arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Markus Schweighofer.
We prove an upper bound on the degree complexity of Putinar's Positivstellensatz. This bound is much worse than the one obtained previously for Schmüdgen's Positivstellensatz but it depends on the same parameters. As a consequence, we get information about the convergence rate of Lasserre's procedure for optimization of a polynomial subject to polynomial constraints.
Recently Lieb and Seiringer showed that the Bessis-Moussa-Villani conjecture from quantum physics can be restated in the following purely algebraic way: The sum of all words in two positive semidefinite matrices where the number of each of the two letters is fixed is always a matrix with nonnegative trace. We show that this statement holds if the words are of length at most 13. This has previously been known only up to length 7. In our proof, we establish a connection to sums of hermitian squares of polynomials in noncommuting variables and to semidefinite programming. As a by-product we obtain an example of a real polynomial in two noncommuting variables having nonnegative trace on all symmetric matrices of the same size, yet not being a sum of hermitian squares and commutators.
This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to its publication
We consider real polynomials in finitely many variables. Let the variables consist of finitely many blocks that are allowed to overlap in a certain way. Let the solution set of a finite system of polynomial inequalities be given where each inequality involves only variables of one block. We investigate polynomials that are positive on such a set and sparse in the sense that each monomial involves only variables of one block. In particular, we derive a short and direct proof for Lasserre's theorem of the existence of sums of squares certificates respecting the block structure. The motivation for the results can be found in the literature and stems from numerical methods using semidefinite programming to simulate or control discrete-time behaviour of systems.
We show that Connes' embedding conjecture on von Neumann algebras is equivalent to the existence of certain algebraic certificates for a polynomial in noncommuting variables to satisfy the following nonnegativity condition: The trace is nonnegative whenever self-adjoint contraction matrices of the same size are substituted for the variables. These algebraic certificates involve sums of hermitian squares and commutators. We prove that they always exist for a similar nonnegativity condition where elements of separable II_1-factors are considered instead of matrices. Under the presence of Connes' conjecture, we derive degree bounds for the certificates.
In this work, the combine the theory of generalized critical values with the theory of iterated rings of bounded elements (real holomorphy rings). We consider the problem of computing the global infimum of a real polynomial in several variables. Every global minimizer lies on the gradient variety. If the polynomial attains a minimum, it is therefore equivalent to look for the greatest lower bound on its gradient variety. Nie, Demmel and Sturmfels proved recently a theorem about the existence of sums of squares certificates for such lower bounds. Based on these certificates, they find arbitrarily tight relaxations of the original problem that can be formulated as semidefinite programs and thus be solved efficiently. We deal here with the more general case when the polynomial is bounded from belo w but does not necessarily attain a minimum. In this case, the method of Nie, Demmel and Sturmfels might yield completely wrong results. In order to overcome this problem, we replace the gradient variety by larger semialgebraic sets which we call gradient tentacles. It now gets substantially harder to prove the existence of the necessary sums of squares certificates.
We close a gap appearing at the same time in the author's thesis "Iterated rings of bounded elements and generalizations of Schmüdgen's theorem" [1] and in the author's article "Iterated rings of bounded elements and generalizations of Schmüdgen's Positivstellensatz" [2]. [1] Universität Konstanz (2001), available at http://www.ub.uni-konstanz.de/kops/volltexte/2002/825/ [2] Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik 554, 19-45 (2003)
We prove an extension of the classical Real Representation Theorem (going back to Krivine, Stone, Kadison, Dubois and Becker and often called Kadison-Dubois Theorem). It is a criterion for membership in subsemirings (sometimes called preprimes) of a commutative ring. Whereas the classical criterion is only applicable for functions which are positive on the representation space, the new criterion can under certain arithmetic conditions be applied also to functions which are only nonnegative. Only in the case of preorders (i.e., semirings containing all squares), our result follows easily from recent work of Scheiderer, Kuhlmann, Marshall and Schwartz. Our proof does not use (and therefore shows) the classical criterion. We illustrate the usefulness of the new criterion by deriving a theorem of Handelman from it saying inter alia the following: If an odd power of a real polynomial in several variables has only nonnegative coefficients, then so do all sufficiently high powers.