When Can One Obtain Certificates of Optimality Using Positivstellensaetze?
Nayoon KimAllen GehretShenyuan MaJakub Marecek
Sep 2026
Artificial Intelligence
Abstract
We study certificates of positivity and optimality for learning problems whose objectives and constraints need not be polynomial. We isolate an axiomatic core of Fischer's constructive strict and weak Positivstellens\"{a}tze and prove the resulting theorems for abstract function algebras over ordered fields. The framework separates two roles that can otherwise be conflated: objective and constraint functions may be built from broad classes of continuous or definable operations, while the auxiliary primitives used to construct a certificate satisfy explicit scalar and closure axioms. We give instances over continuous and definable function algebras, including ordered fields not closed under square roots, derive lower-bound and global-optimality certificates, and analyze both expanded term length and shared computation-graph complexity.
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