Pentagrams, inscribed polygons, and Prym varieties

TL;DR

This paper provides a conceptual proof of a theorem relating inscribed polygons and monodromy invariants in the pentagram map, connecting geometric properties to Prym varieties and spectral curves.

Contribution

It offers a simple proof of Schwartz-Tabachnikov's theorem and links inscribed polygons to Prym varieties, advancing understanding of integrable systems in polygon geometry.

Findings

Proved E_k = O_k for inscribed polygons using self-duality.

Connected monodromy invariants to Prym varieties of spectral curves.

Confirmed positivity conjecture for convex polygons.

Abstract

The pentagram map is a discrete integrable system on the moduli space of planar polygons. The corresponding first integrals are so-called monodromy invariants $E_1, O_1, E_2, O_2,\dots$ By analyzing the combinatorics of these invariants, R.Schwartz and S.Tabachnikov have recently proved that for polygons inscribed in a conic section one has $E_k = O_k$ for all $k$. In this paper we give a simple conceptual proof of the Schwartz-Tabachnikov theorem. Our main observation is that for inscribed polygons the corresponding monodromy satisfies a certain self-duality relation. From this we also deduce that the space of inscribed polygons with fixed values of the monodromy invariants is an open dense subset in the Prym variety (i.e., a half-dimensional torus in the Jacobian) of the spectral curve. As a byproduct, we also prove another conjecture of Schwartz and Tabachnikov on positivity of monodromy invariants for convex polygons.