We consider a family of schemes, that are defined by minors of a homogeneous symmetric matrix with polynomial entries. We assume that they have maximal possible codimension, given the size of the matrix and of the minors that define them. We show that these schemes are G-bilinked to a linear variety of the same dimension. In particular, they can be obtained from a linear variety by a finite sequence of ascending G-biliaisons on some determinantal schemes. In particular, it follows that these schemes are glicci. We describe the biliaisons explicitely in the proof of the main theorem.
We study the family of ideals generated by minors of mixed size contained in a ladder of a symmetric matrix from the point of view of liaison theory. We prove that they can be obtained from ideals of linear forms by ascending G-biliaison. In particular, they are glicci.
We extend the theory of generalized divisors so as to work on any scheme $X$ satisfying the condition $S_2$ of Serre. We define a generalized notion of Gorenstein biliaison for schemes in projective space. With this we give a new proof in a stronger form of the theorem of Gaeta, that standard determinantal schemes are in the Gorenstein biliaison class of a complete intersection. We also show, for schemes of codimension three in ${\mathbb P}^n$, that the relation of Gorenstein biliaison is equivalent to the relation of even strict Gorenstein liaison.
We generalize Gaeta's Theorem to the family of determinantal schemes. In other words, we show that the schemes defined by minors of a fixed size of a matrix with polynomial entries belong to the same G-biliaison class of a complete intersection whenever they have maximal possible codimension, given the size of the matrix and of the minors that define them.
Here we consider the image of the principal minor map of symmetric matrices over an arbitrary unique factorization domain $R$. By exploiting a connection with symmetric determinantal representations, we characterize the image of the principal minor map through the condition that certain polynomials coming from so-called Rayleigh differences are squares in the polynomial ring over $R$. In almost all cases, one can characterize the image of the principal minor map using the orbit of Cayley's hyperdeterminant under the action of $(SL_2(R))^{n} \rtimes S_{n}$. Over the complex numbers, this recove…
We study algebro-geometric properties of determinantal loci of (n+1)th symmetric matrices and also their double covers for even ranks. Their singularities, Fano indices and birational geometries are studied in general. The double covers of symmetric determinantal loci of rank four are studied with special interest by noting their relation to the Hilbert schemes of conics on Grassmannians.
This paper is the second part of a two part paper which introduces the study of the Whitney Equisingularity of families of Symmetric determinantal singularities. This study reveals how to use the multiplicity of polar curves associated to a generic deformation of a singularity to control the Whitney equisingularity type of these curves.
This paper is the first part of a two part paper which introduces the study of the Whitney Equisingularity of families of Symmetric determinantal singularities. This study reveals how to use the multiplicity of polar curves associated to a generic deformation of a singularity to control the Whitney equisingularity type of these curves.
We give an explicit construction for the extension of a symmetric determinantal quartic K3 surface to a Fano 6-fold. Remarkably, the moduli of the 6-fold extension are in one-to-one correspondence with the moduli of the quartic surface. As a consequence, we determine a 16-parameter family of surfaces of general type with p_g=1 and K^2=2 as weighted complete intersections inside Fano 6-folds.
Let Y be the variety of (skew) symmetric nxn-matrices of rank less than or equal to r. In paper we construct a full faithful embedding between the derived category of a non-commutative resolution of Y, constructed earlier by the authors, and the derived category of the classical Springer resolution of Y.
From a block-diagonal $(n+1) \times (m+1) \times (m+1)$ tensor symmetric in the last two entries one obtains two varieties: an intersection of symmetric determinantal hypersurfaces $X$ in $n$-dimensional projective space, and an intersection of quadrics $\mathfrak{C}$ in $m$-dimensional projective space. Under mild technical assumptions, we characterize the accidental singularities of $X$ in terms of $\mathfrak{C}$. We apply our methods to algebraic curves and show how to construct theta characteristics of certain canonical curves of genera 3, 4, and 5, generalizing a classical construction of…
We introduce the DeterminantalRepresentations package for Macaulay2, which computes definite symmetric determinantal representations of real polynomials. We focus on quadrics and plane curves of low degree (i.e. cubics and quartics). Our algorithms are geared towards speed and robustness, employing linear algebra and numerical algebraic geometry, without genericity assumptions on the polynomials.
