arXiv subjects

Timothy Duff

Publications and source records attributed to Timothy Duff.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Segre-Determinantal Loci and the Image Variety for Three Flatland Cameras

Motivated by applications of algebraic geometry to reconstruction problems in computer vision, we initiate a study of the equations of degeneracy loci associated with linearly dependent points on Segre varieties. When these points are constrained to lie on a common hyperplane, we prove that the vanishing ideals of these loci are prime, Cohen-Macaulay, and generated by the natural maximal minors, and that these minors form a universal Gr\"{o}bner basis.

math.AG↗

arXiv2026

Elimination Templates in Macaulay2

We introduce the package \texttt{EliminationTemplates} for the Macaulay2 computer algebra system, which provides tools for constructing automatic solvers for families of zero-dimensional radical ideals depending on algebraically independent parameters. This article provides a self-contained description of how elimination templates are constructed for such families and their specialization properties. Additionally, we describe the main functionality and datatypes provided by our package, and illustrate its usage on several examples, including applications from computer vision from which elimination templates originated.

math.AC↗

arXiv2026

Certifying Galois/monodromy Actions via Homotopy Graphs

We develop a certified numerical algorithm for computing Galois/monodromy groups of parametrized polynomial systems. Our approach employs certified homotopy path tracking to guarantee the correctness of the monodromy action produced by the algorithm, and builds on previous ``homotopy graph" frameworks. We conduct extensive experiments with an implementation of this algorithm, which we have used to certify properties of several notable Galois/monodromy groups which arise in several examples drawn from pure and applied mathematics.

math.AG↗

arXiv2026

Multiprojective Geometry of Compatible Triples of Fundamental and Essential Matrices

We characterize the variety of compatible fundamental matrix triples by computing its multidegree and multihomogeneous vanishing ideal. This answers the first interesting case of a question recently posed by Br{\aa}telund and Rydell. Our result improves upon previously discovered sets of algebraic constraints in the geometric computer vision literature, which are all incomplete (as they do \emph{not} generate the vanishing ideal) and sometimes make restrictive assumptions about how a matrix triple should be scaled. Our discussion touches more broadly on generalized compatibility varieties, whose multihomogeneous vanishing ideals are much less well understood. One of our key new discoveries is a simple set of quartic constraints vanishing on compatible fundamental matrix triples. These quartics are also significant in the setting of essential matrices: together with some previously known constraints, we show that they locally cut out the variety of compatible essential matrix triples.

math.AC↗

arXiv2025

Lagrangian Dual Sections: A Topological Perspective on Hidden Convexity

Hidden convexity is a powerful idea in optimization: under the right transformations, nonconvex problems that are seemingly intractable can be solved efficiently using convex optimization. We introduce the notion of a Lagrangian dual section of a nonlinear program defined over a topological space, and we use it to give a sufficient condition for a nonconvex optimization problem to have a natural convex reformulation. We emphasize the topological nature of our framework, using only continuity and connectedness properties of a certain Lagrangian formulation of the problem to prove our results. We demonstrate the practical consequences of our framework in a range of applications and by developing new algorithmic methodology. First, we present families of nonconvex problem instances that can be transformed to convex programs in the context of spectral inverse problems -- which include quadratically constrained quadratic optimization and Stiefel manifold optimization as special cases -- as well as unbalanced Procrustes problems. In each of these applications, we both generalize prior results on hidden convexity and provide unifying proofs. For the case of the spectral inverse problems, we also present a Lie-theoretic approach that illustrates connections with the Kostant convexity theorem. Second, we introduce new algorithmic ideas that can be used to find globally optimal solutions to both Lagrangian forms of an optimization problem as well as constrained optimization problems when the underlying topological space is a Riemannian manifold.

