Algebraic Boundaries of Convex Semi-algebraic Sets

We study the algebraic boundary of a convex semi-algebraic set via duality in convex and algebraic geometry. We generalize the correspondence of facets of a polytope to the vertices of the dual polytope to general semi-algebraic convex bodies. In the general setup, exceptional families of extreme points might exist and we characterize them semi-algebraically. We also give an algorithm to compute a complete list of exceptional families, given the algebraic boundary of the dual convex set.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures; Comments welcom

Generic Spectrahedral Shadows

Spectrahedral shadows are projections of linear sections of the cone of positive semidefinite matrices. We characterize the polynomials that vanish on the boundaries of these convex sets when both the section and the projection are generic.Comment: version to be publishe