The Aubin Property for Generalized Equations over $C^2$-cone Reducible Sets

Abstract: This paper establishes the equivalence of the Aubin property and the strong regularity for generalized equations over $C^2$-cone reducible sets. This result resolves a long-standing question in variational analysis and extends the well-known equivalence theorem for polyhedral sets to a significantly broader class of non-polyhedral cases. Our proof strategy departs from traditional variational techniques, integrating insights from convex geometry with powerful tools from algebraic topology. A cornerstone of our analysis is a new fundamental lemma concerning the local structure of the normal cone map for arbitrary closed convex sets, which reveals how the dimension of normal cones varies in the neighborhood of a boundary point. This geometric insight is the key to applying degree theory, allowing us to prove that a crucial function associated with the problem has a topological index of $\pm1$. This, via a homological version of the inverse mapping theorem, implies that the function is a local homeomorphism, which in turn yields the strong regularity of the original solution map. This result unifies and extends several existing stability results for problems such as conventional nonlinear programming, nonlinear second-order cone programming, and nonlinear semidefinite programming under a single general framework.