Linear Threshold for Oertel's Conjecture on the Mixed-Integer Volume

TL;DR

This paper proves a linear threshold for Oertel's conjecture on mixed-integer convex sets, establishing new conditions under which a point with large halfspace depth exists, advancing understanding of volume distribution in such sets.

Contribution

It demonstrates that when the projection of the convex set contains an  ball of radius proportional to the dimensions, Oertel's conjecture holds, extending previous results significantly.

Findings

Established a linear  radius condition for the conjecture

Proved the conjecture for a larger family of sets than before

Showed the necessity of linear scaling for the radius condition

Abstract

Gr\"unbaum's inequality guarantees that the centroid of a convex body has halfspace depth at least $1/e$: every halfspace containing the centroid captures at least a $1/e$ fraction of the body's volume. For mixed-integer convex sets $S=C\cap(\mathbb Z^n\times\mathbb{R}^d)$ where $C$ is a convex body, Oertel conjectured that there exists $y\in S$ such that every closed halfspace $H$ containing $y$ satisfies $H_d(S\cap H)\ge \frac{1}{2^ne} H_d(S)$, where $H_d(X)$ denotes the $d$-dimensional Hausdorff measure of $X$. This conjecture is closely connected to complexity bounds for cutting plane methods and information complexity in mixed-integer convex optimization. Basu and Oertel established this conjecture for sets of sufficiently large lattice width, with the required lower bound on lattice width depending exponentially on the dimension. More recently, Cristi and Salas reduced this threshold to a polynomial one by assuming that $\mathrm{proj}_{\mathbb{R}^n}(C)$ contains a Euclidean ball of radius at least $1178 d^2n^{3/2}$. We prove that when the projection contains an $\ell_\infty$ ball of radius $k\ge(3e/2)(n+d)$, which is linear in the dimensions $n$ and $d$, there exists $y^*\in S$ such that every closed halfspace $H$ containing $y^*$ satisfies $H_d(S\cap H)\ge\left(\frac{1}{e}-\frac{3(n+d)}{2k}\right)H_d(S)$. In particular, when $k\ge 3e(n+d)$ we obtain $H_d(S\cap H)\ge \frac{1}{2e}H_d(S)\ge \frac{1}{2^ne}H_d(S)$, thus verifying Oertel's conjecture for a significantly larger family of sets than previous results. We also show that this linear scaling is necessary: when the radius is sublinear in the total dimension, the maximum achievable halfspace depth can be arbitrarily small relative to the total mixed-integer volume, so no dimension-independent constant fraction lower bound is possible under such an assumption alone. However, the conjecture remains open in its full generality.