Helton–McCullough conjecture on convex positivity domains

About 17 years old · traced to

Let pp be a symmetric noncommutative polynomial, and let

Dp:=⋃n≥0Dpn\mathcal D_p:=\bigcup_{n\geq 0}\mathcal D_p^n

be its positivity domain, where Dpn\mathcal D_p^n is the connected component containing 00 of

Ppn:={X={X1,…,Xg}:Xj∈Rsymn×n and p(X)≻0}.\mathcal P_p^n:=\{X=\{X_1,\ldots,X_g\}:X_j\in\mathbb R^{n\times n}_{sym}\text{ and }p(X)\succ0\}.

Here, irreducible is the condition imposed on pp in the conjecture, and a domain of the displayed form is called a ball when it is Dq\mathcal D_q for a polynomial

q(x)=c−∑jw(aj+Lj(x))T(aj+Lj(x)),q(x)=c-\sum_j^w(a_j+L_j(x))^T(a_j+L_j(x)),

where aj,ca_j,c are real numbers and Lj(x)=b1x1+⋯+bgxgL_j(x)=b_1x_1+\cdots+b_gx_g is linear.

Helton–McCullough conjecture. If pp is irreducible and Dp\mathcal D_p is convex, then Dp\mathcal D_p is a ball.

This conjecture concerns the structure of convex positivity domains of symmetric noncommutative polynomials: convexity is expected to force the domain to have a ball-type representation. The supplied text does not state whether the conjecture has been resolved.

References

Primary source

Harry Dym, Jeremy M. Greene, J. William Helton and Scott A. McCullough, “Classification of All Noncommutative Polynomials Whose Hessian Has Negative Signature One and A Noncommutative Second Fundamental Form”, arXiv:0903.2029 (2009).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.