Better bounds on finite-order Grothendieck constants

Abstract

Grothendieck constants $K_G(d)$ bound the advantage of $d$-dimensional strategies over $1$-dimensional ones in a specific optimisation task. They have applications ranging from approximation algorithms to quantum nonlocality. However, apart from $d=2$, their values are unknown. Here, we exploit a recent Frank-Wolfe approach to provide good candidates for lower bounding some of these constants. The complete proof relies on solving difficult binary quadratic optimisation problems. For $d\in\{3,4,5\}$, we construct specific rectangular instances that we can solve to certify better bounds than those previously known; by monotonicity, our lower bounds improve on the state of the art for $d\leqslant9$. For $d\in\{4,7,8\}$, we exploit elegant structures to build highly symmetric instances achieving even greater bounds; however, we can only solve them heuristically. We also recall the standard relation with violations of Bell inequalities and elaborate on it to interpret generalised Grothendieck constants $K_G(d\mapsto2)$ as the advantage of complex $d$-dimensional quantum mechanics over real qubit quantum mechanics. Motivated by this connection, we also improve the bounds on $K_G(d\mapsto2)$.