A smooth plane curve is said to admit a symmetric determinantal representation if it can be defined by the determinant of a symmetric matrix with entries in linear forms in three variables. We study the local-global principle for the existence of symmetric determinantal representations of smooth plane curves over a global field of characteristic different from two. When the degree of the plane curve is less than or equal to three, we relate the problem of finding symmetric determinantal representations to more familiar Diophantine problems on the Severi-Brauer varieties and mod 2 Galois repres…
We describe some of the determinantal ideals attached to symmetric, exterior and tensor powers of a matrix. The methods employed use elements of Zariski's theory of complete ideals and of representation theory.
The goal of this note is to explain a derivation of the formulas for the local Euler obstructions of determinantal varieties of general, symmetric and skew-symmetric matrices, by studying the invariant de Rham complex and using character formulas for simple equivariant $D$-modules. These calculations are then combined with standard arguments involving Kashiwara's local index formula and the description of characteristic cycles of simple equivariant $D$-modules. The formulas are implicit in the work of Boe and Fu, and in the case of general matrices they have also been obtained recently by Gaff…
We prove that semialgebraic sets of rectangular matrices of a fixed rank, of skew-symmetric matrices of a fixed rank and of real symmetric matrices whose eigenvalues have prescribed multiplicities are minimal submanifolds of the space of real matrices of a given size.
We prove that the defining equations of the Fermat curves of prime degree cannot be written as the determinant of symmetric matrices with entries in linear forms in three variables with rational coefficients. In the proof, we use a relation between symmetric matrices with entries in linear forms and non-effective theta characteristics on smooth plane curves. We also use some results of Gross-Rohrlich on the rational torsion points on the Jacobian varieties of the Fermat curves of prime degree.
We give an application of Mumford's theory of canonical theta characteristics to a Diophantine problem in characteristic two. We prove that a smooth plane curve over a global field of characteristic two is defined by the determinant of a symmetric matrix with entries in linear forms in three variables if and only if such a symmetric determinantal representation exists everywhere locally. It is a special feature in characteristic two because analogous results are not true in other characteristics.
In a recent paper, Hauenstein, Sturmfels, and the second author discovered a conjectural bijection between critical points of the likelihood function on the complex variety of matrices of rank r and critical points on the complex variety of matrices of co-rank r-1. In this paper, we prove that conjecture for rectangular matrices and for symmetric matrices, as well as a variant for skew-symmetric matrices. To appear in International Mathematics Research Notices.
A smooth curve in the real projective plane is hyperbolic if its ovals are maximally nested. By the Helton-Vinnikov Theorem, any such curve admits a definite symmetric determinantal representation. We use polynomial homotopy continuation to compute such representations numerically. Our method works by lifting paths from the space of hyperbolic polynomials to a branched cover in the space of pairs of symmetric matrices.
We provide homological foundations to establish conjectural homological projective dualities between 1) S^2 P^3 and the double cover of the projective 9-space branched along the symmetric determinantal quartic, and 2) S^2 P^4 and the double cover of the symmetric determinantal quintic in the projective 14-space branched along the symmetric determinantal locus of rank at most 3.
We describe noncommutative desingularizations of determinantal varieties, determinantal varieties defined by minors of generic symmetric matrices, and pfaffian varieties defined by pfaffians of generic anti-symmetric matrices. For maximal minors of square matrices and symmetric matrices, this gives a non-commutative crepant resolution. Along the way, we describe a method to calculate the quiver with relations for any non-commutative desingularizations coming from exceptional collections over partial flag varieties.
A hypersurface $H$ in $\mathbb{P}^r$ of degree $n$ is called determinantal if it is the zero locus of a polynomial of the form $\operatorname{det}(x_0 A_0 + \ldots + x_r A_r)$ for some $(r+1)$-tuple of $n \times n$ matrices $A = (A_0, \ldots, A_r)$. We will refer to $A$ as a presentation of $H$. Another presentation $B = (B_0, B_1, \ldots, B_r)$ of $H$ can be obtained by choosing $g_1, g_2 \in \operatorname{GL}_n$ and setting $B_i = g_1 A_i g_2$ for every $i = 0, 1, \ldots, r$. In this case $A$ and $B$ are called equivalent. The second author and A. Vistoli have shown that for $r \geq 3$ a gen…
We record an observation about the Witten indices in two families of gauged linear sigma models: the U(2) model for linear sections of Grassmannians, and the U(1) model for quadric complete intersections. We describe how the Witten indices are related to the Euler characteristics of the singular skew-symmetric or symmetric determinantal varieties featuring in the analysis of their opposite phases, and we discuss the extent to which these relationships can be reconciled with standard Born-Oppenheimer arguments.
