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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ken, Nikhil
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10737
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Table of Contents:
  • We study the Hermitian distance degree, a real enumerative invariant counting critical points of the squared Hermitian distance function, for matrix varieties invariant under left and right unitary actions. For such a variety \(M \subset \mathbb{C}^{n\times t}\), we prove that its Hermitian distance degree equals the real Euclidean distance degree of the associated absolutely symmetric variety of singular values. Equivalently, for a generic data matrix, Hermitian distance critical points on \(M\) are obtained by lifting Euclidean distance critical points from the singular-value slice. We also establish a Hermitian slicing theorem, paralleling the Bik--Draisma principle, which reduces the critical point count to a diagonal slice. As a motivating example, we recover a geometric Hermitian analogue of the Eckart-Young theorem.