Positively not SOS: pseudo-moments and extreme rays in exact arithmetic

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Henrion, Didier
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Henrion, Didier
author_facet Henrion, Didier
contents A polynomial that is a sum of squares (SOS) of other polynomials is evidently positive. The converse is not true, there are positive polynomials which are not SOS. This note focuses on the problem of certifying, in exact arithmetic, that a given positive polynomial is not SOS. Using convex duality, this can be achieved by constructing a separating linear functional called a pseudo-moment certificate. We present constructive procedures to compute such certificates with rational coefficients for several famous forms (homogeneous polynomials) that are known to be positive but not SOS. Our method leverages polynomial symmetries to reduce the problem size and provides explicit integer-based formulas for generating these rational certificates. As a by-product, we can also generate extreme rays of the pseudomoment cone in exact arithmetic.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_01382
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Positively not SOS: pseudo-moments and extreme rays in exact arithmetic
Henrion, Didier
Optimization and Control
A polynomial that is a sum of squares (SOS) of other polynomials is evidently positive. The converse is not true, there are positive polynomials which are not SOS. This note focuses on the problem of certifying, in exact arithmetic, that a given positive polynomial is not SOS. Using convex duality, this can be achieved by constructing a separating linear functional called a pseudo-moment certificate. We present constructive procedures to compute such certificates with rational coefficients for several famous forms (homogeneous polynomials) that are known to be positive but not SOS. Our method leverages polynomial symmetries to reduce the problem size and provides explicit integer-based formulas for generating these rational certificates. As a by-product, we can also generate extreme rays of the pseudomoment cone in exact arithmetic.
title Positively not SOS: pseudo-moments and extreme rays in exact arithmetic
topic Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01382