We develop the fundamentals of a new theory of convex geometry -- which we call "broken line convex geometry". This is a theory of convexity where the ambient space is the rational tropicalization of a cluster variety, as opposed to an ambient vector space. In this theory, line segments are replaced by broken line segments, and we adopt the notion of convexity in [CMN21]. We state and prove broken line convex geometry versions of many standard results from usual convex geometry.
In [GHKK18], Gross-Hacking-Keel-Kontsevich discuss compactifications of cluster varieties from "positive subsets" in the real tropicalization of the mirror. To be more precise, let $\mathfrak{D}$ be the scattering diagram of a cluster variety $V$ (of either type -- $\mathcal{A}$ or $\mathcal{X}$), and let $S$ be a closed subset of $\left(V^\vee\right)^{\text{trop}}(\mathbb{R})$ -- the ambient space of $\mathfrak{D}$. The set $S$ is positive if the theta functions corresponding to the integral points of $S$ and its $\mathbb{N}$-dilations define an $\mathbb{N}$-graded subalgebra of $Γ(V, \mathca…
On logarithmic paper some real algebraic curves look like smoothed broken lines. Moreover, the broken lines can be obtained as limits of those curves. The corresponding deformation can be viewed as a quantization, in which the broken line is a classical object and the curves are quantum. This generalizes to a new connection between algebraic geometry and the geometry of polyhedra, which is more straight-forward than the other known connections and gives a new insight into constructions used in the topology of real algebraic varieties.
We give a Bézout type inequality for mixed volumes, which holds true for any convex bodies. The key ingredient is the reverse Khovanskii-Teissier inequality for convex bodies, which was obtained in our previous work and inspired by its correspondence in complex geometry.
In this article, we describe symplectic and complex toric spaces associated to the five regular convex polyhedra. The regular tetrahedron and the cube are rational and simple, the regular octahedron is not simple, the regular dodecahedron is not rational and the regular icosahedron is neither simple nor rational. We remark that the last two cases cannot be treated via standard toric geometry.
We study metric properties of convex bodies B and their polars B^o, where B is the convex hull of an orbit under the action of a compact group G. Examples include the Traveling Salesman Polytope in polyhedral combinatorics (G=S_n, the symmetric group), the set of non-negative polynomials in real algebraic geometry (G=SO(n), the special orthogonal group), and the convex hull of the Grassmannian and the unit comass ball in the theory of calibrated geometries (G=SO(n), but with a different action). We compute the radius of the largest ball contained in the symmetric Traveling Salesman Polytope, g…
Convex algebraic geometry concerns the interplay between optimization theory and real algebraic geometry. Its objects of study include convex semialgebraic sets that arise in semidefinite programming and from sums of squares. This article compares three notions of duality that are relevant in these contexts: duality of convex bodies, duality of projective varieties, and the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions derived from Lagrange duality. We show that the optimal value of a polynomial program is an algebraic function whose minimal polynomial is expressed by the hypersurface projectively dual to the…
The well-known Bernstein-Kushnirenko theorem from the theory of Newton polyhedra relates algebraic geometry and the theory of mixed volumes. Recently the authors have found a far-reaching generalization of this theorem to generic systems of algebraic equations on any quasi-projective variety. In the present note we review these results and their applications to algebraic geometry and convex geometry.
We prove the reversed Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality for mixed Monge-Ampère masses of plurisubharmonic functions, which generalizes a result of Demailly and Pham. As applications to convex geometry, this gives a complex analytic proof of the reversed Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality for mixed covolumes, which generalizes recent results in convex geometry of Kaveh-Khovanskii, Khovanskii-Timorin, Milman-Rotem and R. Schneider on reversed (or complemented) Brunn-Minkowski and Alexandrov-Fenchel inequalities. Also for toric plurisubharmonic functions in the Cegrell class, we confirm Demailly's conject…
This chapter is a tutorial on techniques and results in free convex algebraic geometry and free real algebraic geometry (RAG). The term free refers to the central role played by algebras of noncommutative polynomials R<x> in free (freely noncommuting) variables x=(x_1,...,x_g). The subject pertains to problems where the unknowns are matrices or Hilbert space operators as arise in linear systems engineering and quantum information theory. The subject of free RAG flows in two branches. One, free positivity and inequalities is an analog of classical real algebraic geometry, a theory of polynomial…
We study multivariate normal models that are described by linear constraints on the inverse of the covariance matrix. Maximum likelihood estimation for such models leads to the problem of maximizing the determinant function over a spectrahedron, and to the problem of characterizing the image of the positive definite cone under an arbitrary linear projection. These problems at the interface of statistics and optimization are here examined from the perspective of convex algebraic geometry.
