Equality constraints not followed for "Solved" SDP problem

Hi All,

I am trying to implement the following SDP code in Matlab

clc;
clear all;
close all;

% constants
nsvd = 5; %Number of modes
N_c = 10; %Number of linearly spaced points between 0 and c_max
N_y = 80; %Number of points in y-direction

yP = [0,0.390514938607723,1.46799561745170,3.26332937544719,5.80864526449735,9.03486538711407, ...
      12.9515731316936,17.5988700160186,22.6814498827928,28.5869213352291,35.2136148497178, ...
      42.6910473000038,50.7978486141225,59.6189626961894,69.2381708298159,79.3724706248449, ...
      90.3434973508633,101.808629345078,114.396622785589,126.780118224767,140.158733596590, ...
      155.376327116633,170.142777579874,185.191311107031,201.642812698034,218.500954435884, ...
      236.105621216221,254.345928171713,273.111292646320,292.887570038162,312.697552616828, ...
      332.148735619785,354.602093942407,377.282264867448,398.929900912017,421.336795287591, ...
      444.796887896479,469.218039646431,493.509334440579,519.367097025344,544.129893364562, ...
      569.381956078757,596.118322292992,623.373679388788,652.190251910176,679.896486024956, ...
      708.041489801016,736.529324212737,765.441274927007,796.669335478415,826.371678357109, ...
      856.463485961769,886.803585576631,917.363265930359,948.273568432540,982.053780249119, ...
      1014.82623722978,1047.92463113639,1081.33604090463,1114.21828509537,1147.37354925624, ...
      1180.79557134070,1215.52574717483,1248.74513364622,1282.18717279486,1315.83880940303, ...
      1353.17618416708,1388.13333366187,1423.26506828233,1458.55767318165,1493.68520322801, ...
      1527.87693735191,1562.18340704703,1596.59121963631,1631.08694288010,1671.06992968758, ...
      1708.49317921569,1745.96768177412,1783.47880793829,1821.01191398637]';
log_yP = log(yP);
log_yP(1) = 0;

A = (10^7)*(rand(nsvd,nsvd,N_y,N_c,4) - 0.5);   % A(i,j,y,c,:) --> Column 1:uu; 2:vv; 3:ww; 4:uv;

%CVX Code
cvx_begin SDP   

    variable X_l(nsvd,nsvd,N_c) hermitian %X_l is the weight matrix
    variable e; %Variable to be optimized
    dual variable Q{4};
    expressions num_int(N_y,4) den_int(N_y,4) num(N_y,4) sum_2(N_y,4)
    expression E_dns(N_y,4)
    E_dns = (rand(N_y,4)-1/2)*(10^7);  %E_dns(y,:): Column 1:uu; 2:vv; 3:ww; 4:uv;  
    
    %   ||g||^2 norm --> integrate {|g log(yP)|^2 d(log(yP))} from yP_min to yP_max
    %   numm and denn are the norms calculated for the numerator and denominator respectively
    %   denn is the norm from E_dns   

    % Variables unaffected by CVX - START
    den_int(:,1) = power(abs(E_dns(:,1).*log_yP),2);  %For uu      
    den_int(:,2) = power(abs(E_dns(:,2).*log_yP),2);  %For vv
    den_int(:,3) = power(abs(E_dns(:,3).*log_yP),2);  %For ww
    den_int(:,4) = power(abs(E_dns(:,4).*log_yP),2);  %For uv

    denn(1) = diff(yP,1).' * (den_int(1:N_y-1,1) + den_int(2:N_y,1))/2; %trapz function for uu    
    denn(2) = diff(yP,1).' * (den_int(1:N_y-1,2) + den_int(2:N_y,2))/2; %trapz function for vv    
    denn(3) = diff(yP,1).' * (den_int(1:N_y-1,3) + den_int(2:N_y,3))/2; %trapz function for ww    
    denn(4) = diff(yP,1).' * (den_int(1:N_y-1,4) + den_int(2:N_y,4))/2; %trapz function for uv  
    % Variables unaffected by CVX - END 
    
