On the SOS Rank of Simple and Diagonal Biquadratic Forms

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xu, Yi, Cui, Chufeng, Qi, Liqun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866918321911234560
author Xu, Yi
Cui, Chufeng
Qi, Liqun
author_facet Xu, Yi
Cui, Chufeng
Qi, Liqun
contents We study the sum-of-squares (SOS) rank of simple and diagonal biquadratic forms. For simple biquadratic forms in $3 \times 3$ variables, we show that the maximum SOS rank is exactly $6$, attained by a specific six-term form. We further prove that for any $m \ge 3$, there exists an $m \times m$ simple biquadratic form whose SOS rank is exactly $2m$. Moreover, we show that for all $m, n \ge 3$, the maximum SOS rank over $m \times n$ simple biquadratic forms is at least $m+n$, which implies $\mathrm{BSR}(m,n) \ge m+n$. For diagonal biquadratic forms with nonnegative coefficients, we prove an SOS rank upper bound of $7$, improving the general bound of $8$ for $3 \times 3$ forms. These results provide new lower and upper bounds on the worst-case SOS rank of biquadratic forms and highlight the role of structure in reducing the required number of squares.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_19195
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the SOS Rank of Simple and Diagonal Biquadratic Forms
Xu, Yi
Cui, Chufeng
Qi, Liqun
Optimization and Control
We study the sum-of-squares (SOS) rank of simple and diagonal biquadratic forms. For simple biquadratic forms in $3 \times 3$ variables, we show that the maximum SOS rank is exactly $6$, attained by a specific six-term form. We further prove that for any $m \ge 3$, there exists an $m \times m$ simple biquadratic form whose SOS rank is exactly $2m$. Moreover, we show that for all $m, n \ge 3$, the maximum SOS rank over $m \times n$ simple biquadratic forms is at least $m+n$, which implies $\mathrm{BSR}(m,n) \ge m+n$. For diagonal biquadratic forms with nonnegative coefficients, we prove an SOS rank upper bound of $7$, improving the general bound of $8$ for $3 \times 3$ forms. These results provide new lower and upper bounds on the worst-case SOS rank of biquadratic forms and highlight the role of structure in reducing the required number of squares.
title On the SOS Rank of Simple and Diagonal Biquadratic Forms
topic Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.19195