Sum of the largest eigenvalues ($F_k(X)={\sum }_{i=1}^k{\lambda }_i(X)$)

For a real symmetric matrix $X$ with eigenvalues ${\lambda }_1\ge \cdots \ge {\lambda }_n$, the sum of its $k$ largest eigenvalues is the support function of the fantope:Here $⪯$ is the Loewner order. In an orthonormal eigenbasis for $X$, the objective depends only on the diagonal entries of $Y$, which lie in the capped simplex. Thus the identity reduces to the sum of the largest components of the eigenvalues.

For a real symmetric matrix $X$ and $1\le k\le n$,Indeed $Y=Q{Q}^T$ is a rank-$k$ orthogonal projection matrix in the fantope, and projecting onto the eigenvectors of the largest eigenvalues attains the support function maximum. Equivalently, the largest matrix trace of a compression to a $k$-dimensional vector subspace is the sum of the largest eigenvalues.

The sum of the largest eigenvalues has the semidefinite program representationFor every feasible $Y$ in the fantope, positive semidefinite trace nonnegativity gives $\mathrm{tr}(XY)\le kt+\mathrm{tr}S$. To attain equality, use an orthonormal eigenbasis of $X$ and choose $S=\mathrm{diag}(({\lambda }_i-t{)}_{+})$ in that basis, with the same threshold choice as in the threshold formula for the sum of the largest components. This argument also covers $k=n$, without requiring strict feasibility of the maximization program.