A bound for the Waring rank of the determinant via syzygies (Q2174414)

Let \(\mathbb{K}[x_1, \dots, x_n]\) denote the set homogeneous polynomial of degree \(d\) over \(\mathbb{K}\). The Waring rank, \(\mathrm{rk}(F)\), of \(F\in\mathbb{K}[x_1, \dots, x_n]\), is the least number of terms \(r\) in an expression for \(F\) as a combination of \(d\)-th powers of linear forms \(F = c_1\ell_1^d + \cdots + c_r\ell_r^d\) for some \(c_i\in\mathbb{K}\) and linear forms \(\ell_i\) or \(\infty\) if no such expression exists. The Waring rank is known to be NP-hard and existing algorithms for computing the Waring rank are not feasible in general. Using syzygies of the apolar ideal in an innovative way, the authors show that the Waring rank of the \(3 \times 3\) determinant is at least \(15\). The result is an improvement since it was previously known to be in the range between \(14\) and \(18\). They also show that the symmetric cactus rank (a concept coming from algebraic geometry) of the \(3 \times 3\) permanent is at least \(14\).