Available in electronic format
Available in print format
Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society
Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society
ISSN 1088-6826 (e) ISSN 0002-9939 (p)
     

On the absence of uniform denominators in Hilbert's 17th problem

Author(s): Bruce Reznick
Journal: Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 133 (2005), 2829-2834.
MSC (2000): Primary 11E10, 11E25, 11E76, 12D15, 14P99
Posted: March 24, 2005
Retrieve article in: PDF DVI PostScript

Abstract | References | Similar articles | Additional information

Abstract: Hilbert showed that for most $(n,m)$ there exist positive semidefinite forms $p(x_1,\dots,x_n)$ of degree $m$ which cannot be written as a sum of squares of forms. His 17th problem asked whether, in this case, there exists a form $h$ so that $h^2p$ is a sum of squares of forms; that is, $p$ is a sum of squares of rational functions with denominator $h$. We show that, for every such $(n,m)$ there does not exist a single form $h$ which serves in this way as a denominator for every positive semidefinite $p(x_1,\dots,x_n)$ of degree $m$.


References:

1.
Choi, M. D. and T. Y. Lam, An old question of Hilbert, Queen's Papers in Pure and Appl. Math. (Proceedings of Quadratic Forms Conference, Queen's University (G. Orzech ed.)), 46 (1976), 385-405. MR 0498375 (58:16503)

2.
Choi, M. D. and T. Y. Lam, Extremal positive semidefinite forms, Math. Ann., 231 (1977), 1-18. MR 0498384 (58:16512)

3.
Choi, M. D., T. Y. Lam and B. Reznick, Sums of squares of real polynomials, Proc. Sympos. Pure Math., 58.2 (1995), 103-126. MR 1327293 (96f:11058)

4.
Delzell, C. N., Kreisel's unwinding of Artin's proof in Kreiseliana about and around Georg Kreisel (P. Odifreddi ed.), A. K. Peters, Wellesley, 1996, 113-246. MR 1435764

5.
Delzell, C. N., Bad points for positive semidefinite polynomials, Abstracts Amer. Math. Soc., 18 (1997), #926-12-174, 482.
6.
Delzell, C. N., Unavoidable singularities when writing polynomials as sums of squares of real rational functions, in preparation.

7.
Habicht, W., Über die Zerlegung strikte definiter Formen in Quadrate, Comment. Math. Helv., 12 (1940) 317-322. MR 0002837 (2:119f)

8.
Hardy, G. H., J. E.. Littlewood and G. Pólya, Inequalities, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2nd ed., 1967. MR 0944909 (89d:26016)

9.
Hilbert, D., Über die Darstellung definiter Formen als Summe von Formenquadraten, Math. Ann. 32 (1888), 342-350; see Ges. Abh. 2, 154-161, Springer, Berlin, 1933, reprinted by Chelsea, New York, 1981.

10.
Hilbert, D., Über ternäre definite Formen, Acta Math. 17 (1893), 169-197; see Ges. Abh. 2, 345-366, Springer, Berlin, 1933, reprinted by Chelsea, New York, 1981.

11.
de Klerk, E. and D. V. Pasechnik, Products of positive forms, linear matrix inequalities, and Hilbert 17-th problem for ternary forms, European J. of Oper. Res. 157 (2004), 39-45. MR 2064275

12.
Landau, E., Über die Darstellung definiter Funktionen durch Quadrate, Math. Ann., 62 (1906), pp. 272-285; also in Collected Works, vol. 2, pp. 237-250, Thales-Verlag, Essen, 1986. MR 0937897 (92b:01082b)

13.
de Loera, J. A. and F. Santos, An effective version of Pólya's theorem on positive definite forms, J. Pure Appl. Algebra, 108 (1996), 231-240. (See correction, same journal, 155 (2001), 309-310.) MR 1384003 (97b:12001); MR 1801421 (2001m:11058)

14.
Lombardi, H. and M.-F. Roy, Elementary recursive degree bounds for Positivstellensatz, in preparation.

15.
Motzkin, T, S., The arithmetic-geometric inequality, pp. 205-224 in Inequalities (O. Shisha, ed.) Proc. of Sympos. at Wright-Patterson AFB, August 19-27, 1965, Academic Press, New York, 1967; also in Theodore S. Motzkin: Selected Papers, Birkhäuser, Boston, 1983 (D. Cantor, B. Gordon and B. Rothschild, eds.). MR 0223521 (36:6569)

16.
Parrilo, P., Structured semidefinite programs and semialgebraic methods in robustness and optimization, Ph.D. thesis, Calif. Inst. of Tech., 2000.

17.
Pólya, G., Über positive Darstellung von Polynomen, Vierteljschr. Naturforsch. Ges. Zürich, 73 (1928), 141-145; see Collected Papers, Vol. 2, pp. 309-313, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., London, 1974.MR 0505094 (58:21342)

18.
Powers, V. and B. Reznick, A new bound for Pólya's theorem with applications to polynomials positive on polyhedra, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 164 (2001), 221-229. MR 1854339 (2002g:14087)

19.
Reznick, B., Uniform denominators in Hilbert's Seventeenth Problem, Math. Z., 220 (1995), 75-98. MR 1347159 (96e:11056)

20.
Reznick, B., Some concrete aspects of Hilbert's 17th Problem, Contemp. Math., 253 (2000), 251-272. MR 1747589 (2001i:11042)

21.
Robinson, A., On ordered fields and definite forms, Math. Ann., 130 (1955), 257-271. MR 0075932 (17:822a)

22.
Robinson, R. M., Some definite polynomials which are not sums of squares of real polynomials, Izdat. ``Nauka" Sibirsk. Otdel. Novosibirsk, (1973) pp. 264-282, (Selected questions of algebra and logic (a collection dedicated to the memory of A. I. Mal'cev), abstract in Notices AMS, 16 (1969), p. 554. MR 0337878 (49:2647)

23.
Rudin, W., Sums of squares of polynomials, Amer. Math. Monthly, 107 (2000), 813-821. MR 1792413 (2002c:12003)

24.
Scheiderer, C., Sums of squares on real algebraic surfaces, preprint.

25.
Stengle, G., Integral solution of Hilbert's seventeenth problem, Math. Ann. 246 (1979/1980), 33-39. MR 0554130 (81c:12035)

26.
Swan, R.G., Hilbert's theorem on positive ternary quartics, Contemp. Math. 272 (2000), 287-292.MR 1803372 (2001k:11065)

Similar Articles:

Retrieve articles in Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society with MSC (2000): 11E10, 11E25, 11E76, 12D15, 14P99

Retrieve articles in all Journals with MSC (2000): 11E10, 11E25, 11E76, 12D15, 14P99


Additional Information:

Bruce Reznick
Affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801
Email: reznick@math.uiuc.edu

DOI: 10.1090/S0002-9939-05-07879-2
PII: S 0002-9939(05)07879-2
Received by editor(s): May 19, 2003
Received by editor(s) in revised form: May 24, 2004
Posted: March 24, 2005
Additional Notes: This material is based in part upon work of the author, supported by the USAF under DARPA/AFOSR MURI Award F49620-02-1-0325. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of these agencies.
Communicated by: Michael Stillman
Copyright of article: Copyright 2005, American Mathematical Society
The copyright for this article reverts to public domain after 28 years from publication.


  AMS Website Logo Small Comments: webmaster@ams.org
© Copyright 2008, American Mathematical Society
Privacy Statement
Search the AMSPowered by Google