In: Advanced Math
Prove that if the primal minimisation problem is unbounded then the dual maximisation
problem is infeasible.
Suppose this is not the case, so that the dual maximization problem
is feasible, but the primal minimization problem
is unbounded.
Fix a feasible solution to the dual problem. Then , so that for all we have
Since the primal problem is unbounded, for every there is such that and . But then, from we get
However, recall that is a fixed vector, and is a fixed feasible solution to the dual. Therefore, is a real constant. Thus, the above shows that for every we have , a constant; this is absurd.
Therefore, the dual problem must be infeasible.