Second-oder analysis in second-oder cone programming

Abstract: The paper conducts a second-order variational analysis for an important class of nonpolyhedral conic programs generated by the so-called second-order/Lorentz/ice-cream cone $Q$. From one hand, we prove that the indicator function of $Q$ is always twice epi-differentiable and apply this result to characterizing the uniqueness of Lagrange multipliers at stationary points together with an error bound estimate in the general second-order cone setting involving ${\cal C}^2$-smooth data. On the other hand, we precisely calculate the graphical derivative of the normal cone mapping to $Q$ under the weakest metric subregularity constraint qualification and then give an application of the latter result to a complete characterization of isolated calmness for perturbed variational systems associated with second-order cone programs. The obtained results seem to be the first in the literature in these directions for nonpolyhedral problems without imposing any nondegeneracy assumptions.