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Sublinear Circuits and the Constrained Signomial Nonnegativity Problem

Conditional Sums-of-AM/GM-Exponentials (conditional SAGE) is a decomposition method to prove nonnegativity of a signomial or polynomial over some subset $X$ of real space. In this article, we undertake the first structural analysis of conditional SAGE signomials for convex sets $X$. We introduce the $X$-circuits of a finite subset $\mathcal{A} \subset \mathbb{R}^n$, which generalize the simplicial circuits of the affine-linear matroid induced by $\mathcal{A}$ to a constrained setting. The $X$-circuits serve as the main tool in our analysis and exhibit particularly rich combinatorial properties for polyhedral $X$, in which case the set of $X$-circuits is comprised of one-dimensional cones of suitable polyhedral fans. The framework of $X$-circuits transparently reveals when an $X$-nonnegative conditional AM/GM-exponential can in fact be further decomposed as a sum of simpler $X$-nonnegative signomials. We develop a duality theory for $X$-circuits with connections to geometry of sets that are convex according to the geometric mean. This theory provides an optimal power cone reconstruction of conditional SAGE signomials when $X$ is polyhedral. In conjunction with a notion of reduced $X$-circuits, the duality theory facilitates a characterization of the extreme rays of conditional SAGE cones. Since signomials under logarithmic variable substitutions give polynomials, our results also have implications for nonnegative polynomials and polynomial optimization.