English

Real identifiability vs complex identifiability

Algebraic Geometry 2018-01-23 v3

Abstract

Let TT be a real tensor of (real) rank rr. TT is 'identifiable' when it has a unique decomposition in terms of rank 11 tensors. There are cases in which the identifiability fails over the complex field, for general tensors of rank rr. This behavior is quite peculiar when the rank rr is submaximal. Often, the failure is due to the existence of an elliptic normal curve through general points of the corresponding Segre, Veronese or Grassmann variety. We prove the existence of nonempty euclidean open subsets of some variety of tensors of rank rr, whose elements have several decompositions over C\mathbb C, but only one of them is formed by real summands. Thus, in the open sets, tensors are not identifiable over C\mathbb C, but are identifiable over R\mathbb R. We also provide examples of non trivial euclidean open subsets in a whole space of symmetric tensors (of degree 77 and 88 in three variables) and of almost unbalanced tensors Segre Product (P2×P4×P9\mathbb P^2\times \mathbb P^4\times \mathbb P^9) whose elements have typical real rank equal to the complex rank, and are identifiable over R\mathbb R, but not over C\mathbb C. On the contrary, we provide examples of tensors of given real rank, for which real identifiability cannot hold in non-trivial open subsets.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1608.07197,
  title  = {Real identifiability vs complex identifiability},
  author = {Elena Angelini and Cristiano Bocci and Luca Chiantini},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1608.07197},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T15:30:57.507Z