| dc.description.abstract | Barycentric coordinates are functions on a polygon, one for each vertex, whose values are coefficients that provide an expression of a point of the polygon as a convex combination of the vertices. Wachspress barycentric coordinates are barycentric coordinates that are defined by rational functions of minimal degree. We study the rational map on P2 defined by Wachspress barycentric coordinates, the Wachspress map, and we describe polynomials that set-theoretically cut out the closure of the image, the Wachspress variety. The map has base points at the intersection points of non-adjacent edges.
The Wachspress map embeds the polygon into projective space of dimension one less than the number of vertices. Adjacent edges are mapped to lines meeting at the image of the vertex common to both edges, and base points are blown-up into lines. The deformed image of the polygon is such that its non-adjacent edges no longer intersect but both meet the exceptional line over the blown-up corresponding base point.
We find an ideal that cuts out the Wachspress variety set-theoretically. The ideal is generated by quadratics and cubics with simple expressions along with other polynomials of higher degree. The quadratic generators are scalar products of vectors of linear forms and the cubics are determinants of 3 x 3 matrices of linear forms. Finally, we conjecture that the higher degree generators are not needed, thus the ideal is generated in degrees two and three. | en |
