On strong second-order optimality conditions under relaxed constant rank constraint qualification

Abstract: We discuss the (first- and second-order) optimality conditions for nonlinear programming under the relaxed constant rank constraint qualification. This condition generalizes the so-called linear independence constraint qualification. Although the optimality conditions are well established in the literature, the proofs presented here are based solely on the well-known inverse function theorem. This is the only prerequisite from real analysis used to establish two auxiliary results needed to prove the optimality conditions, thereby making this paper totally self-contained.