A (global) determinantal representation of hypersurface in P^n is a matrix, whose entries are linear forms in homogeneous coordinates and whose determinant defines the hypersurface. We study the properties of such representations for singular (possibly reducible or non-reduced) hypersurfaces. In particular, we obtain the decomposability criteria for determinantal representations of globally reducible hypersurfaces. Further, we classify the determinantal representations in terms of the corresponding kernel sheaves on $X$. Finally, we extend the results to the case of symmetric/self-adjoint repr…
This paper gives an explicit formula for the multiplier ideals, and consequently for the log canonical thresholds, of any GL(V)xGL(W)-invariant ideal in the symmetric algebra S of the tensor product of V with the dual of W, where V and W are vector spaces over a field of characteristic 0. This characterization is done in terms of a polytope constructed from the set of Young diagrams corresponding to the Schur modules generating the ideal. Our approach consists in computing the test ideals of some invariant ideals of S in positive characteristic: Namely, we will compute the test ideals (and so …
If a real symmetric matrix of linear forms is positive definite at some point, then its determinant is a hyperbolic hypersurface. In 2007, Helton and Vinnikov proved a converse in three variables, namely that every hyperbolic plane curve has a definite real symmetric determinantal representation. The goal of this paper is to give a more concrete proof of a slightly weaker statement. Here we show that every hyperbolic plane curve has a definite determinantal representation with Hermitian matrices. We do this by relating the definiteness of a matrix to the real topology of its minors and extendi…
Let X be a smooth hypersurface in projective space. We discuss in this paper when X can be defined by an equation det M = 0 (resp. pf M = 0), where M is a matrix (resp. a skew-symmetric matrix) with homogeneous entries. Standard homological algebra methods show that this is equivalent to produce a line bundle (resp. a rank 2 vector bundle) E of a certain type on X . We discuss a number of applications for hypersurfaces of small dimension. An Appendix by F.-O. Schreyer proves (using Macaulay 2) that a general form of degree d in P^3 (resp. P^4) can be written as the pfaffian of a skew-symmetric…
In this paper we construct free resolutions of certain class of closed subvarieties of affine space of symmetric matrices (of a given size). Our class covers the symmetric determinantal varieties (i.e., determinantal varieties in the space of symmetric matrices), whose resolutions were first constructed by Józefiak-Pragacz-Weyman. Our approach follows the techniques developed in Free Resolutions of Some Schubert Singularities by Kummini-Lakshmibai-Sastry-Seshadri, and uses the geometry of Schubert varieties.
This paper proves that when the $r \times r$ minors of an $m \times n$ matrix of indeterminates are not a tropical basis then the tropical prevariety has greater dimension than the tropical variety. It proves the same for the $r \times r$ minors of an $n \times n$ symmetric matrix of indeterminates when r > 4.
The generalized Lax conjecture is true for topological reasons related to compactness, convexity and determinantal deformations of increasing products of pointwise approximating linear forms
Diagonal F-thresholds for determinants and Pfaffians
Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg（马格德堡奥托·冯·古里克大学）；University of Notre Dame（圣母大学）；Institute of Mathematics “Simion Stoilow” of the Romanian Academy（罗马尼亚科学院西米翁·斯托伊洛数学研究所）；University of Cassino and Southern Lazio（卡西诺与南拉齐奥大学）；Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur（那格浦尔维斯瓦纳特国家技术学院）
A reciprocal linear space is the image of a linear space under coordinate-wise inversion. These fundamental varieties describe the analytic centers of hyperplane arrangements and appear as part of the defining equations of the central path of a linear program. Their structure is controlled by an underlying matroid. This provides a large family of hyperbolic varieties, recently introduced by Shamovich and Vinnikov. Here we give a definite determinantal representation to the Chow form of a reciprocal linear space. One consequence is the existence of symmetric rank-one Ulrich sheaves on reciproca…
