Strong nonnegativity and sums of squares on real varieties

Abstract: Motivated by scheme theory, we introduce strong nonnegativity on real varieties, which has the property that a sum of squares is strongly nonnegative. We show that this algebraic property is equivalent to nonnegativity for nonsingular real varieties. Moreover, for singular varieties, we reprove and generalize obstructions of Gouveia and Netzer to the convergence of the theta body hierarchy of convex bodies approximating the convex hull of a real variety.

Review text

The notion of strong nonnegativity is motivated by the following example: Let \(I\subset\mathbb{R}[x]\) be the ideal generated by \(x^2\). Then the real vanishing set \(V_{\mathbb{R}}(I)\) consists only of the origin. The coordinate function \(x\) is nonnegative on \(V_{\mathbb{R}}(I)\). Algebraically this is rephrased by saying that \(\varphi(x)\) is nonnegative for every \(\mathbb{R}\)-algebra homomorphism \(\varphi: A \to \mathbb{R}\) (in this example there is only one such homomorphism given by sending \(x\) to \(0\)). But \(x\) is not a sum of squares in the coordinate ring \(A := \mathbb{R}[X]/I\). The authors interpret this phenomenon geometrically in the associated scheme \(\mathrm{Spec}(A)\): The function \(x\) is not nonnegative on an `infinitesimal' neighbourhood of the origin. This can be formulated by looking at the tangent space at the origin which is algebraically described by homomorphisms \(\varphi:A \to \mathbb{R}[\epsilon]/(\epsilon^2)\) where \(\epsilon\) is infinitesimally positive. The homomorphism \(\mathbb{R}[x]/(x^2) \to \mathbb{R}[\epsilon]/(\epsilon^2)\) given by sending \(x\) to \(-\epsilon\) shows that \(x\) takes a negative value on the tangent vector in negative direction. The authors consider also higher-order infinitesimal arcs and formalize the above idea as follows. For \(m \in\mathbb{N}\) let \(\epsilon\) be infinitesimally positive in the ring \(\mathbb{R}[\epsilon]/(\epsilon^m)\). The ring \(\mathbb{R}[\epsilon]/(\epsilon^m)\) has a unique homomorphism to \(\mathbb{R}\), given by sending \(\epsilon\) to \(0\). Let \(I\) be an ideal in the polynomial ring \(\mathbb{R}[x_1,\dots, x_n]\) for some \(n \in\mathbb{N}\), let \(A := \mathbb{R}[x_1,\dots, x_n]/I\) be the coordinate ring and let \(P\) be a point in the real vanishing set \(V_{\mathbb{R}}(I)\). A homomorphism \(\varphi: A \to \mathbb{R}[\epsilon]/(\epsilon^m)\) is said to be at \(P\) if \(P\) is the (unique) point corresponding to the composed homomorphism \(A \to\mathbb{R}\). A function \(f \in A\) is called strongly nonnegative at \(P\) if \(\varphi(f)\) is nonnegative for every homomorphism \(\varphi : A \to\mathbb{R}[\epsilon]/(\epsilon^m)\) at \(P\) and every \(m \in\mathbb{N}\). The function \(f\) is called strongly nonnegative if it is strongly nonnegative at every point of \(V_{\mathbb{R}}(I)\). One observes that sums of squares a strongly nonnegative. One of the main results of the paper is the following: Let \(f \in A\) and let \(P \in V_{\mathbb{R}}(I)\) be nonsingular in the associated scheme. Then \(f\) is strongly nonnegative at \(P\) if and only if \(f\) is nonnegative in a neighbourhood of \(P\). As applications obstructions to nonnegative functions being sums of squares are studied.

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