On tensors of border rank \(l\) in \({\mathbb C}^{m\times n\times l}\) (Q1931764)

Let \(C^{m\times n\times l}\) be the linear space of 3-tensors \(T\) of dimension \(m\times n\times l\) over \(\mathbb{C}\). The author defines the rank and the border rank of \(T\) and sets \(Vr{m,n,l}\) to be the set of all 3-tensors of border rank \(\leq r\). A general problem is to characterize \(Vr{m,n,l}\) in a set-, scheme-, or ideal-theoretic way. The main results in this paper are a set-theoretic characterization of both \(V4{3,3,4}\) and \(V4{4,4,4}\). Most of the results are derived with matrix theory and basic algebraic geometry.