Identifiability of rank-3 tensors (Q2050117)

A given complex tensor \(T \in \mathbb{C}^{(n_1+1)}\otimes ...\otimes \mathbb{C}^{(n_k+1)}\) is said to be \(identifiable\) if there is an unique way to write it as \(T = \sum_{i=1}^r v_{1,i}\otimes ...\otimes v_{k,i}\) where the \(v_{j,i}\in \mathbb{C}^{(n_j+1)}\) and the minimal \(r\) for such a decomposition to exist is called the \(rank\) (or \(tensor\) \(rank\)) of \(T\). In this paper a complete description of what can happen for tensors of small rank (2 or 3) is given, in particular, it is shown that tensors of rank 2 are always identifiable except when they are \(2\times 2\) matrices, while for rank 3 tensors there are other non-identifiable cases besides \(3\times 3\) matrices, and such exceptions are completely described.