Centro-affine hypersurface immersions with parallel cubic form

We consider non-degenerate centro-affine hypersurface immersions in R^n whose cubic form is parallel with respect to the Levi-Civita connection of the affine metric. There exists a bijective correspondence between homothetic families of proper affine hyperspheres with center in the origin and with parallel cubic form, and K\"ochers conic omega-domains, which are the maximal connected sets consisting of invertible elements in a real semi-simple Jordan algebra. Every level surface of the omega function in an omega-domain is an affine complete, Euclidean complete proper affine hypersphere with parallel cubic form and with center in the origin. On the other hand, every proper affine hypersphere with parallel cubic form and with center in the origin can be represented as such a level surface. We provide a complete classification of proper affine hyperspheres with parallel cubic form based on the classification of semi-simple real Jordan algebras. Centro-affine hypersurface immersions with parallel cubic form are related to the wider class of real unital Jordan algebras. Every such immersion can be extended to an affine complete one, whose conic hull is the connected component of the unit element in the set of invertible elements in a real unital Jordan algebra. Our approach can be used to study also other classes of hypersurfaces with parallel cubic form.Comment: Fourth version, 35 pages. A missing case has been added to the classificatio

Boundary behaviour of Weil-Petersson and fiber metrics for Riemann moduli spaces

The Weil-Petersson and Takhtajan-Zograf metrics on the Riemann moduli spaces of complex structures for an $n$-fold punctured oriented surface of genus $g,$ in the stable range $g+2n>2,$ are shown here to have complete asymptotic expansions in terms of Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates at the exceptional divisors of the Knudsen-Deligne-Mumford compactification. This is accomplished by finding a full expansion for the hyperbolic metrics on the fibers of the universal curve as they approach the complete metrics on the nodal curves above the exceptional divisors and then using a push-forward theorem for conormal densities. This refines a two-term expansion due to Obitsu-Wolpert for the conformal factor relative to the model plumbing metric which in turn refined the bound obtained by Masur. A similar expansion for the Ricci metric is also obtained

Determinantal representations of hyperbolic plane curves: An elementary approach

If a real symmetric matrix of linear forms is positive definite at some point, then its determinant is a hyperbolic hypersurface. In 2007, Helton and Vinnikov proved a converse in three variables, namely that every hyperbolic plane curve has a definite real symmetric determinantal representation. The goal of this paper is to give a more concrete proof of a slightly weaker statement. Here we show that every hyperbolic plane curve has a definite determinantal representation with Hermitian matrices. We do this by relating the definiteness of a matrix to the real topology of its minors and extending a construction of Dixon from 1902. Like Helton and Vinnikov's theorem, this implies that every hyperbolic region in the plane is defined by a linear matrix inequality.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, minor revision

Livsic-type Determinantal Representations and Hyperbolicity

Hyperbolic homogeneous polynomials with real coefficients, i.e., hyperbolic real projective hypersurfaces, and their determinantal representations, play a key role in the emerging field of convex algebraic geometry. In this paper we consider a natural notion of hyperbolicity for a real subvariety $X \subset \mathbb{P}^d$ of an arbitrary codimension $\ell$ with respect to a real $\ell - 1$-dimensional linear subspace $V \subset \mathbb{P}^d$ and study its basic properties. We also consider a special kind of determinantal representations that we call Livsic-type and a nice subclass of these that we call \vr{}. Much like in the case of hypersurfaces ($\ell=1$), the existence of a definite Hermitian \vr{} Livsic-type determinantal representation implies hyperbolicity. We show that every curve admits a \vr{} Livsic-type determinantal representation. Our basic tools are Cauchy kernels for line bundles and the notion of the Bezoutian for two meromorphic functions on a compact Riemann surface that we introduce. We then proceed to show that every real curve in $\mathbb{P}^d$ hyperbolic with respect to some real $d-2$-dimensional linear subspace admits a definite Hermitian, or even real symmetric, \vr{} Livsic-type determinantal representation