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The subrank of a tensor measures how much a tensor can be diagonalized. We determine this parameter precisely for essentially all (i.e., generic) tensors. 

When a group acts on a set, it naturally partitions it into orbits, giving rise to orbit problems. These are natural algorithmic problems, as symmetries are central in numerous questions and structures in physics, mathematics, computer science, optimization, and more. Accordingly, it is of high interest to understand their computational complexity. Recently, Bürgisser et al. (2021) gave the first polynomial-time algorithms for orbit problems of torus actions, that is, actions of commutative continuous groups on Euclidean space. In this work, motivated by theoretical and practical applications, we study the computational complexity of robust generalizations of these orbit problems, which amount to approximating the distance of orbits in ℂⁿ up to a factor γ ≥ 1. In particular, this allows deciding whether two inputs are approximately in the same orbit or far from being so. On the one hand, we prove the NP-hardness of this problem for γ = n^Ω(1/log log n) by reducing the closest vector problem for lattices to it. On the other hand, we describe algorithms for solving this problem for an approximation factor γ = exp(poly(n)). Our algorithms combine tools from invariant theory and algorithmic lattice theory, and they also provide group elements witnessing the proximity of the given orbits (in contrast to the algebraic algorithms of prior work). We prove that they run in polynomial time if and only if a version of the famous number-theoretic abc-conjecture holds - establishing a new and surprising connection between computational complexity and number theory. 

The tensor rank and border rank of the $$3 \times 3$$ determinant tensor are known to be $$5$$ if the characteristic is not two. In characteristic two, the existing proofs of both the upper and lower bounds fail. In this paper, we show that the tensor rank remains $$5$$ for fields of characteristic two as well.