A certificate of non-negativity is a way to write a given function so that
its non-negativity becomes evident. Certificates of non-negativity are
fundamental tools in optimization, and they underlie powerful algorithmic
techniques for various types of optimization problems. We propose certificates
of non-negativity of polynomials based on copositive polynomials. The
certificates we obtain are valid for generic semialgebraic sets and have a
fixed small degree, while commonly used sums-of-squares (SOS) certificates are
guaranteed to be valid only for compact semialgebraic sets and could have large
degree. Optimization over the cone of copositive polynomials is not tractable,
but this cone has been well studied. The main benefit of our copositive
certificates of non-negativity is their ability to translate results known
exclusively for copositive polynomials to more general semialgebraic sets. In
particular, we show how to use copositive polynomials to construct structured
(e.g., sparse) certificates of non-negativity, even for unstructured
semialgebraic sets. Last but not least, copositive certificates can be used to
obtain not only hierarchies of tractable lower bounds, but also hierarchies of
tractable upper bounds for polynomial optimization problems.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figur