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Say I have an $n$-by-$n$ non-singular matrix $A$ all of whose diagonal entries are $0$. We call an $m$-by-$m$ minor of $A$ good if its set $I$ of row indices and its set $J$ of column indices ($I,J\subset \{1,2,\dotsc,n\}$) are disjoint. Can one give a good lower bound on the size $m$ of the largest non-singular good minor of $A$?

(Perhaps $m = \lfloor n/2\rfloor$?)

EDIT: All right, so obviously there aren't enough conditions - the answer is too easy. What if $A$ is antisymmetric?

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    $\begingroup$ If I understand correctly, $m = \lfloor n/2 \rfloor$ is not possible (at least when $n$ is even), as evidenced by the matrix with $0$ on the diagonal and $1$ everywhere else. $\endgroup$ May 15, 2019 at 12:13
  • $\begingroup$ is it intended that in the question both $I$ and $J$ are sets of column indices? I suppose $I$ is the set of row indices. $\endgroup$ May 15, 2019 at 17:35
  • $\begingroup$ Fixed. I must have been half-asleep when I posted the question. $\endgroup$ May 15, 2019 at 17:38

2 Answers 2

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I am assuming the question is for antisymmetric matrix. Then $n$ is even. The claim follows from the properties of Pfaffian (see wikipedia):

If $M$ is $2n$ by $2n$ anti-symmetric matrix, then $\det(M)=Pf(M)^2$, where

$Pf(M) = 2^{-n} \sum_{I\sqcup J=[1,2n]} \pm \det(M_{I,J})$,

where $I, J$ specify partition of the set $\{1,\dots,2n\}$ into two subsets of size $n$. For each such partition we take the corresponding minor. The sign is the sign of the permutation $(i_1,j_1,i_2,j_2,\dots,i_n,j_n)$ where $I=\{i_1,\dots,i_n\}$ and $J=\{j_1,\dots,j_n\}$ so that $i_1<\ldots<i_n$ and $j_1<\ldots<j_n$.

If all the minors were zero, then the Pfaffian would be zero.

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  • $\begingroup$ A small addition: it's easy to derive a modified version of the expression for the Pfaffian given here so as to avoid negative powers of $2$, so the argument here would seem to work even in characteristic $2$. $\endgroup$ Jul 27, 2019 at 9:58
  • $\begingroup$ No, in fact the statement in characteristic 2 is false: take the 4x4 matrix with 0 on the diagonal and 1 elsewhere. $\endgroup$ Jul 27, 2019 at 14:45
  • $\begingroup$ Hm. I wonder what it is that goes wrong? The change I just mentioned does seem to remove the factor $2^{-n}$. $\endgroup$ Jul 27, 2019 at 17:59
  • $\begingroup$ "it's easy to derive a modified version of the expression for the Pfaffian given here so as to avoid negative powers of 2", what do you mean by that exactly? $\endgroup$ Jul 27, 2019 at 21:23
  • $\begingroup$ Well, can't you write the Pfaffian as $\sum^*_{I\sqcup J} \pm \det(M_{I,J})$, where the sum $\sum^*$ is taken over all partitions into sets $I=\{i_1,\dotsc,i_n\}$, $J=\{j_1,\dotsc,j_n\}$ such that not only $i_1<\dotsc<i_n$ and $j_1<\dotsc<j_n$ but also $i_r<j_r$ for all $1\leq r\leq n$? $\endgroup$ Jul 27, 2019 at 22:26
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The matrix with zeroes on the diagonal and ones everywhere else is nonsingular, but all its "good" minors of size bigger than 1 are singular, since they have all entries equal to 1.

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  • $\begingroup$ Ah, thanks, that was silly of me. Let me try to see whether I can improve the question. $\endgroup$ May 15, 2019 at 12:15
  • $\begingroup$ @HAHelfgott Maybe your "true" question is answered by this or this? $\endgroup$ May 15, 2019 at 12:21
  • $\begingroup$ @FedericoPoloni Thanks but not really. See above. $\endgroup$ May 15, 2019 at 12:33
  • $\begingroup$ OK, updated the question. $\endgroup$ May 15, 2019 at 12:43
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    $\begingroup$ If $A$ is antisymmetric and nonsingular, $n$ must be even. In the case $n=4$ I can confirm that there must be a good minor of size $2$. $\endgroup$ May 15, 2019 at 12:59

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