JSJose Alejandro Samper

Jose Alejandro Samper

*This is an algorithmically generated author record based on publicly available information.

Current Organizations / Institutes

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Jose Alejandro Samper has a total of 9 co-authors. Here are the top co-authors by number of shared publications:


Latest Publications

  • Open Access

    The Cone of $5\times 5$ Completely Positive Matrices

    by Max Pfeffer, José Alejandro Samper

    We study the cone of completely positive (cp) matrices for the first interesting case $$n = 5$$ n = 5 . This is a semialgebraic set for which the polynomial equalities and inequlities that define its boundary can be derived. We characterize the different loci of this boundary and we examine the two open sets with cp-rank 5 or 6. A numerical algorithm is presented that is fast and able to compute the cp-factorization even for matrices in the boundary. With our results, many new example cases can be produced and several insightful numerical experiments are performed that illustrate the difficulty of the cp-factorization problem.


  • Open Access

    Common tangents to convex bodies

    by Federico Castillo, Joseph Doolittle, Jose Alejandro Samper

    It is well-known since the time of the Greeks that two disjoint circles in the plane have four common tangent lines. Cappell et al. proved a generalization of this fact for properly separated strictly convex bodies in higher dimensions. We have shown that the same generalization applies for arbitrary convex bodies. When the number of convex sets involved is equal to the dimension, we obtain an alternative combinatorial proof of Bisztriczky's theorem on the number of common tangents to $d$ separated convex bodies in $\Rr^d$.

  • Open Access

    The cone of $5\times 5$ completely positive matrices

    by Max Pfeffer, Jose Alejandro Samper

    We study the cone of completely positive (cp) matrices for the first interesting case $n = 5$. This is a semialgebraic set, which means that the polynomial equalities and inequlities that define its boundary can be derived. We characterize the different loci of this boundary and we examine the two open sets with cp-rank 5 or 6. A numerical algorithm is presented that is fast and able to compute the cp-factorization even for matrices in the boundary. With our results, many new example cases can be produced and several insightful numerical experiments are performed that illustrate the difficulty of the cp-factorization problem.

  • Open Access

    Reciprocal maximum likelihood degrees of diagonal linear concentration models

    by Christopher Eur, Tara Fife, José Alejandro Samper, Tim Seynnaeve

    We show that the reciprocal maximal likelihood degree (rmld) of a diagonal linear concentration model $\mathcal L \subseteq \mathbb{C}^n$ of dimension $r$ is equal to $(-2)^r\chi_M( \textstyle\frac{1}{2})$, where $\chi_M$ is the characteristic polynomial of the matroid $M$ associated to $\mathcal L$. In particular, this establishes the polynomiality of the rmld for general diagonal linear concentration models, positively answering a question of Sturmfels, Timme, and Zwiernik.

  • Open Access

    Hopf monoids of ordered simplicial complexes

    by Federico Castillo, Jeremy L. Martin, Jose A. Samper

    We study pure ordered simplicial complexes (i.e., simplicial complexes with a linear order on their ground sets) from the Hopf-theoretic point of view. We define a \textit{Hopf class} to be a family of pure ordered simplicial complexes that give rise to a Hopf monoid under join and deletion/contraction. The prototypical Hopf class is the family of ordered matroids. The idea of a Hopf class allows us to give a systematic study of simplicial complexes related to matroids, including shifted complexes, broken-circuit complexes, and \textit{unbounded matroids} (which arise from unbounded generalized permutohedra with 0/1 coordinates). We compute the antipodes in two cases: \textit{facet-initial complexes} (a much larger class than shifted complexes) and unbounded ordered matroids. In the latter case, we embed the Hopf monoid of ordered matroids into the Hopf monoid of ordered generalized permutohedra, enabling us to compute the antipode using the topological method of Aguiar and Ardila. The calculation is complicated by the appearance of certain auxiliary simplicial complexes that we call \textit{Scrope complexes}, whose Euler characteristics control certain coefficients of the antipode. The resulting antipode formula is multiplicity-free and cancellation-free.

  • Open Access

    Finiteness theorems for matroid complexes with prescribed topology

    by Federico Castillo, Jose Alejandro Samper

    It is known that there are finitely many simplicial complexes (up to isomorphism) with a given number of vertices. Translating to the language of $h$-vectors, there are finitely many simplicial complexes of bounded dimension with $h_1=k$ for any natural number $k$. In this paper we study the question at the other end of the $h$-vector: Are there only finitely many $(d-1)$-dimensional simplicial complexes with $h_d=k$ for any given $k$? The answer is no if we consider general complexes, but when focus on three cases coming from matroids: (i) independence complexes, (ii) broken circuit complexes, and (iii) order complexes of geometric lattices. We prove the answer is yes in cases (i) and (iii) and conjecture it is also true in case (ii).