Cynthia Vinzant

An algebraic characterization of injectivity in phase retrieval

Abstract A complex frame is a collection of vectors that span C M and define measurements, called intensity measurements, on vectors in C M . In purely mathematical terms, the problem of phase retrieval is to recover a complex vector from its intensity measurements, namely the modulus of its inner product with these frame vectors. We show that any vector is uniquely determined (up to a global phase factor) from 4 M − 4 generic measurements. To prove this, we identify the set of frames defining non-injective measurements with the projection of a real variety and bound its dimension.

Quartic curves and their bitangents

A smooth quartic curve in the complex projective plane has 36 inequivalent representations as a symmetric determinant of linear forms and 63 representations as a sum of three squares. These correspond to Cayley octads and Steiner complexes respectively. We present exact algorithms for computing these objects from the 28 bitangents. This expresses Vinnikov quartics as spectrahedra and positive quartics as Gram matrices. We explore the geometry of Gram spectrahedra and we find equations for the variety of Cayley octads. Interwoven is an exposition of much of the 19th century theory of plane quartics.

Determinantal representations of hyperbolic plane curves: An elementary approach

In 2007, Helton and Vinnikov proved that every hyperbolic plane curve has a definite real symmetric determinantal representation. By allowing for Hermitian matrices instead, we are able to give a new proof that relies only on the basic intersection theory of plane curves. We show that a matrix of linear forms is definite if and only if its co-maximal minors interlace its determinant and extend a classical construction of determinantal representations of Dixon from 1902. Like the Helton-Vinnikov theorem, this implies that every hyperbolic region in the plane is defined by a linear matrix inequality.

The entropic discriminant

Abstract The entropic discriminant is a non-negative polynomial associated to a matrix. It arises in contexts ranging from statistics and linear programming to singularity theory and algebraic geometry. It describes the complex branch locus of the polar map of a real hyperplane arrangement, and it vanishes when the equations defining the analytic center of a linear program have a complex double root. We study the geometry of the entropic discriminant, and we express its degree in terms of the characteristic polynomial of the underlying matroid. Singularities of reciprocal linear spaces play a key role. In the corank-one case, the entropic discriminant admits a sum of squares representation derived from the discriminant of a characteristic polynomial of a symmetric matrix.

Hyperbolic polynomials, interlacers, and sums of squares

Hyperbolic polynomials are real polynomials whose real hypersurfaces are maximally nested ovaloids, the innermost of which is convex. These polynomials appear in many areas of mathematics, including optimization, combinatorics and differential equations. Here we investigate the special connection between a hyperbolic polynomial and the set of polynomials that interlace it. This set of interlacers is a convex cone, which we write as a linear slice of the cone of nonnegative polynomials. In particular, this allows us to realize any hyperbolicity cone as a slice of the cone of nonnegative polynomials. Using a sums of squares relaxation, we then approximate a hyperbolicity cone by the projection of a spectrahedron. A multiaffine example coming from the Vámos matroid shows that this relaxation is not always exact. Using this theory, we characterize the real stable multiaffine polynomials that have a definite determinantal representation and construct one when it exists.

Computing Linear Matrix Representations of Helton-Vinnikov Curves

Helton and Vinnikov showed that every rigidly convex curve in the real plane bounds a spectrahedron. This leads to the computational problem of explicitly producing a symmetric (positive definite) linear determinantal representation for a given curve. We study three approaches to this problem: an algebraic approach via solving polynomial equations, a geometric approach via contact curves, and an analytic approach via theta functions. These are explained, compared, and tested experimentally for low degree instances.

The Central Curve in Linear Programming

The central curve of a linear program is an algebraic curve specified by linear and quadratic constraints arising from complementary slackness. It is the union of the various central paths for minimizing or maximizing the cost function over any region in the associated hyperplane arrangement. We determine the degree, arithmetic genus and defining prime ideal of the central curve, thereby answering a question of Bayer and Lagarias. These invariants, along with the degree of the Gauss image of the curve, are expressed in terms of the matroid of the input matrix. Extending work of Dedieu, Malajovich and Shub, this yields an instance-specific bound on the total curvature of the central path, a quantity relevant for interior-point methods. The global geometry of central curves is studied in detail.

A small frame and a certificate of its injectivity

We present a complex frame of eleven vectors in 4-space and prove that it defines injective measurements. That is, any rank-one 4 × 4 Hermitian matrix is uniquely determined by its values as a Hermitian form on this collection of eleven vectors. This disproves a recent conjecture of Bandeira, Cahill, Mixon, and Nelson. We use algebraic computations and certificates in order to prove injectivity.

Quartic spectrahedra

Quartic spectrahedra in 3-space form a semialgebraic set of dimension 24. This set is stratified by the location of the ten nodes of the corresponding real quartic surface. There are twenty maximal strata, identified recently by Degtyarev and Itenberg, via the global Torelli Theorem for real K3 surfaces. We here give a new proof that is self-contained and algorithmic. This involves extending Cayley’s characterization of quartic symmetroids, by the property that the branch locus of the projection from a node consists of two cubic curves. This paper represents a first step towards the classification of all spectrahedra of a given degree and dimension.

Real radical initial ideals

Abstract We explore the consequences of an ideal I ⊂ R [ x 1 , … , x n ] having a real radical initial ideal, both for the geometry of the real variety of I and as an application to sums of squares representations of polynomials. We show that if in w ( I ) is real radical for a vector w in the tropical variety, then w is in the logarithmic set of the real variety. We also give algebraic sufficient conditions for w to be in the logarithmic limit set of a more general semialgebraic set. If in addition w ∈ ( R > 0 ) n , then the corresponding quadratic module is stable. In particular, if in w ( I ) is real radical for some w ∈ ( R > 0 ) n then ∑ R [ x 1 , … , x n ] 2 + I is stable. This provides a method for checking the conditions for stability given by Powers and Scheiderer (2001) [PS] .