The Minimality of Determinantal Varieties

The determinantal variety $\Sigma_{pq}$ is defined to be the set of all $p\times q$ real matrices with $p\geq q$ whose ranks are strictly smaller than $q$. It is proved that $\Sigma_{pq}$ is a minimal cone in $\mathbb R^{pq}$ and all its strata are regular minimal submanifolds.