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45 votes
11 answers
23k views

real symmetric matrix has real eigenvalues - elementary proof

Every real symmetric matrix has at least one real eigenvalue. Does anyone know how to prove this elementary, that is without the notion of complex numbers?
marjeta's user avatar
  • 579
29 votes
3 answers
3k views

Perron-Frobenius "inverse eigenvalue problem"

The Perron-Frobenius theorem says that the largest eigenvalue of a positive real matrix (all entries positive) is real. Moreover, that eigenvalue has a positive eigenvector, and it is the only ...
Gene S. Kopp's user avatar
  • 2,200
22 votes
2 answers
4k views

Fast Fourier transform for graph Laplacian?

In the case of a regularly-sampled scalar-valued signal $f$ on the real line, we can construct a discrete linear operator $A$ such that $A(f)$ approximates $\partial^2 f / \partial x^2$. One way to ...
TerronaBell's user avatar
  • 3,059
20 votes
2 answers
5k views

How are eigenvalues and eigenvectors affected by adding the all-ones matrix?

Given an $n \times n$ matrix $A$ and the $n\times n$ all-ones matrix $J = (1)_{ij}$, I'm interested in the relation between the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the matrices $A$ and $A+J$, or more ...
Somatic Custard's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
5k views

Minimum off-diagonal elements of a matrix with fixed eigenvalues

I am an engineer working in radar research. I came accross a problem on which I cannot seem to find literature. I can ask it in two different ways. Perhaps depending on the reader, the alternative ...
mermeladeK's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
1k views

Spectral symmetry of a certain structured matrix

I have a matrix $$ A= \begin{pmatrix} 0 & a & d & c\\ \bar a & 0 & b & d \\ \bar d & \bar b & 0 & a \\ \bar c & \bar d & \bar a & 0 \end{pmatrix} $$ As ...
Sascha's user avatar
  • 536
16 votes
3 answers
2k views

Why is the set of Hermitian matrices with repeated eigenvalue of measure zero?

The Hermitian matrices form a real vector space where we have a Lebesgue measure. In the set of Hermitian matrices with Lebesgue measure, how does it follow that the set of Hermitian matrices with ...
Guido Li's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
15k views

Interesting relationships between Cholesky decomposition and diagonalization

Let $\Sigma$ be a hermitian positive definite matrix and $L$ be its Cholesky decomposition so that $LL^\ast=\Sigma$. Furthermore, let's diagonalize $\Sigma$ as $\Sigma = P\Lambda P^\ast$. $\Lambda$ is ...
Arthur B's user avatar
  • 1,902
16 votes
2 answers
905 views

Eigenvalues of an "oblique diagonal" matrix

I am looking for guidance about the behavior of powers of a particular matrix (call it $A_n$ for $n\ge2$), which has come up in a counting problem about quantum knot mosaics (a good reference for ...
Russell May's user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
2k views

Eigenvalue pattern

We consider a matrix $$M_{\mu} = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & \mu & 1 & 0 \\ -\mu & 1 & 0 & 1 \\ -1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 &-1 & 0 & 0 \end{pmatrix}$$ One easily ...
Dreifuss's user avatar
  • 133
13 votes
2 answers
1k views

Combinatorial proof of (a special case of) the spectral theorem?

The spectral theorem for a real $n \times n$ symmetric matrix $A$ says that $A$ is diagonalizable with all eigenvalues real. If $A$ happens to have non-negative integer entries, it can be interpreted ...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
12 votes
6 answers
2k views

Differentiability of eigenvalues of positive-definite symmetric matrices

Let $A\in M(n,\mathbb{R})$ be an invertible matrix. Consider the (real) eigenvalues $\lambda_1,\cdots,\lambda_n$, in increasing order, of the positive-definite symmetric matrix $A^t A$. We shall ...
Somnath Basu's user avatar
  • 3,423
11 votes
1 answer
927 views

Imaginary eigenvalues

Consider the matrix $$A(\mu) = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & 1& 0 & 0 \\ -1 & -i\mu & 0 & i \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \\ 0 &i & -1 & i\mu \end{pmatrix}.$$ This matrix is ...
Pritam Bemis's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

