Computing Lower Bounds on the Non-negative Rank via SAT Solvers

Abstract: Finding the extension complexity (xc) of a polytope is equivalent to finding the non-negative rank of its slack matrix. We provide a formulation for the rectangle and refined rectangle covering, bounding the non-negative rank of diverse non-negative matrices. While the bounds are known, our formulation enables us to use boolean satisfiability (SAT) solvers, which proves to be a strong tool. We obtain improved values for lower bounds on the non-negative rank of multiple matrices. In particular, we determined the xc of some regular polygons.