math.OC↗

arXiv2025

Universal Gr\"obner Bases of (Universal) Multiview Ideals

Multiview ideals arise from the geometry of image formation in pinhole cameras, and universal multiview ideals are their analogs for unknown cameras. We prove that a natural collection of polynomials form a universal Gr\"obner basis for both types of ideals using a criterion introduced by Huang and Larson, and include a proof of their criterion in our setting. Symmetry reduction and induction enable the method to be deployed on an infinite family of ideals. We also give an explicit description of the matroids on which the methodology depends, in the context of multiview ideals.

math.AC↗

arXiv2025

Numerically Computing Galois Groups of Minimal Problems

I discuss a seemingly unlikely confluence of topics in algebra, numerical computation, and computer vision. The motivating problem is that of solving multiples instances of a parametric family of systems of algebraic (polynomial or rational function) equations. No doubt already of interest to ISSAC attendees, this problem arises in the context of robust model-fitting paradigms currently utilized by the computer vision community (namely "Random Sampling and Consensus", aka "RanSaC".) This talk will give an overview of work in the last 5+ years that aspires to measure the intrinsic difficulty of solving such parametric systems, and makes strides towards practical solutions.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2025

Brackets and Projective Geometry in Macaulay2

We introduce the Brackets package for the computer algebra system Macaulay2, which provides convenient syntax for computations involving the classical invariants of the special linear group. We describe our implementation of bracket rings and Grassmann-Cayley algebras, and illustrate basic functionality such as the straightening algorithm on examples from projective and enumerative geometry.

math.AG↗

arXiv2025

A Galois-Theoretic Complexity Measure for Solving Systems of Algebraic Equations

Motivated by applications of algebraic geometry, we introduce the Galois width, a quantity characterizing the complexity of solving algebraic equations in a restricted model of computation allowing only field arithmetic and adjoining polynomial roots. We explain why practical heuristics such as monodromy give (at least) lower bounds on this quantity, and discuss problems in geometry, optimization, statistics, and computer vision for which knowledge of the Galois width either leads to improvements over standard solution techniques or rules out this possibility entirely.

math.AG↗

arXiv2025

A Computer Vision Problem in Flatland

When is it possible to project two sets of labeled points lying in a pair of projective planes to the same image on a projective line? We give a complete answer to this question and describe the loci of the projection centers that enable a common image. In particular, we find that there exists a solution to this problem if and only if these two sets are themselves images of a common pointset in projective space.

math.AG↗

arXiv2024

Minimal Perspective Autocalibration

We introduce a new family of minimal problems for reconstruction from multiple views. Our primary focus is a novel approach to autocalibration, a long-standing problem in computer vision. Traditional approaches to this problem, such as those based on Kruppa's equations or the modulus constraint, rely explicitly on the knowledge of multiple fundamental matrices or a projective reconstruction. In contrast, we consider a novel formulation involving constraints on image points, the unknown depths of 3D points, and a partially specified calibration matrix $K$. For $2$ and $3$ views, we present a comprehensive taxonomy of minimal autocalibration problems obtained by relaxing some of these constraints. These problems are organized into classes according to the number of views and any assumed prior knowledge of $K$. Within each class, we determine problems with the fewest -- or a relatively small number of -- solutions. From this zoo of problems, we devise three practical solvers. Experiments with synthetic and real data and interfacing our solvers with COLMAP demonstrate that we achieve superior accuracy compared to state-of-the-art calibration methods. The code is available at https://github.com/andreadalcin/MinimalPerspectiveAutocalibration

cs.CV↗

arXiv2024

Efficient Solution of Point-Line Absolute Pose

We revisit certain problems of pose estimation based on 3D--2D correspondences between features which may be points or lines. Specifically, we address the two previously-studied minimal problems of estimating camera extrinsics from $p \in \{ 1, 2 \}$ point--point correspondences and $l=3-p$ line--line correspondences. To the best of our knowledge, all of the previously-known practical solutions to these problems required computing the roots of degree $\ge 4$ (univariate) polynomials when $p=2$, or degree $\ge 8$ polynomials when $p=1.$ We describe and implement two elementary solutions which reduce the degrees of the needed polynomials from $4$ to $2$ and from $8$ to $4$, respectively. We show experimentally that the resulting solvers are numerically stable and fast: when compared to the previous state-of-the art, we may obtain nearly an order of magnitude speedup. The code is available at \url{https://github.com/petrhruby97/efficient\_absolute}

