Projection Onto A Simplex

Abstract

This mini-paper presents a fast and simple algorithm to compute the projection onto the canonical simplex $\triangle^n$. Utilizing the Moreau's identity, we show that the problem is essentially a univariate minimization and the objective function is strictly convex and continuously differentiable. Moreover, it is shown that there are at most n candidates which can be computed explicitly, and the minimizer is the only one that falls into the correct interval