Questions tagged [linear-algebra]
Questions about the properties of vector spaces and linear transformations, including linear systems in general.
5,873 questions
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Number of invertible {0,1} real matrices?
This question is inspired from here, where it was asked what possible determinants an $n \times n$ matrix with entries in {0,1} can have over $\mathbb{R}$.
My question is: how many such matrices ...
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Is a matrix similar to its transpose over $\mathbb{Z}_p$?
Is every $n \times n$ matrix with entries in $\mathbb{Z}_p$ (or even $\mathbb{Z}$) conjugate to its transpose via a matrix in $GL_n(\mathbb{Z}_p)$?
On the one hand, I know the analogous fact is false ...
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A linear algebra problem in positive characteristic
Let $A$ be a symmetric square matrix with entries in $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ for a prime $p$ such that all of its diagonal entries are nonzero. Does there exists always a vector $x$ with all ...
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Computing signature
I have a feeling that this might have already been asked, but can't find the question. Anyway, the question is: given a symmetric $n\times n$ matrix, is there a faster way to compute its signature ...
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Elementary $\mathrm{Ext}^1$ intuition
$\DeclareMathOperator{\Hom}{\operatorname{Hom}}\DeclareMathOperator{\Ext}{\operatorname{Ext}}$I am wondering what sort of basic basic intuitive meaning $\Ext^1(M,N)$ has.
As a base case: if $M$ and $N$...
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Is Carlitz's paper correct about the number of similarity classes of commuting matrices?
L. Carlitz has a paper, Classes of pairs of commuting matrices over a finite field, that computes the number of simultaneous similarity classes of of pairs of commuting matrices in $\operatorname{Mat}...
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Showing that a certain matrix is not positive definite
Let $J_k$ be a $k \times k$ all ones matrix and $B$ any $k \times k$ binary matrix - that is $B$ only has entries from $\{0,1\}$.
I would like to show that the matrix $$X_B = (J_k -I) - B (J_k - I)^{-...
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Torsion in GL_n(Z)
Fix some $n \geq 3$. It's hopeless to classify the torsion elements in $\text{GL}_n(\mathbb{Z})$, but I have a couple of less ambitious questions. It's well-known that for any odd prime $p$, the map ...
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Number of unique determinants for an NxN (0,1)-matrix
I'm interested in bounds for the number of unique determinants of NxN (0,1)-matrices. Obviously some of these matrices will be singular and therefore will trivially have zero determinant. While it ...
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Minimum off-diagonal elements of a matrix with fixed eigenvalues
I am an engineer working in radar research. I came accross a problem on which I cannot seem to find literature. I can ask it in two different ways. Perhaps depending on the reader, the alternative ...
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Example of a space for which $V \cong Hom(V,V)$
Let $V$ be a topological linear space, and let $\operatorname{Hom}(V,V)$ be the space of continuous linear maps from $V$ back to $V$, equipped with a suitable topology.
Is there a non-trivial ...
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Zeta-function regularization of determinants and traces
The short answer to my question may be a pointer to the right text. I will give all the background I know, and then ask my questions in list form.
Let A be an operator (on an infinite-dimensional ...
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Encoding primes via ranks of sign matrices
(Reposted from math.SE)
Recently I came across a very simply defined family of matrices: for $n \in \mathbb{N}$, set $A_n := (a_{ij})_{0 \le i, j \le n-1}$, where
$$\displaystyle a_{ij} := (-1)^{\big\...
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How fast can extreme eigenvalues of the average of random matrices converge to their expectation?
Suppose that $X_1,X_2,\ldots,X_m$ are independent $d\times d$ random matrices and let $\overline{X} := \frac{1}{m}\sum_{i=1}^m X_i$. One of the questions studied under the theory of random matrices is ...
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Commuting unitaries
Is the following true:
For every unit vectors $x_1,..., x_n$, $y_1,..., y_n$ in $\mathbb{C}^k$
there exist a Hilbert space $H$, unitary operators $U_1,...,U_n$ and $V_1,...,V_n$ in $B(H)$ and unit ...
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Karoubi versus Kasparov K-theory
I have the following, probably very elementary question: Let $Cl^{p,q}$ be the Clifford algebra on generators $e_i$, $i=1, \ldots, p+q$
with $e_i e_j = -e_j e_i$ and $e_{i}^{2}=-1$ for $i=1,\ldots,p$, ...
