Duality

$$min\ f_0(x), x \in \mathbb{R}^n$$

$$s.t. f_i(x)\leq 0, \text{for i from 1 to m}$$

$$ \quad h_i(x)=0, \text{for i from 1 to q}$$

  • That is, in Lagrangian form,

$$L(x,\lambda,\gamma)=f_0((x)+\sum \lambda_i f_i (x) +\sum \gamma_i h_i(x)$$

$$ \min_{x} \max_{\lambda,\gamma} L(x,\lambda, \gamma) $$

$$s.t. \lambda \geq 0$$

  • The Duality Problem is,

$$g(\lambda, \gamma) = \min_{x} L(x,\lambda, \gamma)$$

$$\max_{\lambda, \gamma} g(\lambda, \gamma) $$

$$s.t. \nabla_x L(x,\lambda, \gamma)=0$$

$$\quad \lambda \geq 0$$

Why Duality?

We change the original problem in to the duality, which becomes a convexity optimisation problem.

Convexity Optimisation

  • The object function is convex. (or the negative of a concavity)
  • The feasible set is a convex set.

See further study.