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Autori principali: Laurent, Monique, Mascarin, Francesco Maria, Telen, Simon
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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Accesso online:https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.02484
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author Laurent, Monique
Mascarin, Francesco Maria
Telen, Simon
author_facet Laurent, Monique
Mascarin, Francesco Maria
Telen, Simon
contents This paper studies the algebraic boundary of the elliptope $\mathcal{E}(G)$ of a graph $G$. In particular, we completely characterize the algebraic boundary of $\mathcal{E}(G)$ when $G$ is cycle completable. In this case, the boundary is a union of determinantal hypersurfaces and Lissajous varieties, i.e., images of rational linear subspaces under the coordinatewise cosine map. As an application, we show that the algebraic boundary of $\mathcal{E}(G)$ is disjoint from its interior precisely when $\mathcal{E}(G)$ is a spectrahedron or, equivalently, when $G$ is a chordal graph. A central ingredient for the defining equation of the boundary hypersurface is the cycle polynomial, which captures the algebraic boundary of the elliptope $\mathcal{E}(C_n)$ of the $n$-th cycle graph $C_n$. We show that the cycle polynomial of $C_n$ is the resultant of two smaller cycle polynomials. Via this result, Sylvester's determinantal formula offers an inductive method for computing the cycle polynomial which mirrors a geometric property of metric polytopes. We also determine the degree of the homogeneous cycle polynomial, settling an open question of Sturmfels and Uhler (2010).
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_02484
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Algebraic Boundary of Graph Elliptopes
Laurent, Monique
Mascarin, Francesco Maria
Telen, Simon
Algebraic Geometry
This paper studies the algebraic boundary of the elliptope $\mathcal{E}(G)$ of a graph $G$. In particular, we completely characterize the algebraic boundary of $\mathcal{E}(G)$ when $G$ is cycle completable. In this case, the boundary is a union of determinantal hypersurfaces and Lissajous varieties, i.e., images of rational linear subspaces under the coordinatewise cosine map. As an application, we show that the algebraic boundary of $\mathcal{E}(G)$ is disjoint from its interior precisely when $\mathcal{E}(G)$ is a spectrahedron or, equivalently, when $G$ is a chordal graph. A central ingredient for the defining equation of the boundary hypersurface is the cycle polynomial, which captures the algebraic boundary of the elliptope $\mathcal{E}(C_n)$ of the $n$-th cycle graph $C_n$. We show that the cycle polynomial of $C_n$ is the resultant of two smaller cycle polynomials. Via this result, Sylvester's determinantal formula offers an inductive method for computing the cycle polynomial which mirrors a geometric property of metric polytopes. We also determine the degree of the homogeneous cycle polynomial, settling an open question of Sturmfels and Uhler (2010).
title The Algebraic Boundary of Graph Elliptopes
topic Algebraic Geometry
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.02484