Nonnegative polynomials from vector bundles on real curves

Abstract

We observe that the E-resultant of a very ample rank 2 vector bundle E on a real projective curve (with no real points) is nonnegative when restricted to the space of real sections. Moreover, we show that if E has a section vanishing at exactly two points and the degree d of E satisfies d(d-6)> 4g-5, then this polynomial cannot be written as a sum of squares.