On the rank of a binary form (Q626446)

Given a homogeneous polynomial \(f\) of degree \(d\), \(f\in {\mathbb C}[x_0,\dots,x_n]_d\), what is the minimum integer \(s\) such that there exist \(s\) linear forms \(L_1,\dots,L_s \in {\mathbb C}[x_0,\dots,x_n]_1\), with \(f=\sum _{i=1}^sL_i^d\)? This is called ``Waring's problem for forms'', and the value \(s\) is called rank of \(f\) (when considering \(f\) as a symmetric tensor this is also called ``symmetric tensor rank'' of \(f\)). The case \(n=1\) is studied in this paper; binary forms of degree \(d\) are parameterized by a \({\mathbb P}^d\) (modulo multiplication by a scalar), and the locus of rank 1 forms is the rational normal curve \(C_d \subset {\mathbb P}^d\). In the paper a nice complete description of the rank strata of \({\mathbb P}^d\) is given (the possible values for \(s\) are \(s=1,\dots,d\)), together with an algorithm which computes the rank of a given form \(f\).