The primitive codimension-growth conjecture for Jacobi spectral curves

Let the connected reducibility locus be the locus in parameter space where b1bn10b_1\cdots b_{n-1}\ne0 and the spectral polynomial is reducible. Let Rnprim\mathcal R_n^{\rm prim} denote the union of its irreducible components that are not induced from proper contiguous subchains and are not obtained from scalar-diagonal degenerations.

Primitive codimension-growth conjecture. One has

codimRnprimas n.\operatorname{codim}\mathcal R_n^{\rm prim}\longrightarrow\infty\qquad\text{as }n\to\infty.

More precisely, outside special coincidence strata among the diagonal entries, one expects

codimRnprimn2.\operatorname{codim}\mathcal R_n^{\rm prim}\ge\left\lfloor {n\over2}\right\rfloor.

This organizes the known nontrivial connected reducibility mechanisms by their expected codimension: palindromic and scalar blocks of length mm have codimension m1m-1, while generic constant branches have expected codimension m/2\lfloor m/2\rfloor. The statement remains an expectation, with special coincidence strata excluded from the more precise estimate.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

B. Shapiro, “Reducibility of spectral curves of finite Jacobi pencils”, arXiv:2605.14817 (2026).

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