Part 3 - Convexity II | rezarezvan.com

Outline

In this part, we will cover the following topics:

Convex functions
The epigraph of a function
Characterizations of convex functions
Subgradients & subdifferentials
Convex optimization problems

We will start by defining convex functions and exploring their properties.

Convex Functions

Definition 1 (Convex Function)

Suppose $S \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$ is a convex set. Let $f: S \to \mathbb{R}$ be a function. We say that $f$ is a convex function if,

f(\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2) \leq \lambda f(\mathbf{x}_1) + (1-\lambda) f(\mathbf{x}_2) \begin{cases} \forall \mathbf{x}_1, \mathbf{x}_2 \in S, \newline \lambda \in (0,1) \end{cases}

Note

It is called strictly convex if the inequality is strict for $\mathbf{x}_1 \neq \mathbf{x}_2$ , i.e.,

f(\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2) < \lambda f(\mathbf{x}_1) + (1-\lambda) f(\mathbf{x}_2) \begin{cases} \forall \mathbf{x}_1, \mathbf{x}_2 \in S, \newline \lambda \in (0,1), \newline \mathbf{x}_1 \neq \mathbf{x}_2 \end{cases}

The function is called concave if $-f$ is convex.

Example 1 (Some Convex Functions)

f(\mathbf{x}) = \mathbf{c}^T \mathbf{x} + d, \quad \mathbf{c} \in \mathbb{R}^n, d \in \mathbb{R},

is both convex and concave (only function that is both convex and concave).

f(\mathbf{x}) = \Vert \mathbf{x} \Vert

is convex.

f(\mathbf{x}) = \Vert \mathbf{x} \Vert^2

is strictly convex.

Proposition 1 (Non-negative Weighted Sum of Convex Functions is Convex)

Let $S \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$ be a convex set and $f_k: S \to \mathbb{R}, k=1, \ldots, K$ be convex functions. Let $\alpha_k \geq 0, k=1, \ldots, K$ . Then,

f(\mathbf{x}) \coloneqq \sum_{k=1}^K \alpha_k f_k(\mathbf{x}) \, \text{is convex.}

Proposition 2 (Composition of Convex Functions)

Let $g: \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}$ be a convex function and $f: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ ¹ be a convex function and non-decreasing ² function. Then, the composition $f(g(\mathbf{x}))$ is convex.

Example 2 (Composition of Convex Functions)

Let f $(x) = e^x$ and $g(x) = x^2$ . Both are convex on $\mathbb{R}$ and $f$ is non-decreasing. By our proposition, $f(g(x)) = e^{x^2}$ is convex (on $\mathbb{R}$ ) ³.

The Epigraph of a Function

Definition 2 (Epigraph of a Function)

The epigraph of a function $f: \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R} \cup \{\pm \infty \}$ is defined as,

\mathrm{epi}(f) \coloneqq \{(\mathbf{x}, \alpha) \in \mathbb{R}^n \times \mathbb{R} \mid f(\mathbf{x}) \leq \alpha \}

Note

\mathrm{epi}(f) \subseteq \mathbb{R}^{n+1}

Theorem 1 (Characterization of Convex Functions via Epigraphs)

$f$ is convex if and only if $\mathrm{epi}(f)$ is a convex set.]

Definition 3 (

C^1

Functions)

C^1 \coloneqq \text{set of all continuously differentiable functions}

Characterizations of Convexity (of $C^1$ Functions)

Theorem 2 (First Order Characterization of Convexity)

Let $f \in C^1$ on an open convext set $S$ . Then,

f \text{ is convex} \iff f(\mathbf{x}) \geq f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}}) + \nabla f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}})^T (\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x^{\prime}}), \quad \forall \mathbf{x}, \mathbf{x^{\prime}} \in S

Proof (First Order Characterization of Convexity)

