(Positive) Quadratic Determinantal Representations of Quartic Curves and the Robinson Polynomial

Abstract: We prove that every real nonnegative ternary quartic whose complex zero set is smooth can be represented as the determinant of a symmetric matrix with quadratic entries which is everywhere positive semidefinite. We show that the corresponding statement fails for the Robinson polynomial, answering a question by Buckley and \v{S}ivic.