0 eigenvalue for a symmetric tridiagonal matrix

Let $T\in \mathbb{R}^{n\times n}$ be a symmetric tridiagonal matrix having the off--diagonal entries equal to -1. The diagonal entries are all positive, $a_i>0$, $i=\overline{1,n}$, and there ...
Andreea's user avatar
  • 143
8 votes
3 answers
526 views

Lower bound for spectral radius on $\operatorname{GL}(n,\mathbb{Z})$

Consider the group of matrices $G =\operatorname{GL}(n,\mathbb{Z})$ with integer entries and determinant $\pm 1$. For each matrix $D \in G$, the product of the eigenvalues of $D$ is equal to $\det D =\...
Liam Baker's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
583 views

Efficiently computing a few localized eigenvectors

Let $H = \triangle + V(x) : \mathbb{R}^2 \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^2$. I am interested in domain decomposition for an eigenproblem involving $H$. The lowest 1000 eigenfunctions of $H$, $ \psi_i $, can ...
dranxo's user avatar
  • 817
8 votes
2 answers
323 views

Matrix rescaling increases lowest eigenvalue?

Consider the set $\mathbf{N}:=\left\{1,2,....,N \right\}$ and let $$\mathbf M:=\left\{ M_i; M_i \subset \mathbf N \text{ such that } \left\lvert M_i \right\rvert=2 \text{ or }\left\lvert M_i \right\...
André's user avatar
  • 225
8 votes
0 answers
738 views

Bounding sum of first singular values squared for Kronecker sum of traceless matrices

Let $A$ and $B$ be $4\times4$ traceless matrices with Hilbert-Schmidt norms summing up to $1/4$, i.e. $$\text{Tr}\left[ A\right]=\text{Tr}\left[ B\right] = 0,\qquad\text{Tr}\left[ A^\dagger A + B^\...
Piotr Migdal's user avatar
  • 1,612
7 votes
1 answer
204 views

Are $\log(\sigma(A(z))$ subharmonic functions?

Let $A$ be a matrix-valued entire function. It is then well-known that $\log \Vert A(z)\Vert$ is subharmonic. In particular, the operator norm is just the largest singular value of $A$. Is it ...
Pritam Bemis's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
195 views

Hölder continuity of spectrum of matrices

Endow $\mathbb{C}^{d \times d}$ with the norm induced by the Euclidean norm on $\mathbb{C}^d$. It is well-known (to those who know it well, I guess) that the spectrum $\sigma(A)$ of a matrix $A \in \...
Jochen Glueck's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
217 views

Characterizing matrices with rank constraint

Given matrix $M\in\Bbb\{0,1\}^{n\times n}$, is there a nice method to characterize $$\mathscr{D}[M]=\{Q\in\Bbb\{0,1\}^{n\times n}:\mathsf{rank}(M-Q)= \mathsf{rank}(Q),\quad M-Q\in\Bbb\{0,1\}^{n\times ...
Turbo's user avatar
  • 13.9k
6 votes
2 answers
438 views

Can a perturbation of a matrix product always be represented as product of perturbations of its factor matrices?

Given $A=BC$ where $A\in\mathbb{R}^{m\times n}$ and for some $B\in\mathbb{R}^{m\times k}, C\in\mathbb{R}^{k\times n}$. We assume that $k>=\min(m,n)$ so that this decomposition always exists for any ...
jayki's user avatar
  • 135
6 votes
1 answer
299 views

Continuity of eigenvectors

Let $\mathbb{C} \ni z \mapsto M(z)$ be a square matrix depending holomorphically on a parameter $z$ with the property that $\operatorname{dim}\ker(M(z)))=1$ for $z $ away from a discrete set $D \...
Sascha's user avatar
  • 536
6 votes
1 answer
299 views

Phase transition in matrix

Playing around with Matlab I noticed something very peculiar: Take the symmetric matrix $A \in \mathbb R^{n \times n}$ defined by $$A_{ij}= i \delta_{ij} - \frac{\varepsilon}{\sqrt{i}\sqrt{j}}\,.$$ ...
Sascha's user avatar
  • 536
6 votes
1 answer
601 views

Monotonicity of eigenvalues

We consider block matrices $$\mathcal A = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & A\\A^* & 0 \end{pmatrix}$$ and $$\mathcal B = \begin{pmatrix} 0 & B\\C & 0 \end{pmatrix}.$$ Then we define the new matrix $...
Sascha's user avatar
  • 536
6 votes
1 answer
487 views

