Convex) Level Sets Integration
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Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) (Convex) Level Sets Integration Jean-Pierre Crouzeix · Andrew Eberhard · Daniel Ralph Dedicated to Vladimir Demjanov Received: date / Accepted: date Abstract The paper addresses the problem of recovering a pseudoconvex function from the normal cones to its level sets that we call the convex level sets integration problem. An important application is the revealed preference problem. Our main result can be described as integrating a maximally cycli- cally pseudoconvex multivalued map that sends vectors or \bundles" of a Eu- clidean space to convex sets in that space. That is, we are seeking a pseudo convex (real) function such that the normal cone at each boundary point of each of its lower level sets contains the set value of the multivalued map at the same point. This raises the question of uniqueness of that function up to rescaling. Even after normalising the function long an orienting direction, we give a counterexample to its uniqueness. We are, however, able to show uniqueness under a condition motivated by the classical theory of ordinary differential equations. Keywords Convexity and Pseudoconvexity · Monotonicity and Pseudomono- tonicity · Maximality · Revealed Preferences. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) 26B25 · 91B42 · 91B16 Jean-Pierre Crouzeix, Corresponding Author, LIMOS, Campus Scientifique des C´ezeaux,Universit´eBlaise Pascal, 63170 Aubi`ere,France, E-mail: [email protected] Andrew Eberhard School of Mathematical & Geospatial Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC., Aus- tralia, E-mail: [email protected] Daniel Ralph University of Cambridge, Judge Business School, UK, E-mail: [email protected] 2 Jean-Pierre Crouzeix et al. 1 Introduction Given a (multivalued) map the convex integration problem consists of finding a convex function whose subdifferential, or gradient in the smooth case, coincides with the map. Under appropriate conditions, the solution is unique up to a constant. In this paper, one considers the much more difficult problem where we are seeking a pseudo convex function corresponding to a map that generates the normal cones to the level sets of the function. One question is the uniqueness of the solution up to a scalarization. In both cases, two situations are considered: the map is continuously dif- ferentiable and the map is multivalued. Despite the great difference of difficulties encountered, there are similari- ties in the treatment of the differentiable and multivalued cases in these two situations. 2 Statement of the problem Given a 2 C ⊂ IRn ; α 2 IR and F : C ! IRn , the classical integration problem consists of finding f : C ! IR differentiable on C such that rf(x) = F (x) for all x 2 C and f(a) = α. For convenience, we assume throughout all the paper that C is open and convex. When f turns out to be convex, hF (x); y − xi ≤ f(y) − f(x) 8 x; y 2 C: In the convex case, the generalization of the integration problem to multi- valued monotone maps F consists of finding f convex on C such that f(a) = α and hx∗; y − xi ≤ f(y) − f(x) 8 x; y 2 C; 8 x∗ 2 F (x): We speak of this problem as the convex integration problem. Another problem, significantly more difficult, consists, when F is single valued, of finding f ! IR differentiable such that rf(x) F (x) = 8 x 2 C: krf(x)k kF (x)k We speak of this problem as the differentiable level sets integration problem. In case where f turns out to be pseudoconvex, then hrf(x); y − xi ≤ 0 8 x 2 C; 8y 2 S(x); (Convex) Level Sets Integration 3 where S(x) is the level set S(x) := fy 2 C : f(y) ≤ f(x)g: We consider the generalisation of this problem to the case where F is multivalued. It consists of finding f pseudoconvex such that hx∗; y − xi ≤ 0 8 x 2 C; 8 y 2 S(x); 8 x∗ 2 F (x): We call this problem the convex level sets integration problem. If the theories of classical and convex integration have been well estab- lished over several decades, this is not yet the case for level sets integration. However, despite the different levels of difficulties inherent in these problems, the approaches of their respective treatments present strong similarities. It is but one of the purposes of this paper to show the similarities and the differ- ences between differentiable and non