Abstract. For a real projective variety X, the cone ΣX of sums of squares of linear forms plays a fundamental role in real algebraic geometry. The dual cone Σ * X is a spectrahedron, and we show that its convexity properties are closely related to homological properties of X. For instance, we show that all extreme rays of Σ * X have rank 1 if and only if X has Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity two. More generally, if Σ * X has an extreme ray of rank p > 1, then X does not satisfy the property N2,p. We show that the converse also holds in a wide variety of situations: the smallest p for which property N2,p does not hold is equal to the smallest rank of an extreme ray of Σ * X greater than one. We generalize the work of Blekherman, Smith, and Velasco on equality of nonnegative polynomials and sums of squares from irreducible varieties to reduced schemes and classify all spectrahedral cones with only rank 1 extreme rays. Our results have applications to the positive semidefinite matrix completion problem and to the truncated moment problem on projective varieties.Key words. sums of squares, spectrahedra, free resolutions, Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity AMS subject classifications. 14P05, 13D02, 52A99, 05C50 DOI. 10.1137/16M10845601. Introduction. Minimal free resolutions and spectrahedra are central objects of study in commutative algebra and convex geometry, respectively. We connect these disparate areas via real algebraic geometry and show a surprisingly strong connection between convexity properties of certain spectrahedra and the minimal free resolution of the defining ideal of the associated real variety. In the process, we address fundamental questions on the relationship between nonnegative polynomials and sums of squares.In real algebraic geometry, we associate two convex cones to a real projective variety X: the cone P X of quadratic forms that are nonnegative on X, and the cone Σ X of sums of squares of linear forms. A recent line of work shows that convexity properties of these cones are strongly related to geometric properties of the variety X over the complex numbers [2], [7], and [4]. We extend these novel connections into the realm of homological algebra by showing a direct link between the convex geometry of the dual convex cone Σ * X and property N 2,p of the defining ideal of X: for an integer p 1, the scheme X satisfies property N 2,p if the jth syzygy module of the homogeneous ideal of X is generated in degree j + 2 for all j < p.