We present bounds on various quantities of interest regarding the central trajectory of a semi-definite program (SDP), where the bounds are functions of Renegar's condition number C(d) and other naturally-occurring quantities such as the dimensions n and m. The condition number C(d) is defined in terms of the data instance d = (A, b, C) for SDP; it is the inverse of a relative measure of the distance of the data instance to the set of ill-posed data instances, that is, data instances for which arbitrary perturbations would make the corresponding SDP either feasible or infeasible. We provide upper and lower bounds on the solutions along the central trajectory, and upper bounds on changes in solutions and objective function values along the central trajectory when the data instance is perturbed and/or when the path parameter defining the central trajectory is changed. Based on these bounds, we prove that the solutions along the central trajectory grow at most linearly and at a rate proportional to the inverse of the distance to ill-posedness, and grow at least linearly and at a rate proportional to the inverse of C(d)2 , as the trajectory approaches an optimal solution to the SDP. Furthermore, the change in solutions and in objective function values along the central trajectory is at most linear in the size of the changes in the data. All such bounds involve polynomial functions of C(d), the size of the data, the distance to ill-posedness of the data, and the dimensions n and m of the SDP.

In this paper we deal with the `strength' of ill-posedness for ill-posed linear operator equations Ax = y in Hilbert spaces, where we distinguish according_to_M. Z. Nashed [15] the ill-posedness of type I if A is not compact, but we have R(A) 6= R(A) for the range R(A) of A; and the ill-posedness of type II for compact operators A: From our considerations it seems to follow that the problems with noncompact operators A are not in general `less' ill-posed than the problems with compact operators. We motivate this statement by comparing the approximation and stability behaviour of discrete least-squares solutions and the growth rate of Galerkin matrices in both cases. Ill-posedness measures for compact operators A as discussed in [10] are derived from the decay rate of the nonincreasing sequence of singular values of A. Since singular values do not exist for noncompact operators A; we introduce stability rates in order to have a common measure for the compact and noncompact cases. Properties of these rates are illustrated by means of convolution equations in the compact case and by means of equations with multiplication operators in the noncompact case. Moreover using increasing rearrangements of the multiplier functions specific measures of ill-posedness called ill-posedness rates are considered for the multiplication operators. In this context, the character of sufficient conditions providing convergence rates of Tikhonov regularization are compared for compact operators and multiplication operators.

In this paper we deal with the `strength' of ill-posedness for ill-posed linear operator equations Ax = y in Hilbert spaces, where we distinguish according_to_M. Z. Nashed [15] the ill-posedness of type I if A is not compact, but we have R(A) 6= R(A) for the range R(A) of A; and the ill-posedness of type II for compact operators A: From our considerations it seems to follow that the problems with noncompact operators A are not in general `less' ill-posed than the problems with compact operators. We motivate this statement by comparing the approximation and stability behaviour of discrete least-squares solutions and the growth rate of Galerkin matrices in both cases. Ill-posedness measures for compact operators A as discussed in [10] are derived from the decay rate of the nonincreasing sequence of singular values of A. Since singular values do not exist for noncompact operators A; we introduce stability rates in order to have a common measure for the compact and noncompact cases. Properties of these rates are illustrated by means of convolution equations in the compact case and by means of equations with multiplication operators in the noncompact case. Moreover using increasing rearrangements of the multiplier functions specific measures of ill-posedness called ill-posedness rates are considered for the multiplication operators. In this context, the character of sufficient conditions providing convergence rates of Tikhonov regularization are compared for compact operators and multiplication operators.