Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2105.14315

Lectures on Nonnegative Polynomials and Sums of Squares

Grigoriy Blekherman·Jannik Wesner
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

These lecture notes provide an informal introduction to the theory of nonnegative polynomials and sums of squares. We highlight the history and some recent developments, especially the new connections with classical (complex) algebraic geometry and commutative algebra. We briefly discuss the connection to semidefinite programming and applications. We expect the reader to be familiar with algebra and fundamentals of algebraic geometry, on the level of a graduate course, and know basic facts about positive semidefinite matrices.

Explore related subjects

math.AG

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Grigoriy Blekherman, Jannik Wesner. 2021-05-29. Lectures on Nonnegative Polynomials and Sums of Squares. https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.14315

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Lawson--Deligne Classes and Applications

We construct the integral Lawson--Deligne map of weight $q=n-p-k-1$ on smooth complex projective $n$-folds using filtered currents. It lifts the Friedlander--Mazur cycle class, recovers the reduced generalized Abel--Jacobi invariant on homologically trivial classes, and is compatible with algebraic correspondences. A Picard--Fuchs separation argument applied to the conic and van Geemen normal functions on the mirror quintic determines explicit regulator subspaces modulo the full rational period group. For prescribed elliptic moduli and a suitable mirror-quintic fiber, the subspace generated by their $a$- and $b$-loop products has dimension twice the $\Q$-dimension of the period-monomial space. Moduli $i\sqrt{\ell_j}$ for distinct primes $\ell_j$ give $2^{k+1}$ independent images on varieties of dimension $p+k+2$; one repeated imaginary quadratic modulus gives dimension four for every $k\geq1$. Compatibility with known projective-bundle and blow-up decompositions yields independent exceptional subspaces on smooth rational varieties. We also compare the higher Chow composite with the Bloch--KLM regulator after lowering the Hodge filtration. The KLM representative reduces to a cut-current class, and equality with the Lawson composite is proved in degree zero and for constant-unit decomposable classes. The general positive-degree comparison is reduced to an explicit filtered-realization condition.

math.AG↗
arXiv2026

Complete quasimaps to $\mathsf{Bl}_{\mathbb{P}^s}(\mathbb{P}^r)$

We introduce a moduli space of ``complete quasimaps'' to $\mathsf{Bl}_{\mathbb{P}^s}(\mathbb{P}^r)$. The construction, following previous work for curves on projective spaces, essentially proceeds by blowing up Ciocan-Fontanine--Kim's space of quasimaps at loci where sections of line bundles are linearly dependent. We conjecture that tautological intersection numbers on these moduli spaces give enumerative counts of curves of fixed complex structure on $X$ subject to general incidence conditions, in contrast with traditional compactifications of the moduli spaces of maps. A result of Farkas guarantees that these spaces are pure of expected dimension. The conjecture is proven in dimension 2, where the main input is a Brill-Noether theorem for general curves on toric surfaces.

math.AG↗