Euclidean distance degree defect of singular projective varieties

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Maxim, Laurenţiu G., Rodriguez, Jose Israel, Wang, Botong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Maxim, Laurenţiu G.
Rodriguez, Jose Israel
Wang, Botong
author_facet Maxim, Laurenţiu G.
Rodriguez, Jose Israel
Wang, Botong
contents The unit Euclidean distance degree and the generic Euclidean distance degree are two well-studied invariants of projective varieties. These quantities measure the algebraic complexity of nearest-point problems on a variety, and in many examples arising in optimization, engineering, statistics, and data science, there is a significant gap between them. We refer to this difference as the defect of the Euclidean distance (ED) degree. In this paper, we provide a constructible enhancement and a topological formula for the defect of the ED degree of an arbitrary complex projective variety, extending our previous results from the smooth setting. Since the generic Euclidean distance degree is typically more tractable, our approach offers a new method for computing ED degrees in broad generality.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_13726
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Euclidean distance degree defect of singular projective varieties
Maxim, Laurenţiu G.
Rodriguez, Jose Israel
Wang, Botong
Algebraic Geometry
Algebraic Topology
The unit Euclidean distance degree and the generic Euclidean distance degree are two well-studied invariants of projective varieties. These quantities measure the algebraic complexity of nearest-point problems on a variety, and in many examples arising in optimization, engineering, statistics, and data science, there is a significant gap between them. We refer to this difference as the defect of the Euclidean distance (ED) degree. In this paper, we provide a constructible enhancement and a topological formula for the defect of the ED degree of an arbitrary complex projective variety, extending our previous results from the smooth setting. Since the generic Euclidean distance degree is typically more tractable, our approach offers a new method for computing ED degrees in broad generality.
title Euclidean distance degree defect of singular projective varieties
topic Algebraic Geometry
Algebraic Topology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.13726