arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Daniele Agostini.
We approach the Torelli problem of recostructing a curve from its Jacobian from a computational point of view. Following Dubrovin, we design a machinery to solve this problem effectively, which builds on methods in numerical algebraic geometry. We verify this methods via numerical experiments with curves up to genus 7.
We present a new package Theta.jl for computing with the Riemann theta function. It is implemented in Julia and offers accurate numerical evaluation of theta functions with characteristics and their derivatives of arbitrary order. Our package is optimized for multiple evaluations of theta functions for the same Riemann matrix, in small dimensions. As an application, we report on experimental approaches to the Schottky problem in genus five.
A theta surface in affine 3-space is the zero set of a Riemann theta function in genus 3. This includes surfaces arising from special plane quartics that are singular or reducible. Lie and Poincaré showed that theta surfaces are precisely the surfaces of double translation, i.e. obtained as the Minkowski sum of two space curves in two different ways. These curves are parametrized by abelian integrals, so they are usually not algebraic. This paper offers a new view on this classical topic through the lens of computation. We present practical tools for passing between quartic curves and their theta surfaces, and we develop the numerical algebraic geometry of degenerations of theta functions.
The solutions to the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation that arise from a fixed complex algebraic curve are parametrized by a threefold in a weighted projective space, which we name after Boris Dubrovin. Current methods from nonlinear algebra are applied to study parametrizations and defining ideals of Dubrovin threefolds. We highlight the dichotomy between transcendental representations and exact algebraic computations. Our main result on the algebraic side is a toric degeneration of the Dubrovin threefold into the product of the underlying canonical curve and a weighted projective plane.
We consider the problem of identifying a mixture of Gaussian distributions with same unknown covariance matrix by their sequence of moments up to certain order. Our approach rests on studying the moment varieties obtained by taking special secants to the Gaussian moment varieties, defined by their natural polynomial parametrization in terms of the model parameters. When the order of the moments is at most three, we prove an analogue of the Alexander-Hirschowitz theorem classifying all cases of homoscedastic Gaussian mixtures that produce defective moment varieties. As a consequence, identifiability is determined when the number of mixed distributions is smaller than the dimension of the space. In the two component setting we provide a closed form solution for parameter recovery based on moments up to order four, while in the one dimensional case we interpret the rank estimation problem in terms of secant varieties of rational normal curves.
We give a solution to the weak Schottky problem for genus five Jacobians with a vanishing theta null, answering a question of Grushevsky and Salvati Manni. More precisely, we show that if a principally polarized abelian variety of dimension five has a vanishing theta null with a quadric tangent cone of rank at most three, then it is in the Jacobian locus, up to extra irreducible components. We employ a degeneration argument, together with a study of the ramification loci for the Gauss map of a theta divisor.
We study a discrete analogue of the classical multivariate Gaussian distribution. It is supported on the integer lattice and is parametrized by the Riemann theta function. Over the reals, the discrete Gaussian is characterized by the property of maximizing entropy, just as its continuous counterpart. We capitalize on the theta function representation to derive statistical properties. Throughout, we exhibit strong connections to the study of abelian varieties in algebraic geometry.
We show that vanishing of asymptotic p-th syzygies implies p-very ampleness for line bundles on arbitrary projective schemes. For smooth surfaces we prove that the converse holds when p is small, by studying the Bridgeland-King-Reid-Haiman correspondence for tautological bundles on the Hilbert scheme of points. This extends previous results of Ein-Lazarsfeld, Ein-Lazarsfeld-Yang and gives a partial answer to some of their questions. As an application of our results, we show how to use syzygies to bound the irrationality of a variety.
Gross and Popescu conjectured that the homogeneous ideal of an embedded $(1,d)$-polarized abelian surface is generated by quadrics and cubics for $d\geq 9$. We prove this using the projective normality of the embedding. It follows that the homogeneous ideal of an abelian surface embedded by a complete linear system is generated by quadrics and cubics, with three exceptions.
We characterize property $(N_p)$ on a polarized surface $(X,L)$ with trivial canonical bundle in terms of the (non)existence of certain forbidden subvarieties of $X$.
We study the critical points of the likelihood function over the Fermat hypersurface. This problem is related to one of the main problems in statistical optimization: maximum likelihood estimation. The number of critical points over a projective variety is a topological invariant of the variety and is called maximum likelihood degree. We provide closed formulas for the maximum likelihood degree of any Fermat curve in the projective plane and of Fermat hypersurfaces of degree 2 in any projective space. Algorithmic methods to compute the ML degree of a generic Fermat hypersurface are developed throughout the paper. Such algorithms heavily exploit the symmetries of the varieties we are considering. A computational comparison of the different methods and a list of the maximum likelihood degrees of several Fermat hypersurfaces are available in the last section.