A Frank-Wolfe Type Theorem for Convex Polynomial Programs

In 1956, Frank and Wolfe extended the fundamental existence theorem of linear programming by proving that an arbitrary quadratic function f attains its minimum over a nonempty convex polyhedral set X provided f is bounded from below over X. We show that a similar statement holds if f is a convex polynomial and X is the solution set of a system of convex polynomial inequalities. In fact, this result was published by the first author already in a 1977 book, but seems to have been unnoticed until now. Further, we discuss the behavior of convex polynomial sets under linear transformations and derive some consequences of the Frank-Wolfe type theorem for perturbed problems. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]