A minimal face constant rank constraint qualification for reducible conic programming

TL;DR

This paper introduces a minimal face-based constraint qualification for reducible conic programming, simplifying optimality conditions and facial reduction by focusing on a specific face rather than all faces of the cone.

Contribution

It extends the constant rank constraint qualification to $ ext{C}^2$-cone reducible constraints, identifying a single face for facial reduction and establishing strong second-order optimality conditions.

Findings

A single face suffices for first-order optimality conditions.

Facial reduction can be localized to a specific face.

Strong second-order conditions hold with subfaces of this face.

Abstract

In a previous paper [R. Andreani, G. Haeser, L. M. Mito, H. Ram\'irez, T. P. Silveira. First- and second-order optimality conditions for second-order cone and semidefinite programming under a constant rank condition. Mathematical Programming, 2023. DOI: 10.1007/s10107-023-01942-8] we introduced a constant rank constraint qualification for nonlinear semidefinite and second-order cone programming by considering all faces of the underlying cone. This condition is independent of Robinson's condition and it implies a strong second-order necessary optimality condition which depends on a single Lagrange multiplier instead of the full set of Lagrange multipliers. In this paper we expand on this result in several directions, namely, we consider the larger class of $\mathcal{C}^2-$cone reducible constraints and we show that it is not necessary to consider all faces of the cone; instead a single specific face should be considered (which turns out to be weaker than Robinson's condition) in order for the first order necessary optimality condition to hold. This gives rise to a notion of facial reduction for nonlinear conic programming, that allows locally redefining the original problem only in terms of this specific face instead of the whole cone, providing a more robust formulation of the problem in which Robinson's condition holds. We were also able to prove the strong second-order necessary optimality condition in this context by considering only the subfaces of this particular face, which is a new result even in nonlinear programming.