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A curious eigenvalue inequality
Suppose $A, B$ are positive definite Hermitian matrices, $U$ is a unitary matrix such that $AUB$ is Hermitian. The spectral radius of a square matrix $X$ is denoted by $\rho(X)$. In my study, I ...
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Fundamental Theorem of Algebra via multiple integrals
Consider the product of complex linear monic polynomials times polynomials of degree less than $n$, that is $\big( (z-\lambda), p(z)\big)\mapsto (z-\lambda)p(z)$. If we represent a polynomial by its ...
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A curious switch in infinite dimensions
Let $V$ be a finite dimensional real vector space. Let $GL(V)$ be the set of invertible linear transformations, and $\Phi(V)$ be the set of all linear transformations. We can also characterize $\Phi(V)...
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The Lefschetz operator
Let $\omega=\sum_{i=1}^n dx_i\wedge dy_i\in\bigwedge^2(\mathbb{R}^{2n})^*$ be a standard symplectic form. The following result is due to Lefschetz:
For $k\leq n$, the Lefschetz operator
$L^{n-k}:\...
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Does the linear automorphism group determine the vector space?
I was recently thinking about what it means to put structure on a set. It seems to me that, in my area (representation theory), the two main ways of imposing structure on a set $X$ are:
...
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Find the determinant of a matrix given the determinant of all $p\times p$ sub-matrices?
Is it possible to find the determinant of an $n\times n$- matrix, only given the determinant of all $p\times p$ sub-matrices in it? Here $p\leq n$ is fixed. This is obviously true if $p=1,n$. But what ...
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Is the determinant the only multiplicative matrix function? [closed]
Is there a matrix invariant or property that is multiplicative, i.e.,
$$f(AB) = f(A) f(B)$$
other than the determinant? In addition, some matrix norms are submultiplicative, but is there a ...
- 1,465
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The GCD-matrix: generalizing a result of Smith?
Let $M$ be the $n\times n$ matrix, known as the GCD matrix, of entries $M_{ij}=\gcd(i,j)$. In the paper
H J S Smith, On the value of a certain arithmetical determinant, Proc. London Math. Soc. 7:208-...
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Geometric interpretations of matrix inverses
$A$ is an invertible $n \times n$ matrix. Interpret each row of $A$ as a point in $\mathbb{R}^n$; then these $n$ points define a unique hyperplane in $\mathbb{R}^n$ that passes through each point (...
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Finding the nearest matrix with real eigenvalues
In this thread on MATLAB Central, I found a discussion on finding the nearest matrix with real eigenvalues. The first hypothesis was to simply truncate the complex part of the eigenvalues. So, given ...
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interlacing roots/eigenvalues results and modern analogues
Is there any relation between these theorems on interlacing roots?
The roots of $f(x), f'(x)$ interlace (if all the roots of $f(x)$ are real and have real coefficients).
The eigenvalues of an $n \...
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Linear algebra from the categorical point of view
Is there any book of Linear algebra in the modern language of Category theory?
I refer to the (systematic, formalist) study of the category whose objects are vector spaces and whose morphisms are ...
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A coincidence or a fact: determinants of two matrices
While playing around with the MO question Determinant with factorials is not 0? about a determinant of the Hankel matrix of entries $(i+j-2)!$, having the value $\prod_{k=0}^{n-1}k!^2$, I stumbled on ...
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How many values determine a norm?
It is well known that for a bilinear form over an n-dimensional vector space, $n^2$ values (on all pairs of basis-vectors) determine it uniquely.
How many values do we need to specify in order to ...
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2x2 subdeterminants of a matrix
If N>2, it is well known that if two invertible NxN matrices A and B have the same determinants of any 2x2 corresponding submatrices, then A=B or A=-B.
Given then all these 2x2 determinants of an ...
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Existence of translation-invariant basis on $C_c(\mathbb R)$
Consider the space $C_c(\mathbb R)$ of complex-valued continuous functions of compact support. This is a vector space over $\mathbb C$, and I am not considering any topology, so the question is ...
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Optimizing the condition number
Suppose I have a set $S$ of $N$ vectors in $W=\mathbb{R}^m,$ with $N \gg m.$ I want to choose a subset $\{v_1, \dots, v_m\}$ of $S$ in such a way that the condition number of the matrix with columns $...
