On the corners of certain determinantal ranges

Let A be a complex n×n matrix and let SO(n) be the group of real orthogonal matrices of determinant one. Define Δ(A)={det(A°Q):Q∈SO(n)}, where ° denotes the Hadamard product of matrices. For a permutation σ on {1,…,n}, define It is shown that if the equation z_σ=det(A°Q) has in SO(n) only the obvious solutions (Q=(ε_iδ_σi,j),ε_i=±1 such that ε₁…ε_n=sgnσ), then the local shape of Δ(A) in a vicinity of z_σ resembles a truncated cone whose opening angle equals , where σ₁, σ₂ differ from σ by transpositions. This lends further credibility to the well known de Oliveira Marcus Conjecture (OMC) concerning the determinant of the sum of normal n×n matrices. We deduce the mentioned fact from a general result concerning multivariate power series and also use some elementary algebraic topology.