem of minimizing a finite sum of convex functions subject to the set of minimizers of a convex differentiable function. In order to solve the problem, an algorithm combining the incremental proximal gradient method with smooth penalization technique is proposed. We show the convergence of the generated sequence of iterates to an optimal solution of the optimization problems, provided that a condition expressed via the Fenchel conjugate of the constraint function is fulfilled. Finally, the functionality of the method is illustrated by some numerical experiments addressing i…
In this paper we study multivariate polynomial functions in complex variables and the corresponding associated symmetric tensor representations. The focus is on finding conditions under which such complex polynomials/tensors always take real values. We introduce the notion of symmetric conjugate forms and general conjugate forms, and present characteristic conditions for such complex polynomials to be real-valued. As applications of our results, we discuss the relation between nonnegative polynomials and sums of squares in the context of complex polynomials. Moreover, new notions of eigenvalue…
We show that for any given norm ball or proper cone, weak membership in its dual ball or dual cone is polynomial-time reducible to weak membership in the given ball or cone. A consequence is that the weak membership or membership problem for a ball or cone is NP-hard if and only if the corresponding problem for the dual ball or cone is NP-hard. In a similar vein, we show that computation of the dual norm of a given norm is polynomial-time reducible to computation of the given norm. This extends to convex functions satisfying a polynomial growth condition: for such a given function, computation…
In this paper we report further progress towards a complete theory of state-independent expected utility maximization with semimartingale price processes for arbitrary utility function. Without any technical assumptions we establish a surprising Fenchel duality result on conjugate Orlicz spaces, offering a new economic insight into the nature of primal optima and providing fresh perspective on the classical papers of Kramkov and Schachermayer (1999, 2003). The analysis points to an intriguing interplay between no-arbitrage conditions and standard convex optimization and motivates study of the …
An order theoretic and algebraic framework for the extended real numbers is established which includes extensions of the usual difference to expressions involving $-\infty$ and/or $+\infty$, so-called residuations. Based on this, definitions and results for directional derivatives, subdifferentials and Legendre--Fenchel conjugates for extended real-valued functions are given which admit to include the proper as well as the improper case. For set-valued functions, scalar representation theorems and a new conjugation theory are established. The common denominator is that the appropriate image sp…
The so-called l0 pseudonorm counts the number of nonzero components of a vector of a Euclidian space. It is well-known that the l0 pseudonorm is not convex, as its Fenchel biconjugate is zero. In this paper, we introduce a suitable conjugacy, induced by a novel coupling, E-Capra, that has the property of being constant along primal rays like the l0 pseudonorm. The coupling E-Capra belongs to the class of one-sided linear couplings, that we introduce; we show that they induce conjugacies that share nice properties with the classic Fenchel conjugacy. For the E-Capra conjugacy, induced by the cou…
Convex optimization has become ubiquitous in most quantitative disciplines of science, including variational image processing. Proximal splitting algorithms are becoming popular to solve such structured convex optimization problems. Within this class of algorithms, Douglas--Rachford (DR) and alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) are designed to minimize the sum of two proper lower semi-continuous convex functions whose proximity operators are easy to compute. The goal of this work is to understand the local convergence behaviour of DR (resp. ADMM) when the involved functions (resp…
We consider a class of monotone operators which are appropriate for symbolic representation and manipulation within a computer algebra system. Various structural properties of the class (e.g., closure under taking inverses, resolvents) are investigated as well as the role played by maximal monotonicity within the class. In particular, we show that there is a natural correspondence between our class of monotone operators and the subdifferentials of convex functions belonging to a class of convex functions deemed suitable for symbolic computation of Fenchel conjugates which were previously studi…
