Border rank lower bounds beyond weak border apolarity

Source abstract

We provide first examples of border rank lower bounds obtained using border apolarity beyond ``weak border apolarity''. Border apolarity introduced by Buczyńska-Buczyński characterizes tensors of border rank greater than $r$ as those whose annihilator does not contain an ideal with certain properties depending on $r$ and the ambient space of the tensor. Previous applications of border apolarity depended on the algorithm developed by Conner-Harper-Landsberg. For a tensor with a large symmetry group it lists a set of ideals that satisfy some of the properties mentioned above. We give first examples where the list is non-empty but we are able to prove that no ideal on this list satisfies all necessary conditions coming from border apolarity. The new lower bound examples include tensors of interest in complexity: the first Schönhage triple sum of matrix multiplication tensors where the border rank was unknown, and the direct sum of two copies of a tensor that could potentially be used to prove the exponent of matrix multiplication is two. A third example of interest in group theory related to work of A. Leitner is also analyzed.