Algebraic Boundaries of \mathrm{SO}(2)-Orbitopes

Let $X\subset \mathbb{A }^{2r}$ X ? A 2 r be a real curve embedded into an even-dimensional affine space. We characterise when the $r$ r th secant variety to $X$ X is an irreducible component of the algebraic boundary of the convex hull of the real points $X(\mathbb{R })$ X ( R ) of $X$ X . This fact is then applied to $4$ 4 -dimensional $\mathrm{SO}(2)$ SO ( 2 ) -orbitopes and to the so called Barvinok–Novik orbitopes to study when they are basic closed semi-algebraic sets. In the case of $4$ 4 -dimensional $\mathrm{SO}(2)$ SO ( 2 ) -orbitopes, we find all irreducible components of their algebraic boundary.