Deciding polydrality of spectrahedra

Avinash Bhardwaj, Philipp Rostalki, Raman Sanyal

PRESENTATION

1) Context, def
- Spectrahedron: generalizes polyhedron (why?) and encapsules the eigenvalue role in
semidefinite programming
- Ramana 1998, computational complexity: decision pb is NP-Hard (il existe algo pour la
verification d’une solution en temps polynomial mais pas pour trouver une solution) + if S
polyhedron, relevant linear factors appear in a block diagonal form of A(x). What form?
- Motivation : have a practical algo for exploration, experimentation, hypothesis testing with
spectrahedral
- Find an appropriate matrix form, joint invariant space
- A face of a polyhedron is supported by a linear form
- Face of codim 1, supporting hyperplane is in the alg boundary of S, yields a linear factor of
f=detA(x). alg boundary=closure of dS in Zariski Topo, contained in the vanishing locus of f.
- Ramana-Goldman : Faces of spectra : F_U={x | U \incl ker(A(x)) }, faces of a spectra are always
exposed
- Ramana: original problem from graph theory. A perfect graph = clique number of any induced
subgraph equals the colouring number

Recognition complexity of perfect graphs reduce to that of polyhedrality of projected

spectrahedral ! M. Grotschel, L. Lovasz and A. Schrijver, Geometric algorithms and
combinatorial optimization, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1988.
-
- Choice of spectra cone to work in linear setting (prop1.1 show it does change anything)
-
2) Main theorems
- Full dim spectra (in Ramana, exemple of non full dim)
- Linear matrix map presentation (preimage in R^d) via a parametrization with sym matrices
A0,…Ad. Une matrice symmetrique est vue par ses coordonnees suivant une collection fixe de
matrice symmetriques. Dans le cadre lineaire, on a la condition x_d>=0 en plus de A(x)>=0
- Assume A(x) full rank ie there exists p st A(p)>0. Phi: x -> A(x), Rd ->Sym+(n) surjective if the
Ai are lin indep if all comb of Ai =0 imply coef=0
- Codim 1 faces of S : a face is a subset F of S such that if a point of segment lie in F, the
extreme points lie also in F. A face of codim 1 is such that adding a direction give the entire
space. Kernel of a linear form.
- Recall characterization of faces of spectrahedron (Ramana Goldman)
- OBS! A polyhedral cone has all its inclusion maximal faces of codimension 1
- Thm2.2 and coro 2.3 : matrix map under block diago form where the bottom right is diagonal
and pictures all codim1 faces of S
- For polyhedral cone, the diagonal block allows to recover S
- Q proper, A(x) in normal form
- A(x) unital (the map) if A(p_0)=Id for some p_0
- Prop 2.7 if A unital, there exists an orthogonal matrix U st UAUt is in normal form (prevue
comprehensible). Allows to compute normal form: seek the JOINT INVARIANT SUBSPACE
- Here generic points refer to points not satisfying a certain polynomial condition
- Thm2.9 A unital, p, q generic pts, N smallest subspace containing all eigenvalues common to
A(p) and A(q). Then N is invariant under any matrix in the image of A(x) and N^orthogonal is
the largest invariant subspace on which A(x) restricts to a proper matrix map. (preuve floute)
- Generic point : point at which “all generic pties of the set are true”. (generic pty=true for
almost every point)

3) Algo
- Description of an algo for recognizing polyhedrality of a spectrahedral cone
- Approximation : construct an outer polyhedral approximation S^ from A(x) that coincides
with S when S is polyhedral
- Containmaint: co-NP hard. Verify if S^=S. ie if S^ Included in S.
- We present S as intersection of a spectahedron without codim 1 faces (Q(x)>=0 ) and a
polyhedron (D(X) >=0)
- Prop3.1 S^= {x st D(x) >=0} is a polyhedral cone containing S
- Prop 3.2 how to get rid of the full dim condition on S. Use linear hull of S and consider S in a
lower dimensional ev where it will be full dim. Need to compute a point in relative interior of
S.
- How to find points in relative interior? Interior point methods. If S is strictly feasible (ie there
exists p with A(p)>0) IPalgo finds a point arbitrarily close to the analytic center (optimal
solution of a certain pb) of a suitable dehomogenization of S. S is not strictly feasible if the
linear subspace only meets the boundary of {X>=0}
- OBS ! the computation of a point p ∈ relint S is potentially numerically delicate and has to be
handled with care
- Thm3.3 simultaneous diagonalization by intersecting commutators
- Containment: exploit the FINITE GENERATION OF POLYHEDRAL CONES
- Thm3.4 a polyhedral cone admits a finite number of generator(S^)
- Consequence: if R(S^) included in S, S is polyhedral
- Lineality space: largest linear subspace contain in S is given by the kernel of the linear map
A(x)
- Certificate of the algo : it returns the collection R(S^)
- Word about complexity: joint invariant subspace of a matrix map calculated in pol time.
Transfo of A(x) in unital more demanding
-
4) Further
 - Recently, the conjecture that every convex semialgebraic set would be the linear projection of
a spectrahedron (“Helton-Nie conjecture”) has been disproven by Scheiderer [34].

- About algo : step 4 vs step 5, Abar(z) est simult diago sur N. Et on peut mettre Abar(z) en
forme diagonal par bloc suivant une decompo adaptée à N. Maintenant cette decompo ne
donne pas a priori une forme diagonale pour le bloc inférieur droit D’(z). C’ess=t pourquoi on
rediagonalise à l’étape 5.

- Unital matrix found by choleski inverse

- Finite generator : sort of caratheodory

- Mean payoff game

- NP and coNP

REPORT

Sources

1) Ramana file:///C:/Users/UTILISATEUR/Downloads/poly-spectra-hedra.pdf
2) Ramana Goldman
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=5449e559cb30d9baa167
e14fb038af5ada29afd3
3)