Convex optimization on moment polytopes: Hadamard mirror descent and efficient algorithms for quantum functionals and other tensor parameters

Abstract

Convex optimization on polytopes arises in many areas of science. When the polytope is given implicitly or has exponentially many vertices and facets, standard methods may not apply or be ineffective. This is the case for moment polytopes, such as the entanglement polytopes, which play a foundational role in quantum information and algebraic complexity. They give rise to important entanglement measures and tensor parameters such as the quantum functionals, yet general effective methods for computing these quantities have been elusive. In this paper we address this challenge. We develop a first-order framework called Hadamard mirror descent to optimize suitable convex functions over moment polytopes and, more generally, the gradient sets of geodesically convex functions. It operates locally and does not rely on any explicit description of the polytope. Our framework extends mirror descent, an effective and widely used framework for convex optimization, from the Euclidean setting to Hadamard manifolds, and is motivated by a recent work by Hirai, which we interpret as a Hadamard version of mirror flow. Applying the framework to entanglement polytopes yields the first efficient first-order algorithms to compute the quantum functionals, the symmetric quantum functional, and the G-stable ranks, as well as a new direct algorithm for the non-commutative rank.