Complete positivity and distance-avoiding sets

Math Program. 2022;191(2):487-558. doi: 10.1007/s10107-020-01562-6. Epub 2020 Sep 16.

Abstract

We introduce the cone of completely positive functions, a subset of the cone of positive-type functions, and use it to fully characterize maximum-density distance-avoiding sets as the optimal solutions of a convex optimization problem. As a consequence of this characterization, it is possible to reprove and improve many results concerning distance-avoiding sets on the sphere and in Euclidean space.

Keywords: Chromatic number of Euclidean space; Copositive programming; Hadwiger-Nelson problem; Harmonic analysis; Semidefinite programming.