Let $f$ be a convex functrion. Let $\mathbf{x}, \mathbf{x^{\prime}} \in S$ and $\lambda \in (0,1)$ . By the definition of convexity,

\begin{align*} f(\lambda \mathbf{x} + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x^{\prime}}) & \leq \lambda f(\mathbf{x}) + \underbrace{(1-\lambda) f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}})}_{f(\mathbf{x}^{\prime}) - \lambda f(\mathbf{x}^{\prime})} \newline f(\mathbf{x}) - f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}}) & \geq \frac{f(\lambda \mathbf{x} + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x^{\prime}}) - f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}})}{\lambda} \newline & \geq \frac{f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}} + \lambda (\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x^{\prime}})) - f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}})}{\lambda} \newline \end{align*}

If we now let $\lambda \to 0^{+}$ , we get,

\begin{align*} f(\mathbf{x}) - f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}}) & \geq \nabla f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}})^T (\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x^{\prime}}) \newline f(\mathbf{x}) & \geq f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}}) + \nabla f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}})^T (\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x^{\prime}}) \ _\blacksquare \end{align*}

Now, let,

f(\mathbf{x}) \geq f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}}) + \nabla f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}})^T (\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x^{\prime}}), \quad \forall \mathbf{x}, \mathbf{x^{\prime}} \in S

Let $\mathbf{x}_1, \mathbf{x}_2 \in S$ and $\lambda \in (0,1)$ . We set $\mathbf{x} = \mathbf{x}_1$ and $\mathbf{x^{\prime}} = \lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2$ in the above inequality to get,

f(\mathbf{x}_1) \geq f(\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2) + \nabla f(\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2)^T (\mathbf{x}_1 - (\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2))

Further, we set $\mathbf{x} = \mathbf{x}_2$ and $\mathbf{x^{\prime}} = \lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2$ in the above inequality to get,

f(\mathbf{x}_2) \geq f(\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2) + \nabla f(\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2)^T (\mathbf{x}_2 - (\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2))

Multiplying the first inequality by $\lambda$ and the second by $(1-\lambda)$ and adding them, we get,

\begin{align*} \lambda f(\mathbf{x}_1) + (1-\lambda) f(\mathbf{x}_2) & \geq f(\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2) + \nabla f(\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2)^T \newline & \quad (\lambda (\mathbf{x}_1 - (\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2)) + (1-\lambda) (\mathbf{x}_2 - (\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2))) \newline & = f(\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2) + \nabla f(\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2)^T \cdot 0 \newline & = f(\lambda \mathbf{x}_1 + (1-\lambda) \mathbf{x}_2) \ _\blacksquare \end{align*}

Subgradients & Subdifferentials

Definition 4 (Subgradient)

Let $S \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$ be a convex set and $f: S \to \mathbb{R}$ be a convex function. $P \in \mathbb{R}^n$ is called a subgradient of $f$ at $\mathbf{x^{\prime}} \in S$ if,

f(\mathbf{x}) \geq f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}}) + P^T (\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x^{\prime}}), \quad \forall \mathbf{x} \in S

Definition 5 (Subdifferential)

Let $S \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$ be a convex set and $f: S \to \mathbb{R}$ be a convex function. The subdifferential of $f$ at $\mathbf{x^{\prime}} \in S$ is defined as,

\partial f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}}) \coloneqq \{ P \in \mathbb{R}^n \mid f(\mathbf{x}) \geq f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}}) + P^T (\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x^{\prime}}), \quad \forall \mathbf{x} \in S \}

Or, in other words, the set of all subgradients of $f$ at $\mathbf{x^{\prime}}$ .

