Minimization of hypersurfaces (Q6562847)

It is ideal to have an explicit model of an algebraic variety over \(\mathbb Q\) that has small integer coefficients, which is known as reduction. It is also ideal to have a model with small invariants such as the discriminant, known as minimization. The main concern of the paper under review is the hypersurface in \(\mathbb P^n\) defined by a homogeneous polynomial \(F\in \mathbb Z[x_0,\dots, x_n]\) and the minimum \(v_p(F)\) of the \(p\)-adic valuations of the coefficients of \(F\).\N\NFor \(T\in \mathrm{GL}(n+1,\mathbb Q)\), let \({}^T F:=F([x_0,\dots,x_n]T)\). Let \(w=(w_0,\dots,w_n)\) and \(w_k\ge 0\) are integers, and it is called a weight vector. Then, \(F\) is called unstable at \(p\) for \((T,w)\) if \[v_p( {}^T F(p^{w_0}x_0,\dots, p^{w_n}x_n)) > \frac d{n+1}(w_0+\dots+w_n).\] A set \(S\) of weight vectors is called complete if \(F\) is unstable at \(p\) for \((T,w)\) implies \(F\) is unstable at \(p\) for \((T',w')\) where \(w'\in S\), i.e., by choosing a different matrix \(T'\), the weight vector can be chosen from \(S\). Kollar raised the question whether there is always a finite complete set \(S\) of weight vectors. The authors of the paper under review prove that the following is a complete set of weight vectors for homegeneous polynomials of degree \(d\) in \(n+1\) variables: \[\{ [w_0,\dots, w_n]\in\mathbb Z^{n+1} : 0=w_0\le w_1 \le \cdots \le w_n \}, \ w_n\le 2n\, \frac d{\gcd(d,n+1)}\, d^{n-2}.\]\N\NFor the plane curves, they prove that \(\{ [w_0,w_1,w_2] \in \mathbb Z^3 : 0\le w_k \le d\}\) is a complete set of weight vectors, and demonstrate how to perform minimization and reduction for plane curves in full generality.\N\NThe authors introduce an explicit minimization algorithm for cubic surfaces in \(\mathbb P^3\), and discuss reduction for cubic surfaces. However, due to the increasing complexity, the method does not yield a reasonable algorithm for higher degrees in \(\mathbb P^3\) or for higher dimensions.