Convex cones

From Wikimization

Jump to: navigation, search

We call the set LaTeX: \mathcal{K}_{\!}\subseteq_{\!}\mathbb{R}^M a convex cone iff

LaTeX: \Gamma_{1\,},\Gamma_2\in\mathcal{K}~\Rightarrow~\zeta_{\,}\Gamma_1+_{_{}}\xi_{\,}\Gamma_2
\in_{_{}}\overline{\mathcal{K}}\textrm{~~for all~\,}\zeta_{\,},\xi\geq0.

Apparent from this definition, LaTeX: \zeta_{\,}\Gamma_{1\!}\in\overline{\mathcal{K}} and LaTeX: \xi_{\,}\Gamma_2\in_{}\overline{\mathcal{K}} for all LaTeX: \zeta_{\,},\xi_{\!}\geq_{\!}0_{}.

The set LaTeX: \mathcal{K} is convex since, for any particular LaTeX: \zeta_{\,},\xi\geq0,

LaTeX: \mu\,\zeta_{\,}\Gamma_1\,+\,(1-\mu)_{\,}\xi_{\,}\Gamma_2\in_{}\overline{\mathcal{K}}\quad\forall\,\mu\in_{}[0_{},1]

because LaTeX: \mu\,\zeta_{\,},(1-\mu)_{\,}\xi\geq0_{}.

Obviously, the set of all convex cones is a proper subset of all cones.

The set of convex cones is a narrower but more familiar class of cone, any member of which can be equivalently described as the intersection of a possibly (but not necessarily) infinite number of hyperplanes (through the origin) and halfspaces whose bounding hyperplanes pass through the origin; a halfspace-description.

Convex cones need not be full-dimensional.

Familiar examples of convex cones include an unbounded ice-cream cone united with its interior (a.k.a: second-order cone, quadratic cone, circular cone, Lorentz cone),

LaTeX: \mathcal{K}_\ell=\left\{\left[\begin{array}{c}x\\t\end{array}\right]\!\in\mathbb{R}^n\!\times\mathbb{R}
~|~\|x\|_\ell\leq_{}t\right\}~,\qquad\ell\!=\!2

and any polyhedral cone; e.g., any orthant generated by Cartesian half-axes. Esoteric examples of convex cones include the point at the origin, any line through the origin, any ray having the origin as base such as the nonnegative real line LaTeX: \mathbb{R}_+ in subspace LaTeX: \mathbb{R}\,, any halfspace partially bounded by a hyperplane through the origin, the positive semidefinite cone LaTeX: \mathbb{S}_+^M, the cone of Euclidean distance matrices LaTeX: \mathbb{EDM}^N, any subspace, and Euclidean vector space LaTeX: \mathbb{R}^n.

Personal tools