Numerical Linear Algebra
where the algebra stops being the arithmetic
Generator

A plane of 2 × 2 × 2 tensors, coloured by the sign of the hyperdeterminant that decides their rank

One function in the borderrank library, called 4 times across 3 essays. Below: what it draws at its defaults, what it draws at every value an essay asks for, the 3 claims it put to the test while drawing them, and where it stands against the rule this site is named for.

At its defaults it draws a plane of 2 × 2 × 2 tensors, coloured by the sign of the hyperdeterminant that decides their rank. Two of the eight entries are varied over ±2 and the other six are held at the values that make the centre of the picture the rank-three tensor A = e₁⊗e₁⊗e₂ + e₁⊗e₂⊗e₁ + e₂⊗e₁⊗e₁. The light region is Δ > 0, where the tensor has real rank two and two real rank-one terms exist; the dark region is Δ < 0, where the real rank is three and the complex rank is two. 54.2 per cent of this window is rank two. The boundary between them is the curve Δ = 0, on which the rank is three and the distance to the rank-two set is zero — every point of it is a tensor with no nearest rank-two approximation.

rank-region is one function in lib/figures/borderrank.js — border rank — a nearest point that is not there, and a rank that is a sign. Everything below came out of it during this build, at arguments taken from the essays rather than invented for this page. A figure here is the figure a reader meets in an essay, and if the generator changes, this page changes with it.

At its defaults

Drawn even though every essay passes arguments — which on this site is every essay, at 100% of placements since the standard pass. A default nothing exercises is a trap for the next essay to call this with none, and this is the page where a default that has drifted from the figures around it becomes visible.

A plane of 2 × 2 × 2 tensors, coloured by the sign of the hyperdeterminant that decides their rankTwo of the eight entries are varied over ±2 and the other six are held at the values that make the centre of the picture the rank-three tensor A = e₁⊗e₁⊗e₂ + e₁⊗e₂⊗e₁ + e₂⊗e₁⊗e₁. The light region is Δ > 0, where the tensor has real rank two and two real rank-one terms exist; the dark region is Δ < 0, where the real rank is three and the complex rank is two. 54.2 per cent of this window is rank two. The boundary between them is the curve Δ = 0, on which the rank is three and the distance to the rank-two set is zero — every point of it is a tensor with no nearest rank-two approximation.rank three, Δ = 0a₁₁₁ across, a₀₀₀ up, both over ±2light: two real roots, rank two · dark: a conjugate pair, rank threeone sign, two rankscells sampled4096rank two2222rank three1874Δ at the centre0rank at the centre3the rank is a signcomputed from eight numbers

Two of the eight entries are varied over ±2 and the other six are held at the values that make the centre of the picture the rank-three tensor A = e₁⊗e₁⊗e₂ + e₁⊗e₂⊗e₁ + e₂⊗e₁⊗e₁. The light region is Δ > 0, where the tensor has real rank two and two real rank-one terms exist; the dark region is Δ < 0, where the real rank is three and the complex rank is two. 54.2 per cent of this window is rank two. The boundary between them is the curve Δ = 0, on which the rank is three and the distance to the rank-two set is zero — every point of it is a tensor with no nearest rank-two approximation.

span: 0.5

The arguments are the ones A nearest point that is not there passes. A value nobody placed would be a picture no essay asked for and no claim was ever checked against.

A plane of 2 × 2 × 2 tensors, coloured by the sign of the hyperdeterminant that decides their rankTwo of the eight entries are varied over ±0.5 and the other six are held at the values that make the centre of the picture the rank-three tensor A = e₁⊗e₁⊗e₂ + e₁⊗e₂⊗e₁ + e₂⊗e₁⊗e₁. The light region is Δ > 0, where the tensor has real rank two and two real rank-one terms exist; the dark region is Δ < 0, where the real rank is three and the complex rank is two. 50.0 per cent of this window is rank two. The boundary between them is the curve Δ = 0, on which the rank is three and the distance to the rank-two set is zero — every point of it is a tensor with no nearest rank-two approximation.rank three, Δ = 0a₁₁₁ across, a₀₀₀ up, both over ±0.5light: two real roots, rank two · dark: a conjugate pair, rank threeone sign, two rankscells sampled4096rank two2048rank three2048Δ at the centre0rank at the centre3the rank is a signcomputed from eight numbers

Two of the eight entries are varied over ±0.5 and the other six are held at the values that make the centre of the picture the rank-three tensor A = e₁⊗e₁⊗e₂ + e₁⊗e₂⊗e₁ + e₂⊗e₁⊗e₁. The light region is Δ > 0, where the tensor has real rank two and two real rank-one terms exist; the dark region is Δ < 0, where the real rank is three and the complex rank is two. 50.0 per cent of this window is rank two. The boundary between them is the curve Δ = 0, on which the rank is three and the distance to the rank-two set is zero — every point of it is a tensor with no nearest rank-two approximation.

span: 2

The arguments are the ones A rank that is not a property of the tensor passes. A value nobody placed would be a picture no essay asked for and no claim was ever checked against.

