Past exam of the continuous optimisation course of the University of Oxford 2025 3 d ii Solution 2026-10-25
A precise conditional convergence statement is: with the smoothness and convexity assumptions of the question, a strict feasible point, , and barrier stationarity residualsevery convergent sequence of strictly feasible points has a global minimizer as its limit. The Lagrange multiplier estimates are bounded and have a subsequence converging to multipliers satisfying the KKT conditions. The theorem does not assert convergence of the primal sequence without further assumptions.
First, continuity gives . For an inactive optimization constraint, , soFor the active constraints, the hint permits assuming . Combining this with the inactive limits gives , and passage to the limit in the residual equation proves stationarity. Since , complementary slackness also holds. All KKT conditions follow, and part (b) proves global optimality.
The hint's multiplier assumption can in fact be weakened to selecting a subsequence. To see why the estimates are bounded, choose a strict feasible point and put . Concavity givesThe right side is bounded because and . This is the bounded barrier multipliers under Slater's condition argument. A convergent multiplier subsequence then gives the same KKT point, which suffices to prove that the assumed primal limit is globally optimal.