Linear polyhedron 2026-10-06
A linear polyhedron is an intersection of finitely many closed affine half-spaces in finite-dimensional real space. It may be empty, unbounded, or lower-dimensional. This usage differs from a three-dimensional geometric polyhedron. The strict separation of disjoint linear polyhedra follows from linear programming duality.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 38 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For the converse, construct a phase-I linear program with a common violation variable:where is unrestricted. This linear program is feasible for sufficiently large , bounded below by zero, and attains its optimum. If the two linear polyhedra are disjoint, its optimum is strictly positive: an attained zero optimum would give a common point.
For nonnegative vectors , its optimization Lagrangian isTaking the infimum over and gives the Lagrangian dual problemBy strong duality for linear programming, an optimal dual pair exists and has objective . It supplies the infeasibility certificateTake . Every and obeysThe assumed nonemptiness of each linear polyhedron also ensures : if , their feasibility would force both and to be nonnegative. This proves the strict separation of disjoint linear polyhedra using Lagrangian duality.