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Tuesday, June 28, 2016

The conditioning number of a projective curve

Let C be a smooth algebraic curve in P2. That is, for some homogeneous fC[x0,x1,x2] we let C={xP2 : f(x)=0}. Describe C as a manifold via the usual open sets Ui={xP2 : xi0} and charts
φ0 : U0C2, [x0:x1:x2](x1x0,x2x0),φ1 : U1C2, [x0:x1:x2](x0x1,x2x1),φ2 : U2C2, [x0:x1:x2](x0x2,x1x2).

Let w=[w0:w1:w2]P2 for which f(w)=0. The Jacobian of C at w is then
Jw=[fx0|w : fx1|w : fx2|w]P2.

Assume that fx0|w0 and pass to φ0(U0) to get the Jacobian to be
J0w=(f/x1|wf/x0|w , f/x2|wf/x0|w)C2.

Assume that w00, so the tangent line to φ0(C)C2 at φ0(w)=(w1/w0,w2/w0) is
Tφ0(w)={φ0(w)+tJ0w : tC}C2.

A vector orthogonal to the Jacobian J0w is
ˉJ0w=(f/x2|wf/x0|w , f/x1|wf/x0|w)C2,

so the space space normal to Tφ0(w) is given by
Tφ0(w)={φ0(w)+tˉJ0w : tC}C2.


Example: Let CP2 be the zero locus of f(x0,x1,x2)=x20+x1x2x1x0. The Jacobian is J=[2x0x1:x2x0:x1], and as J=0 implies x0=x1=x2=0, but 0P2, the curve C is smooth. Consider two points w=[1:1:0],z=[2:1:2]C, at which the Jacobian is
Jw=[1:1:1],Jz=[3:4:1].

Both w0 and z0 are non-zero, with φ0(w)=(1,0) and φ0(z)=(1/2,1), giving the tangent and normal spaces to be
T(1,0)={(1,0)+t(1,1) : tC},T(1/2,1)={(1/2,1)+s(4/3,1/3) : sC},T(1,0)={(1,0)+t(1,1) : tC},T(1/2,1)={(1/2,1)+s(1/3,4/3) : sC}.

The two normal spaces intersect at (t,s)=(1/3,1/2) at distances of 1/3||(1,1)||=2/30.471 and 1/2||(1/3,4/3)||=17/31.374 from the points φ0(w),φ0(z), respectively. Hence the conditioning number of C is at most 2/3.

Given a smooth projective curve and a finite set of points, this Sage code will calculate the conditioning number from that collection of points.

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