    minimize(e) %Minimizing error 'e'
        subject to 
        
        for m = 1,N_y;
            for k = 1,N_c;
                sum_2(m,1) = sum_2(m,1) + real(trace(A(:,:,m,k,1)*X_l(:,:,k)));    %integral term in numerator for uu
                sum_2(m,2) = sum_2(m,2) + real(trace(A(:,:,m,k,2)*X_l(:,:,k)));    %integral term in numerator for vv
                sum_2(m,3) = sum_2(m,3) + real(trace(A(:,:,m,k,3)*X_l(:,:,k)));    %integral term in numerator for ww
                sum_2(m,4) = sum_2(m,4) + real(trace(A(:,:,m,k,4)*X_l(:,:,k)));    %integral term in numerator for uv
            end
            num(m,1) = E_dns(m,1) - sum_2(m,1);    %Numerator before norm for uu
            num(m,2) = E_dns(m,2) - sum_2(m,2);    %Numerator before norm for vv
            num(m,3) = E_dns(m,3) - sum_2(m,3);    %Numerator before norm for ww
            num(m,4) = E_dns(m,4) - sum_2(m,4);    %Numerator before norm for uv           
            
        end
        
        num_int(:,1) = power(abs(num(:,1).*log_yP),2);  %For uu      
        num_int(:,2) = power(abs(num(:,2).*log_yP),2);  %For vv
        num_int(:,3) = power(abs(num(:,3).*log_yP),2);  %For ww
        num_int(:,4) = power(abs(num(:,4).*log_yP),2);  %For uv
        
        numm(1) = diff(yP,1).' * (num_int(1:N_y-1,1) + num_int(2:N_y,1))/2; %trapz function for uu        
        numm(2) = diff(yP,1).' * (num_int(1:N_y-1,2) + num_int(2:N_y,2))/2; %trapz function for uu        
        numm(3) = diff(yP,1).' * (num_int(1:N_y-1,3) + num_int(2:N_y,3))/2; %trapz function for uu        
        numm(4) = diff(yP,1).' * (num_int(1:N_y-1,4) + num_int(2:N_y,4))/2; %trapz function for uu  
        
        % X_l is positive semidefinite
        for k = 1:N_c
           X_l(:,:,k) >= 0;  %Constraint numbers 1-N_c         
        end
        % Inequality condition for error
        for k = 1:4
            Q{k} : numm(k)/denn(k) <= e; %Constraint numbers N_c+1 to N_c+4
        end
            
cvx_end

While the problem is solved, the solver uses only 3 equality constraints whereas, there are more constraints defined in the code. In the code, the constraints display this message when I hover over them “produces a value that might be unused”.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions and advise to figure out the mistake I am making.

Thanks
Vikram

You can’t trust MATLAB editor warnings for CVX code, because the editor doesn’t understand CVX,

I don’t see any equality constraints in your code. Other than LMI constraints and inequality constraints with e, I only see assignment statements, which use a single = , not equality constraints which use == .I don’t know what you code does or is supposed to do. Do you want equality constraints, or are these all supposed to be assignment statements? I see that you declared many expressions.

Sorry, I meant total number of constraints and not equality constraints. When I run the code, the CVX solver gives the following output:

`Calling SDPT3 4.0: 554 variables, 3 equality constraints
num. of constraints = 3
dim. of sdp var = 100, num. of sdp blk = 10
dim. of linear var = 4’

You are right that I have used only LMI constraints and inequality constraints for e. These are the only constraints and all the others are assignment statements. I was wondering that even though inequality constraint for e is applied in a loop 4 times, the total number of constraints from the solver is 3. So, does the solver count all these constraints as a single one or is there some other error in the problem definition?

I don’t know what the relationship is between the number of constraints you input and how many are in the formulation provided to the solver by CVX. CVX does reformulations on the problem you enter before passing it to a solver. So the solver may see a very different problem than what you entered. The information you are seeing is based on the problem the solver receives.

CVX converts the output from the solver back to your original variables, and of course, the optimal solution should satisfy your constraints to within tolerance.

For a more straightforward but somewhat analogous situation,. LP or MILP solvers, among others, reformulate the problem you provide during “pre-solve”,which eliminates redundant constraints, and may be able to tighten bounds. It is very common that the number of constraints and variables is much smaller after pre-solve than before.The solver then solves the pre-solved model. Then the solver takes the optimal solution, and reverses the pre-solve to recover the values of the original variables from the pre-solved variables.

Thanks a lot for clarifying that. Another problem that I find with the results is that the output from the solver for the hermitian matrix with the LMI constraint does not satisfy the equations which have been given in the assignment statements. Do you have any ideas about why that could happen?