Sufficiency of product depth one

Determine whether product depth d_r=1 always suffices for the single-element mean-polynomial certificate in the depth-truncated optimization hierarchy.

Background

The paper introduces product-depth truncations of the mean-polynomial hierarchy and denotes by d_r the product depth of a single-element certificate at relaxation order r. The inclusion chain explicitly leaves unresolved whether certificates of depth one always suffice.

References

where d_r is the product depth of the single-element certificate; whether d_r=1 always suffices is open.

The Cone Generated by Positive Semidefinite Mean Polynomials  (2608.22739 - Ghasemi et al., 24 Aug 2026) in Section 9.2, equation (hierarchy-chain)