Algebraic boundaries among typical ranks for real binary forms of arbitrary degree (Q2231646)

Let \(R_d=\mathbb R[x,y]_d\) be the space of degree-\(d\) real binary forms. A rank \(r\) is typical in \(R_d\) if it is realized in an open (euclidean) subset of \(R_d\), or equivalently if the interior \(\mathcal R_{d,r}\) of the semi-algebraic set \(\{f\in R_d \ | \ rk_{\mathbb R}(f)=r\}\) is not empty. Typical ranks for \(R_d\) are exactly the ranks \(r\) such that \(\frac{d+1}{2}\leq r \leq d\). Let \(\partial(\mathcal R_{d,r})\) be the topological (euclidean) boundary in \(R_d\). One defines the algebraic boundary \(\partial_{alg}(\mathcal R_{d,r})\) to be the Zariski closure of \(\partial(\mathcal R_{d,r})\) in the complex space \(\mathbb P(\mathbb C[x,y]_d)\). The algebraic boundaries for minimum rank \(r=\lceil\frac{d+1}{2}\rceil\) and maximum rank \(r=d\) (for any \(d\)) have already been described, as well as the ones for any typical rank \(\frac{d+1}{2}\leq r \leq d\) when \(d\leq 8\). In this work the authors extend this study to any typical rank \(r\) and any degree \(d\). More precisely, given \(\lambda=(\lambda_1\leq \ldots \leq \lambda_k)\) a partition of \(d\) having length \(k\), the associated coincident root locus is the \(k\)-dimensional variety \[ \Delta_{\lambda}=\left\{f \in \mathbb P^d=\mathbb P(\mathbb C[x,y]_d) \ \bigg| \ \exists l_1,\ldots, l_k \in \mathbb C[x,y]_1 \ : \ f=\sum_{i=1}^kl_i^{\lambda_i}\right\} \subset \mathbb P^d \ ; \] then the authors' main results (Theorem 3.2, Theorem 3.3) describe the algebraic boundaries for any degree \(d\) and any typical rank \(r\) as the union of dual varieties to coincident root loci \(\Delta_\lambda\), as \(\lambda\) varies among certain partitions of \(d\) whose length depends on \(r\). The main tools used to reach the results are the \(j\)-th higher associated variety \(C\!H_j(X)\) to a \(k\)-dimensional variety \(X\subset \mathbb P^d\), defined as the closure of the subset in the grassmannian \(\mathbb G(d-k-1+j,\mathbb P^d)\) \[ \left\{H\in \mathbb G(d-k-1+j,\mathbb P^d) \ | \ H \cap X \neq \emptyset , \ \dim(H \cap T_xX)\geq j \ \text{for some } x \in H\cap X_{sm}\right\} \ , \] and the apolar map \[ \begin{matrix} \Psi_{d,r}: & \mathbb P^d=\mathbb P(\mathbb C[x,y]_d) & \dashrightarrow & \mathbb G(2r-d-1,\mathbb P^r)\\ & f & \mapsto & \mathbb P((f^\perp)_r) \end{matrix} \ , \] where, for \(d-r\leq r\leq d\), \((f^\perp)_r\subset \mathbb C[\partial_x,\partial_y]_r\) is the degree-\(r\) component of the apolar ideal \(f^\perp\). In Section 1 the basic notions and results about coincident root loci, higher associated varieties and apolar maps are recalled. In Section 2 the authors give a detailed study of the pullbacks via apolar maps of the higher associated varieties to a coincident root locus.\\ In section 3 the main results are proven.