Intuitive proof of Golden-Thompson inequality

Sutter et al. [1] in their paper "Multivariate Trace Inequalities" give an intuitive proof of the following Golden-Thompson inequality: For any hermitian matrices $A,B$: $$ \text{tr}(\exp{(A+B)}) \...
Saket Choudhary's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
371 views

Separating the spectrum of a Hermitian matrix

Given Hermitian matrix $A$, I would like to perturbate it so that its eigenvalues become well-separated. Specifically, let $A$ be some Hermitian matrix, and let $G$ be a Gaussian matrix, with each ...
Lior Eldar's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
107 views

Eigenvalues of splitting scheme

In numerical analysis it is common to approximate a solution to a PDE $$u'(t) = (A+B) u(t), \quad u(0)=u_0$$ which is just given by $e^{t(A+B)}u_0$ by the splitting $e^{tB/2} e^{tA} e^{tB/2}u_0.$ Here,...
Sascha's user avatar
  • 536
6 votes
0 answers
587 views

Lower bound on the sum of singular values for a sum of Hermitian matrices

Denote the eigenvalues of an $n\times n$ matrix $\mathbf{X}$ by $\lambda_i(\mathbf{X})$ and its singular values by $\sigma_i(\mathbf{X})$, $i=1,\ldots,n$. When $\mathbf{X}$ is Hermitian, we know that $...
Bullmoose's user avatar
  • 907
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

spectral radius monotonicity

I encountered an inequality when reading a paper. Can someone help to show how to prove it? Let be the spectral radius of matrix $A$ or $\rho(A)=\max\{|\lambda|, \lambda \text{ are eigenvalues of ...
Hans's user avatar
  • 2,239
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

Compact operator without eigenvalues?

Consider the operator $M$ on $\ell^2(\mathbb{Z})$ defined by for $u\in \ell^2(\mathbb Z)$ $$Mu(n)=\frac{1}{\vert n \vert+1}u(n).$$ This is a compact operator! Then, let $l$ be the left-shift and $r$ ...
Landauer's user avatar
  • 173
5 votes
3 answers
5k views

Eigenvalues of principal minors Vs. eigenvalues of the matrix

Say I have a positive semi-definite matrix with least positive eigenvalue x. Are there always principal minors of this matrix with eigenvalue less than x? (Here "semidefinite" can not be taken to ...
Ran's user avatar
  • 51
5 votes
1 answer
325 views

The discrete Fourier transform's Gaussian-like eigenvector

I have the $N$x$N$ matrix below where $N$ is a power of 2 (usually 64 or 256) and $\omega = 2\pi/N$. What is its largest eigenvalue? $\begin{bmatrix} 2 & 1 & 0 & 0 & \cdots & 0 &...
bobuhito's user avatar
  • 1,547
5 votes
1 answer
379 views

Hilbert representation of a bilinear form

Let $\sigma:\mathbb{R}^n\times \mathbb{R}^n\to \mathbb{R}$ be a bilinear symmetric form which is non-degenerate in the sense that for every $0\neq u\in \mathbb{R}^n$ there is $v\in \mathbb{R}^n$ with $...
erz's user avatar
  • 5,529
5 votes
1 answer
418 views

Stable matrices and their spectra

I am a graduate student in engineering and we work a lot with so-called Hurwitz (or stable) matrices. A matrix in our terminology is called stable if the real part of the eigenvalues is strictly ...
user avatar
5 votes
4 answers
839 views

Norm bounds on spectral variation and eigenvalue variation

Let $A$ and $B$ be two matrices of eigenvalues $\lambda_i$ and $\mu_i$, respectively. The spectral variation of $B$ w.r.t. $A$ and the eigenvalue variation of $B$ and $A$ are, respectively, \begin{...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

The spectrum of the discrete Laplacian

Consider a connected (we define connected components by defining the set of vertices where every vertex has one neighbour) sublattice $V$ of the square lattice $V \subset\mathbb{Z}^2.$ On this we ...
Dr. House's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Intuition on Kronecker Product of a Transition Matrix

Let $T$ be a $N\times N$ transition matrix for a markov chain with $N$ states. Thus $T_{ij}$ is the probability of transition from state $i$ to state $j$ (and thus rows summing to one). Now consider ...
dineshdileep's user avatar
  • 1,421
5 votes
4 answers
1k views

Has the largest-to-rest eigenvalue ratio of real symmetric matrices been researched before?

