Lagrange multiplier expressions for matrix polynomial optimization and tight relaxations

Abstract: This paper studies matrix constrained polynomial optimization. We investigate how to get explicit expressions for Lagrange multiplier matrices from the first order optimality conditions. The existence of these expressions can be shown under the nondegeneracy condition. Using Lagrange multiplier matrix expressions, we propose a strengthened Moment-SOS hierarchy for solving matrix polynomial optimization. Under some general assumptions, we show that this strengthened hierarchy is tight, or equivalently, it has finite convergence. We also study how to detect tightness and how to extract optimizers. Numerical experiments are provided to show the efficiency of the strengthened hierarchy.