A plane of 2 × 2 × 2 tensors, coloured by the sign of the hyperdeterminant that decides their rankTwo of the eight entries are varied over ±2 and the other six are held at the values that make the centre of the picture the rank-three tensor A = e₁⊗e₁⊗e₂ + e₁⊗e₂⊗e₁ + e₂⊗e₁⊗e₁. The light region is Δ > 0, where the tensor has real rank two and two real rank-one terms exist; the dark region is Δ < 0, where the real rank is three and the complex rank is two. 54.2 per cent of this window is rank two. The boundary between them is the curve Δ = 0, on which the rank is three and the distance to the rank-two set is zero — every point of it is a tensor with no nearest rank-two approximation.rank three, Δ = 0a₁₁₁ across, a₀₀₀ up, both over ±2light: two real roots, rank two · dark: a conjugate pair, rank threeone sign, two rankscells sampled4096rank two2222rank three1874Δ at the centre0rank at the centre3the rank is a signcomputed from eight numbers

Two of the eight entries are varied over ±2 and the other six are held at the values that make the centre of the picture the rank-three tensor A = e₁⊗e₁⊗e₂ + e₁⊗e₂⊗e₁ + e₂⊗e₁⊗e₁. The light region is Δ > 0, where the tensor has real rank two and two real rank-one terms exist; the dark region is Δ < 0, where the real rank is three and the complex rank is two. 54.2 per cent of this window is rank two. The boundary between them is the curve Δ = 0, on which the rank is three and the distance to the rank-two set is zero — every point of it is a tensor with no nearest rank-two approximation.

span: 6

The arguments are the ones A rank that is not a property of the tensor passes. A value nobody placed would be a picture no essay asked for and no claim was ever checked against.

A plane of 2 × 2 × 2 tensors, coloured by the sign of the hyperdeterminant that decides their rankTwo of the eight entries are varied over ±6 and the other six are held at the values that make the centre of the picture the rank-three tensor A = e₁⊗e₁⊗e₂ + e₁⊗e₂⊗e₁ + e₂⊗e₁⊗e₁. The light region is Δ > 0, where the tensor has real rank two and two real rank-one terms exist; the dark region is Δ < 0, where the real rank is three and the complex rank is two. 87.2 per cent of this window is rank two. The boundary between them is the curve Δ = 0, on which the rank is three and the distance to the rank-two set is zero — every point of it is a tensor with no nearest rank-two approximation.rank three, Δ = 0a₁₁₁ across, a₀₀₀ up, both over ±6light: two real roots, rank two · dark: a conjugate pair, rank threeone sign, two rankscells sampled4096rank two3572rank three524Δ at the centre0rank at the centre3the rank is a signcomputed from eight numbers

Two of the eight entries are varied over ±6 and the other six are held at the values that make the centre of the picture the rank-three tensor A = e₁⊗e₁⊗e₂ + e₁⊗e₂⊗e₁ + e₂⊗e₁⊗e₁. The light region is Δ > 0, where the tensor has real rank two and two real rank-one terms exist; the dark region is Δ < 0, where the real rank is three and the complex rank is two. 87.2 per cent of this window is rank two. The boundary between them is the curve Δ = 0, on which the rank is three and the distance to the rank-two set is zero — every point of it is a tensor with no nearest rank-two approximation.

What it checked while drawing

Every figure above checked its own claims on the way to being drawn, and a claim that failed would have stopped the picture rather than shipped a wrong one. Those checks used to leave no trace at all: a passing one returned true and the only evidence the figure had checked anything was that nothing crashed. The list below is what they actually said, collected by running this generator with an observer installed — not a description of what it is believed to check.

3 distinct claims across 4 sets of arguments, grouped below by shape — because most of them are one sentence with a different number in it, and how many separate times that sentence was put to the test is the informative part.

a window of the plane

and the tensor at the centre has rank three

both regions are inside the window

Against the rule

The rule does not apply to it. It factorises nothing, so there is no residual it could be withholding. That is worth stating rather than leaving blank: a site that reported the rule as satisfied by every generator would be counting mostly generators the rule never reached.

Across the library: the rule bites on 217 of 397 generators — 199 print a residual and 18 are exempt with a published reason; 180 factorise nothing. Read from lib/residual-rule.js, which is the same body the gate enforces from, and the gate's last check fails the build if this page and it disagree about any generator.

Where it is called

Changing this generator changes every figure on this list. That is what makes the list worth publishing rather than keeping in a check script.

When the index is a tuple

A nearest point that is not there

Eckart and Young guarantee that a matrix has a best rank-k approximation and that the truncated SVD is it. For three indices the guarantee is false in the strongest available way — there are tensors whose distance to the rank-two set is zero and which no rank-two tensor equals.

 When the index is a tuple

A rank that is not a property of the tensor

The same eight real numbers have rank three over the reals and rank two over the complexes, and a random 2 × 2 × 2 tensor has rank two with probability exactly π/4. Neither sentence has an analogue for matrices, where the rank is one number and a random matrix has the largest one.

 When the index is a tuple

An iteration that walks out of the set

Every sweep of alternating least squares is the exact minimiser of its own subproblem, so the objective can only fall. What it cannot do is converge, when the target's nearest rank-r point is not in the rank-r set — and a plateau at a small residual looks identical to slow convergence unless the size of the terms is plotted beside it.

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