Faster Linear Programming with $\sqrt{\mathrm{rank}}$ Linear System Solves

Abstract

Lee and Sidford [LS19] showed that the linear program $\min\{c^\top x\ :\ A^\top x=b,\ l\leq x\leq u\}$ over $x\in\mathbb{R}^m$, where $A\in\mathbb{R}^{m\times n}$, can be solved to accuracy $ε$ using $O(\sqrt n\log^{13}m\cdot\log(mU/ε))$ solves of linear systems in $A^\top\mathbf DA$ for positive diagonal matrices $\mathbf D$, where $U$ bounds the magnitudes of the input and of the initial point. Theirs is the first such bound governed by $\mathrm{rank}(A)=n$ rather than by the number of constraints $m$. Song [Son19] mentioned that reducing the $\log^{13}m$ factor is an interesting future direction. Given an interior point and a finite certified magnitude bound $U$, we give an algorithm that uses $O(\sqrt n\log^{4}m\cdot\log(mU/ε))$ solves of such linear systems, improving the Lee--Sidford bound by a factor of $\log^{9}m$. We conjecture that $O(\sqrt n\log(mU/ε))$ such linear-system solves suffice.