In this paper, we aim to solve a distributed optimization problem with affine coupling constraints in a multi-agent network, where the cost function of the agents is composed of smooth and possibly non-smooth parts. To solve this problem, we resort to the dual problem by deriving the Fenchel conjugate, resulting in a consensus-based constrained optimization problem. Then, we propose a distributed dual proximal gradient algorithm, where the agents make decisions based on the information of immediate neighbors. Provided that the non-smooth parts in the primal cost functions are with some simple …
This paper is concerned with the optimal control problem governed by a linear parabolic equation and subjected to box constraints on control variables. This type of problem has important applications in heating and cooling systems. By applying the scheme of Fenchel duality, we derive the dual problem explicitly where the control constraints in primal problem are embedded in the dual problem's objective functional. The existence and uniqueness of the solution to the dual problem are proved and the first-order optimality conditions are also derived. In addition, we discuss the saddle point prope…
In this paper, we consider solving a composite optimization problem with coupling constraints in a multi-agent network based on proximal gradient method. In this problem, all the agents jointly minimize the sum of individual cost functions composed of smooth and possibly non-smooth parts. To this end, we derive the dual problem by the concept of Fenchel conjugate, which gives rise to the dual proximal gradient algorithm by allowing for the asymmetric individual interpretations of the global constraints. Then, an asynchronous dual proximal gradient algorithm is proposed for the asynchronous net…
This paper provides characterizations of the weak solutions of optimization problems where a given vector function $F,$ from a decision space $X$ to an objective space $Y$, is "minimized" on the set of elements $x\in C$ (where $C\subset X$ is a given nonempty constraint set), satisfying $G\left( x\right) \leqq_{S}0_{Z},$ where $G$ is another given vector function from $X $ to a constraint space $Z$ with positive cone $S$. The three spaces $X,Y,$ and $Z$ are locally convex Hausdorff topological vector spaces, with $Y$ and $Z$ partially ordered by two convex cones $K$ and $S,$ respectively, and …
In his monograph \emph{Conjugate Duality and Optimization}, Rockafellar puts forward a ``perturbation + duality'' method to obtain a dual problem for an original minimization problem. First, one embeds the minimization problem into a family of perturbed problems (thus giving a so-called perturbation function); the perturbation of the original function to be minimized has recently been called a Rockafellian. Second, when the perturbation variable belongs to a primal vector space paired, by a bilinear form, with a dual vector space, one builds a Lagrangian from a Rockafellian; one also obtains a…
Center of Economic Research and RiskLab ETH Zurich（经济研究中心和风险实验室 ETH 瑞士 Zurich）；Department of Mathematics and RiskLab ETH Zurich（数学系和风险实验室 ETH 瑞士 Zurich）
We solve the truncated K-moment problem when $K\subseteq R^n$ is the closure of a, not necessarily bounded, open set (which includes the important cases $K=R^n$ and $K=R^n_+$). That is, we completely characterize the interior of the convex cone of finite sequences that have a representing measure on $K\subseteq R^n$. It is in fact the domain of the Legendre-Fenchel transform associated with a certain convex function. And so in this context, detecting whether a sequence is in the interior of this cone reduces to solving a finite-dimensional convex optimization problem. This latter problem is re…
In connection with the optimization problem $$\inf_{x\in argmin Ψ}\{Φ(x)+Θ(x)\},$$ where $Φ$ is a proper, convex and lower semicontinuous function and $Θ$ and $Ψ$ are convex and smooth functions defined on a real Hilbert space, we investigate the asymptotic behavior of the trajectories of the nonautonomous Levenberg-Marquardt dynamical system \begin{equation*}\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} v(t)\in\partialΦ(x(t))\\ λ(t)\dot x(t) + \dot v(t) + v(t) + \nabla Θ(x(t))+β(t)\nabla Ψ(x(t))=0, \end{array}\right.\end{equation*} where $λ$ and $β$ are functions of time controlling the velocity and the penalty …
A Dual Approach for Optimal Algorithms in Distributed Optimization over Networks
Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）；Yahoo! Research（雅虎研究）；Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology（莫斯科物理技术学院）；Institute for Information Transmission（信息传输研究所）；Arizona State University（亚利桑那州立大学）
