A semidefinite program for least distortion embeddings of flat tori into Hilbert spaces

Abstract: We derive and analyze an infinite-dimensional semidefinite program which computes least distortion embeddings of flat tori $\mathbb{R}^n/L$, where $L$ is an $n$-dimensional lattice, into Hilbert spaces. This enables us to provide a constant factor improvement over the previously best lower bound on the minimal distortion of an embedding of an $n$-dimensional flat torus. As further applications we prove that every $n$-dimensional flat torus has a finite dimensional least distortion embedding, that the standard embedding of the standard tours is optimal, and we determine least distortion embeddings of all $2$-dimensional flat tori.