- 96.4k
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Examples of vector spaces with bases of different cardinalities
In this question Sizes of bases of vector spaces without the axiom of choice it is said that "It is consistent [with ZF] that there are vector spaces that have two bases with completely different ...
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Subgroups of $\mathbb{Z}^n$
I hope that the following problem isn't actually elementary (at least, for the sake of the fact that I'm posting it here), and I apologize if it is. I did try hard to solve it first.
Let $V$ be a $\...
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Constructive proof of a rational version of Perron-Frobenius?
In the following, we work with vectors and matrices whose entries are rational numbers. Inequalities between such vectors are understood to be coordinatewise: e.g., two vectors $a = \left(a_1,a_2,\...
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How complicated is infinite-dimensional "undergraduate linear algebra"?
The name "undergraduate linear algebra" in the title is a bit of a joke, and so I don't know how widely spread it is. To wit:
High school linear algebra is the theory of a finite-dimensional vector ...
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Prime/undecomposable matrices
Prime matrices as defined in the following paper Prime matrices P. F. RIVETT AND N. I. P. MACKINNON carry over many properties of factorization as in natural numbers to matrices over the field of ...
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Hlawka inequality for determinants of positive definite matrices
It is mentioned here that if $A, B, C\in M_{n}(\mathbb C)$ are positive semidefinite, then $$\det (A+B+C)+\det C\ge \det (A+C)+\det (B+C)$$ (quoted from this article) and the special case ($C=\bf 0$) $...
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Prescribing areas of parallelograms (or 2x2 principal minors)
Let $(a_{ij})$ be a $n\times n$ symmetric matrix such that $a_{ij}\geq 0$ for all $i,j$ and $a_{ii}=0$ for all $i$. Under which conditions on the $a_{ij}$'s can one find $n$ vectors $v_1,\ldots,v_n\in{...
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On a special type of normed linear spaces
Let $(V,\|.\|)$ be a normed linear space such that for every group $(G,*)$, every function $f:G \to V$ satisfying
$$
\|f(x*y)\|\ge \|f(x)+f(y)\|,\qquad\forall x,y\in G,\tag{Z}
$$ is a group ...
- 1,209
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Bunnity of multilinear maps
Is there a way to compute the following nullity of multilinear maps? As it is different from any nullity I know of, I call it bunnity after myself:-)) If it already has a name, it be nice to know it. ...
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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 ...
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Proof that block matrix has determinant $1$
The following real $2 \times 2$ matrix has determinant $1$:
$$\begin{pmatrix}
\sqrt{1+a^2} & a \\
a & \sqrt{1+a^2}
\end{pmatrix}$$
The natural generalisation of this to a real $2 \times 2$ ...
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Reference for a linear algebra result
I asked the following question (https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1487961/reference-for-every-finite-subgroup-of-operatornamegl-n-mathbbq-is-con) on math.stackexchange.com and received no ...
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Which graphs have incidence matrices of full rank?
This is a follow-up to a previous question. What graphs have incidence matrices of full rank?
Obvious members of the class: complete graphs.
Obvious counterexamples: Graph with more than two ...
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How to prove the determinant of a Hilbert-like matrix with parameter is non-zero
Consider some positive non-integer $\beta$ and a non-negative integer $p$. Does anyone have any idea how to show that the determinant of the following matrix is non-zero?
$$
\begin{pmatrix}
\frac{1}{\...
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How many minors I need to check to conclude all minors will vanish ?
Given a $m \times n$ matrix $n>m$, I was trying to check if all its $m \times m$ minor vanish.
I remember hearing that one really does not need to check all possible minors in order to conclude ...
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Hom(A,C) ⊗ Hom(B,D) injects into Hom(A⊗B,C⊗D): when? why?
Sorry for asking a linear algebra question on a research forum, but this seems to be either a case of extreme blindness on my side, or a case of a result lying much deeper than it seems.
The ...
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A riddle about zeros, ones and minus-ones
I was asked this years ago, but I don't remember by whom, and have never managed to solve it.
Consider the $2^n \times n$ matrix of all vectors in {-1,1}$^n$.
Someone comes and maliciously replaces ...
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