Solving determinantal systems using homotopy techniques

TL;DR

This paper develops homotopy algorithms to solve determinantal polynomial systems, providing bounds on isolated solutions and exploiting the structure for efficient computation in polynomial optimization and geometry.

Contribution

It introduces bounds on the number of solutions and designs homotopy algorithms that leverage the determinantal structure for efficient solving.

Findings

Bounds depend on degrees in matrix rows and columns.

Algorithms run in polynomial time relative to the number of solutions.

Effective for polynomial optimization and computational geometry applications.

Abstract

Let $\K$ be a field of characteristic zero and $\Kbar$ be an algebraic closure of $\K$. Consider a sequence of polynomials$G=(g\_1,\dots,g\_s)$ in $\K[X\_1,\dots,X\_n]$, a polynomial matrix $\F=[f\_{i,j}] \in \K[X\_1,\dots,X\_n]^{p \times q}$, with $p \leq q$,and the algebraic set $V\_p(F, G)$ of points in $\KKbar$ at which all polynomials in $\G$ and all $p$-minors of $\F$vanish. Such polynomial systems appear naturally in e.g. polynomial optimization, computational geometry.We provide bounds on the number of isolated points in $V\_p(F, G)$ depending on the maxima of the degrees in rows (resp. columns) of $\F$. Next, we design homotopy algorithms for computing those points. These algorithms take advantage of the determinantal structure of the system defining $V\_p(F, G)$. In particular, the algorithms run in time that is polynomial in the bound on the number of isolated points.