plucker -- get the Plücker coordinates of a linear subspace

Synopsis

Usage:

plucker L

plucker p
Inputs:
- L, an ideal, the ideal of a $k$-dimensional linear subspace $V(L)\subset\mathbb{P}^n$
- p, an ideal, the ideal of the corresponding point of V(L) in the Grassmannian $\mathbb{G}(k,\mathbb{P}^n)$ (embedded via the Plücker embedding)
Optional inputs:
- AffineChartGrass => ..., default value true, use an affine chart on the Grassmannian
- Variable => ..., default value null, specify a name for a variable
Outputs:
- an ideal, p if the input is L, and L if the input is p

Description

i1 : P4 = Grass(0,4,ZZ/33331,Variable=>x); G'1'4 = Grass(1,4,ZZ/33331,Variable=>x);

i3 : L = trim ideal apply(3,i->random(1,P4))  -- a line in P^4

o3 = ideal (x  + 8480x  - 11656x , x  - 6727x  + 14853x , x  + 15777x  -
             2        3         4   1        3         4   0         3  
     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     664x )
         4

o3 : Ideal of P4

i4 : time p = plucker L
     -- used 0.0031703 seconds

o4 = ideal (x    + 8480x   , x    - 6727x   , x    + 15777x   , x    +
             2,4        3,4   1,4        3,4   0,4         3,4   2,3  
     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     11656x   , x    - 14853x   , x    + 664x   , x    + 13522x   , x    +
           3,4   1,3         3,4   0,3       3,4   1,2         3,4   0,2  
     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     11804x   , x    + 14854x   )
           3,4   0,1         3,4

o4 : Ideal of G'1'4

i5 : time L' = plucker p
     -- used 0.0251344 seconds

o5 = ideal (x  + 8480x  - 11656x , x  - 6727x  + 14853x , x  + 15777x  -
             2        3         4   1        3         4   0         3  
     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     664x )
         4

o5 : Ideal of P4

i6 : assert(L' == L)

More generally, if the input is the ideal of a subvariety $Y\subset\mathbb{G}(k,\mathbb{P}^n)$, then the method returns the ideal of the variety $W\subset\mathbb{P}^n$ swept out by the linear spaces corresponding to points of $Y$. As an example, we now compute a surface scroll $W\subset\mathbb{P}^4$ over an elliptic curve $Y\subset\mathbb{G}(1,\mathbb{P}^4)$.

i7 : Y = ideal apply(5,i->random(1,G'1'4)); -- an elliptic curve

o7 : Ideal of G'1'4

i8 : time W = plucker Y; -- surface swept out by the lines of Y
     -- used 0.0297194 seconds

o8 : Ideal of P4

i9 : (codim W,degree W)

o9 = (2, 5)

o9 : Sequence

In this example, we can recover the subvariety $Y\subset\mathbb{G}(k,\mathbb{P}^n)$ by computing the Fano variety of $k$-planes contained in $W$.

i10 : time Y' = plucker(W,1); -- variety of lines contained in W
     -- used 0.183158 seconds

o10 : Ideal of G'1'4

i11 : assert(Y' == Y)

Warning: Notice that, by default, the computation is done on a randomly chosen affine chart on the Grassmannian. To change this behavior, you can use the AffineChartGrass option.

Ways to use plucker :

plucker(Ideal)
plucker(Ideal,ZZ)

For the programmer

The object plucker is a method function with options.