Semidefinite Programs on Sparse Random Graphs

Denote by $A$ the adjacency matrix of an Erd\H{o}s-Renyi graph with bounded average degree. We consider the problem of maximizing $\langle A-{\mathbb E}\{A\},X\rangle$ over the set of positive semidefinite matrices $X$ with diagonal entries $X_{ii}=1$. We prove that for large (bounded) average degree $\gamma$, the value of this semidefinite program (SDP) is -with high probability- $2n\sqrt{\gamma} + n\, o(\sqrt{\gamma})+ o(n)$. Our proof is based on two tools from different research areas. First, we develop a new `higher-rank' Grothendieck inequality for symmetric matrices. In the present case, our inequality implies that the value of the above SDP is arbitrarily well approximated by optimizing over rank-$k$ matrices for $k$ large but bounded. Second, we use the interpolation method from spin glass theory to approximate this problem by a second one concerning Wigner random matrices instead of sparse graphs. As an application of our results, we prove new bounds on community detection via SDP that are substantially more accurate than the state of the art.