I'm investigating the eigenvalue ratios $$ \frac{\lambda_1}{\sum_{j=2}^N\lambda_j} \quad\mbox{and}\quad \frac{\sum_{j=1}^N\lambda_j}{\sum_{j=2}^N\lambda_j} $$ of the NxN matrix $B=AA^T$. $\lambda_1$ ...
Anna's user avatar
  • 161
5 votes
0 answers
208 views

Perturbation of Neumann Laplacian

Consider the $N \times N$ matrix $$A_{\alpha}=\begin{pmatrix} \lambda_1 & -1 & -\alpha & 0 & \cdots & 0\\ -1 & \lambda_2 & -1 & -\alpha & \cdots & 0\\ -\alpha &...
Guido Li's user avatar
4 votes
5 answers
4k views

About adding a negative definite rank-1 matrix to a symmetric matrix

If $B$ is a symmetric matrix then how do its eigenvalues compare to the eigenvalues of $B - vv^T$? ( where $v$ is a vector of the same dimension as $B$) I guess that the eigenvalues of $B - vv^T$ ...
user6818's user avatar
  • 1,893
4 votes
1 answer
314 views

Spectral Properties of $A(I-A)^{-1}$

I am working with a class of matrices $A$ which are non-negative-definite, not symmetric, and have maximum eigenvalue less than 1. I am interested in the spectral properties of the matrix $H = A(I - ...
Tom LaGatta's user avatar
  • 8,512
4 votes
1 answer
147 views

prove spectral equivalence bounds for inverse fractional power of matrices

The question is an extention to the answered question prove spectral equivalence bounds for fractional power of matrices. Let $A, D \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times n}$ be two symmetric,positive definite and ...
Luna947's user avatar
  • 75
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Spectral theorem from Jordan decomposition in infinite dimensions

The finite-dimensional spectral theorem is a simple special case of the finite-dimensional Jordan decomposition. We also have various infinite-dimensional generalizations of the spectral theorem; can ...
Sridhar Ramesh's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
353 views

When is rank-1 perturbation to a positive operator still positive?

Let $A : \mathcal{H} \to \mathcal{H}$ and $B : \mathcal{H} \to \mathcal{H}$ be trace-class (hence compact) Hermitian operators on a separable Hilbert space. Assume that $A$ is strictly positive and ...
Artemy's user avatar
  • 695
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

dominant eigenvector

Hi, everyone! Is there any efficient way to simplify the following tensor product $X \otimes X + X^T \otimes X^T$, where $X$ is a square $n \times n$ matrix. My goal is to efficiently compute the ...
person's user avatar
  • 41
4 votes
2 answers
871 views

Decay of eigenfunctions for Laplacian

Consider the discrete second derivative with Dirichlet boundary conditions on $\mathbb C^n$. Its eigendecomposition is fully known: see wikipedia It seems like the largest eigenvalue $\lambda_1$ is ...
Yannis Pimalis's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
126 views

An inequality from the "Interlacing-1" paper

This question is in reference to this paper, http://annals.math.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/annals-v182-n1-p07-p.pdf (or its arxiv version, http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.4132) For the argument to ...
InterlacingStudent's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
367 views

Prove that $(v^Tx)^2−(u^Tx)^2\leq \sqrt{1−(u^Tv)^2}$ for any unit vectors $u, v, x$

I believe I found a complicated proof by bounding the spectral norm $||uu^T-vv^T||^2_2:=\max_{||x||=1}|(u^Tx)^2-(v^Tx)^2|$. Using the fact that $dist(x,y):=\sin|x-y|$ is a distance function over unit ...
Dan Feldman's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
3k views

Generalization of eigenvalues/vectors to modules?

What is the generalization of eigenvalues/vectors to modules? To be specific, given a "vector" v in a module over some ring, and a linear "operator" O from the module to itself (please feel free to ...
Gregory Crosswhite's user avatar