Rank and eigenvalues of a supersymmetric tensor, the multivariate homogeneous polynomial and the algebraic hypersurface it defines (Q2457401)

A real \(n\)-dimensional homogeneous polynomial \(f(x)\) of degree \(m\) and a real constant \(c\) defines an algebraic hypersurface \(S\) whose points satisfy \(f(x)=c\). The polynomial \(f\) can be represented by \(Ax^m\) where \(A\) is a real \(m\)-th order \(n\)-dimensional supersymmetric tensor. In this paper, we define rank, base index and eigenvalues for the polynomial \(f\), the hypersurface \(S\) and the tensor \(A\). The rank is a nonnegative integer \(r\) less than or equal to \(n\). When \(r\) is less than \(n\), \(A\) is singular, \(f\) can be converted into a homogeneous polynomial with \(r\) variables by an orthogonal transformation, and \(S\) is a cylinder hypersurface whose base is \(r\)-dimensional. The eigenvalues of \(f\), \(A\) and \(S\) always exist. The eigenvectors associated with the zero eigenvalue are either recession vectors or degeneracy vectors of positive degree, or their sums. When \(c\neq 0\), the eigenvalues with the same sign as \(c\) and their eigenvectors correspond to the characterization points of \(S\), while a degeneracy vector generates an asymptotic ray for the base of \(S\) or its conjugate hypersurface. The base index is a nonnegative integer \(d\) less than \(m\). If \(d=k\), then there are nonzero degeneracy vectors of degree \(k-1\), but no nonzero degeneracy vectors of degree \(k\). A linear combination of a degeneracy vector of degree \(k\) and a degeneracy vector of degree \(j\) is a degeneracy vector of degree \(k+j-m\) if \(k+j\geq m\). Based upon these properties, we classify such algebraic hypersurfaces in the nonsingular case into ten classes.