arXiv subjects

Alex Casarotti

Publications and source records attributed to Alex Casarotti.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

On the unirationality of conic bundles with discriminant of degree eight

We study the unirationality of surface conic bundles $π\colon S\to\mathbb P^1$ over an arbitrary field $k$ with discriminant degree $d_S=8$, the first case beyond the del Pezzo range. We divide these surfaces in four families and produce explicit rational multisections via tangent constructions and Cremona transformations. Over $C_1$ fields we obtain Zariski dense loci of minimal, hence non $k$-rational, yet $k$-unirational conic bundles in each family; for one of the types we prove that the dense unirational locus is indeed Zariski open. Finally, we investigate the deformation theory of these conic bundles and how their unirationality behaves under specialization.

math.AG↗

arXiv2025

On defectivity of joins, reducible secants and Fröberg's conjecture

We introduce the notion of r-defectivity for a vector bundle on a quasi-projective variety. Using this tool, we prove several previously unknown cases of Fröberg's conjecture and also of the postulation problem for fat point schemes. Our techniques also allow us to study r-nondefectivity for joins and secants of reducible varieties. As a consequence, we derive results for mixture distributions and partition ranks.

math.AG↗

arXiv2024

Nondefectivity of invariant secant varieties

We show that a large class of secant varieties is nondefective. In particular, we positively resolve most cases of the Baur-Draisma-de Graaf conjecture on Grassmannian secants in large dimensions. Our result improves the known bounds on nondefectivity for various other secant varieties, including Chow varieties, Segre-Veronese varieties and Gaussian moment varieties. We also give bounds for identifiability and the generic ranks.

math.AG↗

arXiv2023

Waring identifiability for powers of forms via degenerations

We discuss an approach to the secant non-defectivity of the varieties parametrizing $k$-th powers of forms of degree $d$. It employs a Terracini type argument along with certain degeneration arguments, some of which are based on toric geometry. This implies a result on the identifiability of the Waring decompositions of general forms of degree kd as a sum of $k$-th powers of degree $d$ forms, for which an upper bound on the Waring rank was proposed by Fröberg, Ottaviani and Shapiro.

math.AG↗

arXiv2022

Complete singular collineations and quadrics

We construct wonderful compactifications of the spaces of linear maps, and symmetric linear maps of a given rank as blow-ups of secant varieties of Segre and Veronese varieties. Furthermore, we investigate their birational geometry and their relations with some spaces of degree two stable maps.

math.AG↗

arXiv2022

Identifiability for mixtures of centered Gaussians and sums of powers of quadratics

We consider the inverse problem for the polynomial map which sends an $m$-tuple of quadratic forms in $n$ variables to the sum of their $d$-th powers. This map captures the moment problem for mixtures of $m$ centered $n$-variate Gaussians. In the first non-trivial case $d = 3$, we show that for any $ n\in \mathbb N $, this map is generically one-to-one (up to permutations of $ q_1,\ldots, q_m $ and third roots of unity) in two ranges: $m\le {n\choose 2} + 1 $ for $n \leq 16$ and $ m\le {n+5 \choose 6}/{n+1 \choose 2}-{n+1 \choose 2}-1$ for $n > 16$, thus proving generic identifiability for mixtures of centered Gaussians from their (exact) moments of degree at most $ 6 $. The first result is obtained by studying the explicit geometry of the tangential contact locus of the variety of sums of cubes of quadratic forms at concrete points, while the second result is accomplished using a link between secant non-defectivity with identifiability. The latter approach generalizes also to sums of $ d $-th powers of $k$-forms for $d \geq 3$ and $k \geq 2$.

math.AG↗

arXiv2022

On tangential weak defectiveness and identifiability of projective varieties

A point $p\in\mathbb{P}^N$ of a projective space is $h$-identifiable, with respect to a variety $X\subset\mathbb{P}^N$, if it can be written as linear combination of $h$ elements of $X$ in a unique way. Identifiability is implied by conditions on the contact locus in $X$ of general linear spaces called non weak defectiveness and non tangential weak defectiveness. We give conditions ensuring non tangential weak defectiveness of an irreducible and non-degenerated projective variety $X\subset\mathbb{P}^N$, and we apply these results to Segre-Veronese varieties.

math.AG↗

arXiv2020

Tangential weak defectiveness and generic identifiability

We investigate the uniqueness of decomposition of general tensors $T\in {\mathbb C}^{n_1+1}\otimes\cdots\otimes{\mathbb C}^{n_r+1}$ as a sum of tensors of rank $1$. This is done extending the theory developed in a previous paper by the second author to the framework of non twd varieties. In this way we are able to prove the non generic identifiability of infinitely many partially symmetric tensors.

math.AG↗

arXiv2019

On secant dimensions and identifiability of Flag varieties

We investigate the secant dimensions and the identifiablity of flag varieties parametrizing flag of sub vector spaces of a fixed vector space. We give numerical conditions ensuring that secant varieties of flag varieties have the expected dimension, and that a general point on these secant varieties is identifiable.

math.AG↗

arXiv2019

From non Defectivity to Identifiability

A projective variety $X\subset\mathbb{P}^N$ is $h$-identifiable if the generic element in its $h$-secant variety uniquely determines $h$ points on $X$. In this paper we propose an entirely new approach to study identifiability, connecting it to the notion of secant defect. In this way we are able to improve all known bounds on identifiability. In particular we give optimal bounds for some Segre and Segre-Veronese varieties and provide the first identifiability statements for Grassmann varieties.

math.AG↗

arXiv2018

On Comon's and Strassen's conjectures

Comon's conjecture on the equality of the rank and the symmetric rank of a symmetric tensor, and Strassen's conjecture on the additivity of the rank of tensors are two of the most challenging and guiding problems in the area of tensor decomposition. We survey the main known results on these conjectures, and, under suitable bounds on the rank, we prove them, building on classical techniques used in the case of symmetric tensors, for mixed tensors. Finally, we improve the bound for Comon's conjecture given by flattenings by producing new equations for secant varieties of Veronese and Segre varieties.

math.AG↗