  We consider the problem of decomposing a real-valued symmetric tensor as the
sum of outer products of real-valued vectors. Algebraic methods exist for
computing complex-valued decompositions of symmetric tensors, but here we focus
on real-valued decompositions, both unconstrained and nonnegative, for problems
with low-rank structure. We discuss when solutions exist and how to formulate
the mathematical program. Numerical results show the properties of the proposed
formulations (including one that ignores symmetry) on a set of test problems
and illustrate that these straightforward formulations can be effective even
though the problem is nonconvex.
