Chvátal--Gomory cuts (CG-cuts) and the Bienstock--Zuckerberg hierarchy capture useful linear programs that the standard bounded degree sum-of-squares (SoS) hierarchy fails to capture. In this paper we present a novel polynomial time SoS hierarchy for 0/1 problems with a custom subspace of high degree polynomials (not the standard subspace of low degree polynomials). We show that the new SoS hierarchy recovers the Bienstock--Zuckerberg hierarchy. Our result implies a linear program that reproduces the Bienstock--Zuckerberg hierarchy as a polynomial-sized, efficiently constructible extended formulation that satisfies all constant pitch inequalities. The construction is also very simple, and it is fully defined by giving the supporting polynomials. Moreover, for a class of polytopes (e.g., set cover and packing problems), the resulting SoS hierarchy optimizes in polynomial time over the polytope resulting from any constant rounds of CG-cuts, up to an arbitrarily small error in the solution value. Arguably, this is the first example where different basis functions can be useful in asymmetric situations to obtain a hierarchy of relaxations.
Chvátal--Gomory cuts (CG-cuts) and the Bienstock--Zuckerberg hierarchy capture useful linear programs that the standard bounded degree sum-of-squares (SoS) hierarchy fails to capture. In this paper we present a novel polynomial time SoS hierarchy for 0/1 problems with a custom subspace of high degree polynomials (not the standard subspace of low degree polynomials). We show that the new SoS hierarchy recovers the Bienstock--Zuckerberg hierarchy. Our result implies a linear program that reproduces the Bienstock--Zuckerberg hierarchy as a polynomial-sized, efficiently constructible extended formulation that satisfies all constant pitch inequalities. The construction is also very simple, and it is fully defined by giving the supporting polynomials. Moreover, for a class of polytopes (e.g., set cover and packing problems), the resulting SoS hierarchy optimizes in polynomial time over the polytope resulting from any constant rounds of CG-cuts, up to an arbitrarily small error in the solution value. Arguably, this is the first example where different basis functions can be useful in asymmetric situations to obtain a hierarchy of relaxations.
We study the rank of the Sum of Squares (SoS) hierarchy over the Boolean hypercube for Symmetric Quadratic Functions (SQFs) in n variables with roots placed in points k - 1 and k. Functions of this type have played a central role in deepening the understanding of the performance of the SoS method for various unconstrained Boolean hypercube optimization problems, including the Max Cut problem. Recently, Lee, Prakash, de Wolf, and Yuen proved a lower bound on the SoS rank for SQFs of Ω(√k(n - k)) and conjectured the lower bound of Ω(n) by similarity to a polynomial representation of the n-bit OR function. Leveraging recent developments on Chebyshev polynomials, we refute the Lee-Prakash-de Wolf- Yuen conjecture and prove that the SoS rank for SQFs is at most O(√nk log(n)). We connect this result to two constrained Boolean hypercube optimization problems. First, we provide a degree O(√n) SoS certificate that matches the known SoS rank lower bound for an instance of Min Knapsack, a problem that was intensively studied in the literature. Second, we study an instance of the Set Cover problem for which Bienstock and Zuckerberg conjectured an SoS rank lower bound of n/4. We refute the Bienstock-Zuckerberg conjecture and provide a degree O(√n log(n)) SoS certificate for this problem.
We develop an argmax principle for analyzing sum-of-squares relaxations of optimization problems over the unit sphere. Given a feasible pseudo-expectation, we form a polynomial of high-order pseudo-moments, such as Φk(u)=E⟨x,u⟩2k. Our guiding principle is that its maximizers are rounding candidates: their local and global optimality conditions reveal the reweighed pseudo-expectation inequalities governing SoS convergence. This viewpoint unifies several problems previously analyzed by rather different techniques.
We obtain three results. First, for Best Separable State, we give a degree-O(n/ε) SoS analysis for approximating hsep(P) in the perfect-completeness regime, improving and simplifying Barak, Kothari and Steurer (STOC'17). The dependence is essentially tight for inverse-linear gap under the Exponential-Time Hypothesis, matching hardness from QMA(2) protocols. Second, for the matrix 2→4 norm, degree-O(n/ε) SoS gives a multiplicative (1+ε) approximation. Barak et al. (STOC'12) previously gave a comparable-time constant-gap decision algorithm; our result gives a multiplicative guarantee and extends to a family of p→q norms with even q. Finally, for degree-d polynomial optimization, we recover the convergence theorem of Bhattiprolu et al. (FOCS'17) with a shorter, more direct proof: degree-k SoS gives approximation ratio Od((n/k)d/2−1).
The paper introduces no new relaxation. Instead, the high-moment argmax gives a common way to read an SoS solution, unifying previously separate convergence analyses and yielding sharper bounds or simpler proofs.
