English

Polynomial Optimization, Certificates of Positivity, and Christoffel Function

Algebraic Geometry 2023-04-26 v1 Optimization and Control

Abstract

We briefly recall basics of the Moment-SOS hierarchy in polynomial optimization and the Christoffel-Darboux kernel (and the Christoffel function (CF)) in theory of approximation and orthogonal polynomials. We then (i) show a strong link between the CF and the SOS-based positive certificate at the core of the Moment-SOS hierarchy, and (ii) describe how the CD-kernel provides a simple interpretation of the SOS-hierarchy of lower bounds as searching for some signed polynomial density (while the SOS-hierarchy of upper bounds is searching for a positive (SOS) density). This link between the CF and positive certificates, in turn allows us (i) to establish a disintegration property of the CF much like for measures, and (ii) for certain sets, to relate the CF of their equilibrium measure with a certificate of positivity on the set, for constant polynomials.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2304.12772,
  title  = {Polynomial Optimization, Certificates of Positivity, and Christoffel Function},
  author = {Jean-Bernard Lasserre},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.12772},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T10:17:07.105Z