We study the structure of the set of algebraic curvature operators satisfying a sectional curvature bound under the light of the emerging field of Convex Algebraic Geometry. More precisely, we determine in which dimensions $n$ this convex semialgebraic set is a spectrahedron or a spectrahedral shadow; in particular, for $n\geq5$, these give new counter-examples to the Helton--Nie Conjecture. Moreover, efficient algorithms are provided if $n=4$ to test membership in such a set. For $n\geq5$, algorithms using semidefinite programming are obtained from hierarchies of inner approximations by spect…
We review several (and provide new) results on the theory of moments, sums of squares and basic semi-algebraic sets when convexity is present. In particular, we show that under convexity, the hierarchy of semidefinite relaxations for polynomial optimization simplifies and has finite convergence, a highly desirable feature as convex problems are in principle easier to solve. In addition, if a basic semi-algebraic set K is convex but its defining polynomials are not, we provide a certificate of convexity if a sufficient (and almost necessary) condition is satified. This condition can be checked …
Given an affine variety X and a finite dimensional vector space of regular functions L on X, we associate a convex body to (X, L) such that its volume is responsible for the number of solutions of a generic system of functions from L. This is a far reaching generalization of usual theory of Newton polytopes (which is concerned with toric varieties). As applications we give new, simple and transparent proofs of some well-known theorems in both algebraic geometry (e.g. Hodge Index Theorem) and convex geometry (e.g. Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality). Our main tools are classical Hilbert theory on de…
Chapters 1 to 4 are the lecture notes of my course "Real Algebraic Geometry I" from the winter term 2020/2021. Chapters 5 to 8 are the lecture notes of its continuation "Real Algebraic Geometry II" from the summer term 2021. Chapters 9 and 10 are the lecture notes of its further continuation "Geometry of Linear Matrix Inequalities" from the winter term 2021/2022. These courses have been delivered at the University of Konstanz in Southern Germany. The entirety of these lecture notes is accompanied by a list of 47 long videos which is available from the following YouTube playlist: https://youtub…
It is pretty well-known that toric Fano varieties of dimension k with terminal singularities correspond to convex lattice polytopes P in R^k of positive finite volume, such that intersection of P and Z^k consists of the point 0 and vertices of P. Likewise, Q-factorial terminal toric singularities essentially correspond to lattice simplexes with no lattice points inside or on the boundary (except the vertices). There have been a lot work, especially in the last 20 years or so on classification of these objects. The main goal of this paper is to bring together these and related results, that are…
In this research announcement we associate to each convex polytope, possibly nonrational and nonsimple, a family of compact spaces that are stratified by quasifolds, i.e. the strata are locally modelled by $\R^k$ modulo the action of a discrete, possibly infinite, group. Each stratified space is endowed with a symplectic structure and a moment mapping having the property that its image gives the original polytope back. These spaces may be viewed as a natural generalization of symplectic toric varieties to the nonrational setting. We provide here the explicit construction of these spaces, and a…
In classical geometry, a linear space is a space that is closed under linear combinations. In tropical geometry, it has long been a consensus that tropical varieties defined by valuated matroids are the tropical analogue of linear spaces. It is not difficult to see that each such space is tropically convex, i.e. closed under tropical linear combinations. However, we will also show that the converse is true: Each tropical variety that is also tropically convex is supported on the complex of a valuated matroid. We also prove a tropical local-to-global principle: Any closed, connected, locally tr…