We present a general approach to rounding semidefinite programming relaxations obtained by the Sum-of-Squares method (Lasserre hierarchy). Our approach is based on using the connection between these relaxations and the Sum-of-Squares proof system to transform a *combining algorithm* -- an algorithm that maps a distribution over solutions into a (possibly weaker) solution -- into a *rounding algorithm* that maps a solution of the relaxation to a solution of the original problem. Using this approach, we obtain algorithms that yield improved results for natural variants of three well-known problems: 1) We give a quasipolynomial-time algorithm that approximates the maximum of a low degree multivariate polynomial with non-negative coefficients over the Euclidean unit sphere. Beyond being of interest in its own right, this is related to an open question in quantum information theory, and our techniques have already led to improved results in this area (Brandão and Harrow, STOC '13). 2) We give a polynomial-time algorithm that, given a d dimensional subspace of R^n that (almost) contains the characteristic function of a set of size n/k, finds a vector v in the subspace satisfying ∣v∣44>c(k/d1/3)∣v∣22, where ∣v∣p=(Eivip)1/p. Aside from being a natural relaxation, this is also motivated by a connection to the Small Set Expansion problem shown by Barak et al. (STOC 2012) and our results yield a certain improvement for that problem. 3) We use this notion of L_4 vs. L_2 sparsity to obtain a polynomial-time algorithm with substantially improved guarantees for recovering a planted μ-sparse vector v in a random d-dimensional subspace of R^n. If v has mu n nonzero coordinates, we can recover it with high probability whenever μ<O(min(1,n/d2)), improving for d<n2/3 prior methods which intrinsically required μ<O(1/(d)).
The integer quadratic moment hull is the closed convex hull of the pairs (z,zz⊤) with z∈Zn. We prove that one round of Chvátal-Gomory (CG) cuts applied to its basic semidefinite relaxation recovers this hull exactly if and only if n≤6. Our approach identifies its facets with perfect Delaunay polyhedra and characterizes their recovery through depth, the gap between lattice and continuous minima of a defining quadratic after normalization. A facet inequality is valid for the rank-one CG closure exactly when its depth is less than one. We also analyze the complexity of deciding membership in the CG closure and finding violated inequalities. Every rational point outside the CG closure admits a violated CG inequality whose encoding length is polynomial in the input length. Membership is strongly coNP-complete and exact separation is strongly NP-hard. The same reduction proves strong NP-hardness of quadratic split-inequality separation, resolving a conjecture of Burer and Letchford.
The noncommutative sum-of-squares (ncSoS) hierarchy was introduced by Navascués-Pironio-Acín as a sequence of semidefinite programming relaxations for approximating values of noncommutative polynomial optimization problems, which were originally intended to generalize quantum values of nonlocal games. Recent work has started to analyze the hierarchy for approximating ground energies of local Hamiltonians, initially through rounding algorithms which output product states for degree-2 ncSoS applied to Quantum Max-Cut. Some rounding methods are known which output entangled states, but they use degree-4 ncSoS. Based on this, Hwang-Neeman-Parekh-Thompson-Wright conjectured that degree-2 ncSoS cannot beat product state approximations for Quantum Max-Cut and gave a partial proof relying on a conjectural generalization of Borrell's inequality. In this work we consider a family of Hamiltonians (called the quantum rotor model in condensed matter literature or lattice O(k) vector model in quantum field theory) with infinite-dimensional local Hilbert space L2(Sk−1), and show that a degree-2 ncSoS relaxation approximates the ground state energy better than any product state.
The sum-of-squares hierarchy of semidefinite programs has become a common tool for algorithm design in theoretical computer science, including problems in quantum information. In this work we study a connection between a Hermitian version of the SoS hierarchy, related to the quantum de Finetti theorem, and geometric quantization of compact Kähler manifolds (such as complex projective space CPd, the set of all pure states in a (d+1)-dimensional Hilbert space). We show that previously known HSoS rounding algorithms can be recast as quantizing an objective function to obtain a finite-dimensional matrix, finding its top eigenvector, and then (possibly nonconstructively) rounding it by using a version of the Husimi quasiprobability distribution. Dually, we recover most known quantum de Finetti theorems by doing the same steps in the reverse order: a quantum state is first approximated by its Husimi distribution, and then quantized to obtain a separable state approximating the original one. In cases when there is a transitive group action on the manifold we give some new proofs of existing de Finetti theorems, as well as some applications including a new version of Renner's exponential de Finetti theorem proven using the Borel--Weil--Bott theorem, and hardness of approximation results and optimal degree-2 integrality gaps for the basic SDP relaxation of \textsc{Quantum Max-d-Cut} (for arbitrary d). We also describe how versions of these results can be proven when there is no transitive group action. In these cases we can deduce some error bounds for the HSoS hierarchy on complex projective varieties which are smooth.