Proposition 3 (Subdifferential of Differentiable Convex Function)

Let $S \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$ be a convex set and $f: S \to \mathbb{R}$ be a convex function. If $\mathbf{x}^{\prime} \in \mathrm{int} \, S$ ⁴, and $f$ is differentiable at $\mathbf{x}^{\prime}$ , then,

\partial f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}}) = \{ \nabla f(\mathbf{x^{\prime}}) \}

Characterizations of Convexity (of $C^2$ Functions)

Theorem 3 (Second Order Characterization of Convexity)

Let $S \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$ be an open convex set and $f \in C^2$ on $S$ . Then,

f \text{ is convex} \iff \nabla^2 f(\mathbf{x}) \succeq 0, \quad \forall \mathbf{x} \in S

where $\nabla^2 f(\mathbf{x})$ is the Hessian of $f$ at $\mathbf{x}$ and $\succeq 0$ means positive semidefinite. Further,

\nabla^2 f(\mathbf{x}) \succ 0, \quad \forall \mathbf{x} \in S \implies f \text{ is strictly convex}

Notice how in the second part, we only have an implication and not an equivalence. This is because the converse is not necessarily true.

Example 3 (Second Order Characterization of Convexity)

Let $f(x) = x_4$ this is a strictly convex and the gradient is,

\nabla f(x) = 4x^3

The Hessian is,

\nabla^2 f(x) = 12x^2,

But,

\nabla^2 f(0) = 0 \nsucc 0

Example 4 (Second Order Characterization of Convexity)

Let $f(\mathbf{x}) = \frac{1}{2} \mathbf{x}^T Q \mathbf{x} - \mathbf{q}^T \mathbf{x}$ , where $Q \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times n}$ is a symmetric matrix (i.e., $Q = Q^T$ ) and $\mathbf{q} \in \mathbb{R}^n$ . The gradient is,

\nabla f(\mathbf{x}) = Q \mathbf{x} - \mathbf{q}

The Hessian is,

\nabla^2 f(\mathbf{x}) = Q

Thus, by the second order characterization of convexity, $f$ is convex if and only if $Q \succeq 0$ .

Convex Optimization Problems

Consider the problem $P$

\begin{align*} \min_{\mathbf{x}} \ & f(\mathbf{x}) \newline \text{subject to } & g_i(\mathbf{x}) \leq 0, \quad i \in \mathcal{I} \newline & g_i(\mathbf{x}) = 0, \quad i \in \mathcal{E} \newline & \mathbf{x} \in X \end{align*}

$P$ is called a convex problem if,

(1) $f$ is convex,
(2) $g_i, i \in \mathcal{I}$ are convex,
(3) $g_i, i \in \mathcal{E}$ are affine,
(4) $X$ is a convex set.

These conditions make sure that $\{\mathbf{x} \in \mathbb{R}^n \mid g_i(\mathbf{x}) \leq 0, i \in \mathcal{I} \}$ is a convex set and $\{\mathbf{x} \in \mathbb{R}^n \mid g_i(\mathbf{x}) = 0, i \in \mathcal{E} \}$ is a convext set.

Note

Very, very often we will minimize a function, but sometimes maximizing a function can be more natural, but we have to be careful.

\min f(\mathbf{x}) \iff -\max -f(\mathbf{x})

Therefore, also $\max f(\mathbf{x})$ for a concave function $f$ is a convex problem.

Footnotes

Note that one can generalize this statement, the domains do not necessarily need to be $\mathbb{R}^n$ and $\mathbb{R}$ , respectievly.
↩
The motivation here is, if we have $f(x) = -x$ , our composition will become concave.
↩
Note that if we restrict our domain to $\mathbb{R}^{+}$ , $g(x) = x^2$ becomes non-decreasing and thus $g(f(x)) = (e^x)^2 = e^{2x}$ is convex on $\mathbb{R}^{+}$ as well.
↩
$\mathrm{int} \, S$ is the interior of $S$ .
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Part 3 - Convexity II

Outline

Convex Functions

The Epigraph of a Function

Characterizations of Convexity (of C1C^1C1 Functions)

Subgradients & Subdifferentials

Characterizations of Convexity (of C2C^2C2 Functions)

Convex Optimization Problems

Characterizations of Convexity (of $C^1$ Functions)

Characterizations of Convexity (of $C^2$ Functions)