English

Rational Quartic Spectrahedra

Algebraic Geometry 2020-06-30 v3 Optimization and Control

Abstract

Rational quartic spectrahedra in 3-space are semialgebraic convex subsets in R3\mathbb{R}^3 of semidefinite, real symmetric (4×4)(4 \times 4)-matrices, whose boundary admits a rational parameterization. The Zariski closure in CP3\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^3 of the boundary of a rational spectrahedron is a rational complex symmetroid. We give necessary conditions on the configurations of singularities of the corresponding real symmetroids in RP3\mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^3 of rational quartic spectrahedra. We provide an almost exhaustive list of examples realizing the configurations, and conjecture that the missing example does not occur.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1810.11235,
  title  = {Rational Quartic Spectrahedra},
  author = {Martin Helsø and Kristian Ranestad},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.11235},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Updated version to be published in Mathematica Scandinavica. Substantially rewritten, with strengthened results. 19 pages, 8 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T04:53:27.960Z