differentiable, convex and convex level sets integration. In this respect, Section 3 briefly discusses classical integration in order to prepare the treatment of (convex) level sets integration. Section 4, based on Crouzeix{Rapcs´ak[1], treats the differentiable level sets convex prob- lem for comparison with Section 6 where the nondifferentiable case is studied. Section 5 is a very short review of the generalized convex and monotone prop- erties used in Section 6. Finally, Section 7 connects the paper with the problem known in economics as the revealed preference problem. The inner product of two vectors x; y 2 IRn is denoted by hx; yi or x>y. The Euclidean norm of a vector x 2 IRn is denoted by kxk. The convex hull n n of a set A is denoted by conv (A). Given a multivalued map F : IR ⇒ IR its graph and its domain are the sets graph (F ) := f(x; x ∗) 2 IRn × IRn : x ∗ 2 F (x)g and dom (F ) := fx 2 IRn : F (x) 6= ;g respectively. For a set S ⊂ IRn × IRn , Proj (graph (F )) := fx 2 IRn : 9y 2 IRn ; (x; y) 2 Sg, e.g., dom (F ) = Proj (graph (F )). 3 Integration and Convex Integration Through all sections C ⊂ IRn is an open convex set. 3.1 The Differentiable Case Assume that F : C ! IR is continuous. Let a 2 C, and α 2 IR. The problem consists in finding a function f : C ! IR continuously differentiable on C such that rf(x) = F (x) for all x 2 C and f(a) = α. 4 Jean-Pierre Crouzeix et al. If such a f exists, then necessarily, Z 1 f(x) = α + hF (a + t(x − a)); x − aidt 8 x 2 C: (1) 0 Thus, if the problem admits one solution, the solution is unique. The existence of a solution is a little more difficult question, additional assumptions are re- quired. In order to prepare the treatment of differentiable level sets integration in Section 3, we briefly describe a sketch of the proof. The function f given by formula (1) is a solution of the problem if and only if for all d such that (a + d) 2 C 1 [f(a + d + h) − f(a) − hF (a + d); hi] ! 0 when h ! 0: (2) khk It is well known that this condition holds as soon as F is continuously differ- entiable on C and the matrix F 0(x) is symmetric for all x 2 C. Under this condition, f is convex if and only if F 0(x) is positive semidefinite for all x 2 C. Expression (1) provides a construction of the (convex) function f. To summarize: the existence of f such that F coincides with rf is ensured by the continuity of F 0 and the symmetry of the matrices F 0(x), the convexity of f by the positive semidefiniteness of the matrices F 0(x), the uniqueness of f up to a constant is ensured by the continuity of F . 3.2 The Nondifferentiable Case Next, we consider the generalization of the problem to nondifferentiable func- tions f. An appropriate generalization of differentiability for convex functions is the subdifferentiability in the sense of Fenchel. Recall that the subdifferential @f of a function f is defined by @f(x) := f x∗ : hx∗; y − xi ≤ f(y) − f(x) 8 yg: The subdifferential of a convex function is a cyclically monotone map, i.e., for ∗ ∗ ∗ all finite family f(xi; xi ); i = 0; ··· ; pg ⊂ graph (@f ) = f(x; x ): x 2 @f (x)g ∗ ∗ with (x0; x0) = (xp; xp) one has p−1 X ∗ hxi ; xi+1 − xii ≤ 0: i=0 If f : C ! IR is a differentiable convex function, then @f(x) = frf(x)g at all x 2 C. (Convex) Level Sets Integration 5 The convex integration problem consists in building a convex function f n from a cyclically monotone multivalued map F : C ⇒ IR such that f(a) = α and F (x) ⊂ @f(x) 8 x 2 dom (F ) := f y : 9 y∗ such that y∗ 2 F (x)g: (3) 3.2.1 Existence Let ; 6= S ⊂ graph (F ), (a; a∗) 2 S and α 2 IR. The following construction of n fS : IR ! IR [ f+1g is borrowed from Rockafellar [2]: 2 3 p p 2 N; xp+1 = x; X f (x) := α + sup 6 hx∗; x − x i : ∗ ∗ 7 : (4) S 4 i i+1 i (x0; x0) = (a; a ); 5 i=0 ∗ (xi; xi ) 2 S; i = 1; ··· ; p It straightforwardly follows that fS is a proper convex lower semicontinuous function because it is a supremum of affine functions. Also, fS ≤ fT whenever S ⊂ T ⊂ graph (F ). Next, due to the cyclic monotonicity of F , one has ∗ ∗ fS(a) = α and x 2 @fS(x) for all (x; x ) 2 S. Actually, fS is the smallest lower semicontinuous convex function for which these two conditions hold. Also, fS is finite on the interior of the convex hull of Proj (S). If card (S) is finite, then fS is a convex piecewise linear function. It can be explicitly computed through a finite number of steps.