cs.CV↗

arXiv2024

SAGBI and Gr\"obner Bases Detection

We introduce a detection algorithm for SAGBI basis in polynomial rings, analogous to a Gr\"obner basis detection algorithm previously proposed by Gritzmann and Sturmfels. We also present two accompanying software packages named SagbiGbDetection for Macaulay2 and Julia. Both packages allow the user to find one or more term orders for which a set of input polynomials form either Gr\"obner basis for the ideal they generate or a SAGBI basis for the subalgebra. Additionally, we investigate the computational complexity of homogeneous SAGBI detection and apply our implementation to several novel examples.

math.AC↗

arXiv2024

Certified homotopy tracking using the Krawczyk method

We revisit the problem of certifying the correctness of approximate solution paths computed by numerical homotopy continuation methods. We propose a conceptually simple approach based on a parametric variant of the Krawczyk method from interval arithmetic. Unlike most previous methods for certified path-tracking, our approach is applicable in the general setting of parameter homotopies commonly used to solve polynomial systems of equations. We also describe a novel preconditioning strategy and give theoretical correctness and termination results. Experiments using a preliminary implementation of the method indicate that our approach is competitive with specialized methods appearing previously in the literature, in spite of our more general setting.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Subalgebra and Khovanskii bases equivalence

The main results of this paper establish a partial correspondence between two previously-studied analogues of Groebner bases in the setting of algebras: namely, subalgebra (aka SAGBI) bases for quotients of polynomial rings and Khovanskii bases for valued algebras. We aim to bridge the gap between the concrete, computational aspects of the former and the more abstract theory of the latter. Our philosophy is that most interesting examples of Khovanskii bases can also be realized as subalgebra bases and vice-versa. We also discuss the computation of Newton-Okounkov bodies, illustrating how interpreting Khovanskii bases as subalgebra bases makes them more amenable to the existing computer algebra tools.

math.AG↗

arXiv2024

Metric Multiview Geometry -- a Catalogue in Low Dimensions

We systematically compile an exhaustive catalogue of multiview varieties and anchored multiview varieties arising from projections of points and lines in 1, 2, and 3-dimensional projective space. We say that two such varieties are ED-equivalent if there is a linear isomorphism between that that preserve ED-critical points. This gives rise to fourteen equivalence classes, and we determine various properties - dimension, set-theoretic equations, and multidegrees - for all varieties featured in our catalogue. In the case of points, we also present a complementary study of resectioning varieties and their singular loci. Finally, we propose conjectures for the Euclidean distance degrees of all varieties appearing in our comprehensive compilation.

math.AG↗

arXiv2023

Using monodromy to recover symmetries of polynomial systems

Galois/monodromy groups attached to parametric systems of polynomial equations provide a method for detecting the existence of symmetries in solution sets. Beyond the question of existence, one would like to compute formulas for these symmetries, towards the eventual goal of solving the systems more efficiently. We describe and implement one possible approach to this task using numerical homotopy continuation and multivariate rational function interpolation. We describe additional methods that detect and exploit a priori unknown quasi-homogeneous structure in symmetries. These methods extend the range of interpolation to larger examples, including applications with nonlinear symmetries drawn from vision and robotics.

math.AG↗

arXiv2023

Algebra and Geometry of Camera Resectioning

We study algebraic varieties associated with the camera resectioning problem. We characterize these resectioning varieties' multigraded vanishing ideals using Gr\"obner basis techniques. As an application, we derive and re-interpret celebrated results in geometric computer vision related to camera-point duality. We also clarify some relationships between the classical problems of optimal resectioning and triangulation, state a conjectural formula for the Euclidean distance degree of the resectioning variety, and discuss how this conjecture relates to the recently-resolved multiview conjecture.

math.AG↗