Counting tensor rank decompositions

Abstract

The tensor rank decomposition is a useful tool for the geometric interpretation of the tensors in the canonical tensor model (CTM) of quantum gravity. In order to understand the stability of this interpretation, it is important to be able to estimate how many tensor rank decompositions can approximate a given tensor. More precisely, finding an approximate symmetric tensor rank decomposition of a symmetric tensor $Q$ with an error allowance $\Delta$ is to find vectors $\phi^i$ satisfying $\|Q-\sum_{i=1}^R \phi^i\otimes \phi^i\cdots \otimes \phi^i\|^2 \leq \Delta$. The volume of all possible such $\phi^i$ is an interesting quantity which measures the amount of possible decompositions for a tensor $Q$ within an allowance. While it would be difficult to evaluate this quantity for each $Q$, we find an explicit formula for a similar quantity by integrating over all $Q$ of unit norm. The expression as a function of $\Delta$ is given by the product of a hypergeometric function and a power function. We also extend the formula to generic decompositions of non-symmetric tensors. The derivation depends on the existence (convergence) of the partition function of a matrix model which appeared in the context of the CTM.