Dimension-Free Descriptions of Convex Sets

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Levin, Eitan, Chandrasekaran, Venkat
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Levin, Eitan
Chandrasekaran, Venkat
author_facet Levin, Eitan
Chandrasekaran, Venkat
contents Convex sets arising in a variety of applications are well-defined for every relevant dimension. Examples include the simplex and the spectraplex that correspond to probability distributions and to quantum states; combinatorial polytopes and their relaxations such as the cut polytope and the elliptope in integer programming; and unit balls of regularizers such as the $\ell_p$ and Schatten norms in inverse problems. Moreover, these sets are often specified using conic descriptions that can be obviously instantiated in any dimension. We develop a systematic framework to study such dimension-free descriptions of convex sets. We show that dimension-free descriptions arise from a recently-identified phenomenon in algebraic topology called representation stability, which relates invariants across dimensions in a sequence of group representations. Our framework yields structural results for dimension-free descriptions pertaining to the relations between the sets they describe across dimensions, extendability of a single set in a given dimension to a freely-described sequence, and continuous limits of such sequences. We also develop a procedure to obtain parametric families of freely-described convex sets whose structure is adapted to a given application; illustrations are provided via examples that arise in the literature as well as new families that are derived using our procedure. We demonstrate the utility of our framework in two contexts. First, we develop an algorithm for a dimension-free analog of the convex regression problem, where a convex function is fit to input-output data; by searching over our parametric families, we can fit a function to low-dimensional inputs and extend it to any other dimension. Second, we prove that many sequences of symmetric conic programs can be solved in constant time, which unifies and strengthens several results in the literature.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2307_04230
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dimension-Free Descriptions of Convex Sets
Levin, Eitan
Chandrasekaran, Venkat
Optimization and Control
Representation Theory
90C25, 52A05, 20C35
Convex sets arising in a variety of applications are well-defined for every relevant dimension. Examples include the simplex and the spectraplex that correspond to probability distributions and to quantum states; combinatorial polytopes and their relaxations such as the cut polytope and the elliptope in integer programming; and unit balls of regularizers such as the $\ell_p$ and Schatten norms in inverse problems. Moreover, these sets are often specified using conic descriptions that can be obviously instantiated in any dimension. We develop a systematic framework to study such dimension-free descriptions of convex sets. We show that dimension-free descriptions arise from a recently-identified phenomenon in algebraic topology called representation stability, which relates invariants across dimensions in a sequence of group representations. Our framework yields structural results for dimension-free descriptions pertaining to the relations between the sets they describe across dimensions, extendability of a single set in a given dimension to a freely-described sequence, and continuous limits of such sequences. We also develop a procedure to obtain parametric families of freely-described convex sets whose structure is adapted to a given application; illustrations are provided via examples that arise in the literature as well as new families that are derived using our procedure. We demonstrate the utility of our framework in two contexts. First, we develop an algorithm for a dimension-free analog of the convex regression problem, where a convex function is fit to input-output data; by searching over our parametric families, we can fit a function to low-dimensional inputs and extend it to any other dimension. Second, we prove that many sequences of symmetric conic programs can be solved in constant time, which unifies and strengthens several results in the literature.
title Dimension-Free Descriptions of Convex Sets
topic Optimization and Control
Representation Theory
90C25, 52A05, 20C35
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.04230