The twistor discriminant locus of the Fermat cubic

We consider the discriminant locus of the Fermat cubic under the twistor fibration $CP^3 \longrightarrow S^4$. We show that it has a conformal symmetry group of order $72$ and use this to identify its topology.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figure

The thick-thin decomposition and the bilipschitz classification of normal surface singularities

We describe a natural decomposition of a normal complex surface singularity $(X,0)$ into its "thick" and "thin" parts. The former is essentially metrically conical, while the latter shrinks rapidly in thickness as it approaches the origin. The thin part is empty if and only if the singularity is metrically conical; the link of the singularity is then Seifert fibered. In general the thin part will not be empty, in which case it always carries essential topology. Our decomposition has some analogy with the Margulis thick-thin decomposition for a negatively curved manifold. However, the geometric behavior is very different; for example, often most of the topology of a normal surface singularity is concentrated in the thin parts. By refining the thick-thin decomposition, we then give a complete description of the intrinsic bilipschitz geometry of $(X,0)$ in terms of its topology and a finite list of numerical bilipschitz invariants.Comment: Minor corrections. To appear in Acta Mathematic

Nearest Points on Toric Varieties

We determine the Euclidean distance degree of a projective toric variety. This extends the formula of Matsui and Takeuchi for the degree of the $A$-discriminant in terms of Euler obstructions. Our primary goal is the development of reliable algorithmic tools for computing the points on a real toric variety that are closest to a given data point.Comment: 20 page

Lipschitz geometry of complex surfaces: analytic invariants and equisingularity

We prove that the outer Lipschitz geometry of a germ $(X,0)$ of a normal complex surface singularity determines a large amount of its analytic structure. In particular, it follows that any analytic family of normal surface singularities with constant Lipschitz geometry is Zariski equisingular. We also prove a strong converse for families of normal complex hypersurface singularities in $\mathbb C^3$: Zariski equisingularity implies Lipschitz triviality. So for such a family Lipschitz triviality, constant Lipschitz geometry and Zariski equisingularity are equivalent to each other.Comment: Added a new section 10 to correct a minor gap and simplify some argument

Minimal surface singularities are Lipschitz normally embedded

Any germ of a complex analytic space is equipped with two natural metrics: the {\it outer metric} induced by the hermitian metric of the ambient space and the {\it inner metric}, which is the associated riemannian metric on the germ. We show that minimal surface singularities are Lipschitz normally embedded (LNE), i.e., the identity map is a bilipschitz homeomorphism between outer and inner metrics, and that they are the only rational surface singularities with this property.Comment: This paper is a major revision of the 2015 version. It now builds on the paper arXiv:1806.11240 by the same authors which gives a general characterization of Lipschitz normally embedded surface singularitie

The Euclidean distance degree of an algebraic variety

The nearest point map of a real algebraic variety with respect to Euclidean distance is an algebraic function. For instance, for varieties of low rank matrices, the Eckart-Young Theorem states that this map is given by the singular value decomposition. This article develops a theory of such nearest point maps from the perspective of computational algebraic geometry. The Euclidean distance degree of a variety is the number of critical points of the squared distance to a generic point outside the variety. Focusing on varieties seen in applications, we present numerous tools for exact computations.Comment: to appear in Foundations of Computational Mathematic