Nondegenerate $2\times k\times (k+1)$ Hypermatrices

Abstract

We construct an extension of Gaussian elimination to show that if $\mathbb{F}$ is a topological field, then there is a transitive, free, and continuous action of a natural quotient of $G{L}_k(\mathbb{F})\times G{L}_{k+1}(\mathbb{F})$ on the set $M_k(\mathbb{F})$ of $2\times k\times (k+1)$ hypermatrices over $\mathbb{F}$ with nonzero hyperdeterminant. We use this action to answer a number of questions including determining the homotopy groups of $M_k(\mathbb{C})$, counting elements of $M_k({\mathbb{F}}_q)$ (generalizing an unpublished result of Lewis and Sam), and computing hyperdeterminants for $2\times k\times (k+1)$ hypermatrices in $O(k^4)$ time, which we use to compute explicit formulas in some special cases.

13 pages