A copositive formulation for the stability number of infinite graphs

Abstract: In the last decade, copositive formulations have been proposed for a variety of combinatorial optimization problems, for example the stability number (independence number). In this paper, we generalize this approach to infinite graphs and show that the stability number of an infinite graph is the optimal solution of some infinite-dimensional copositive program. For this we develop a duality theory between the primal convex cone of copositive kernels and the dual convex cone of completely positive measures. We determine the extreme rays of the latter cone, and we illustrate this theory with the help of the kissing number problem.