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Orthogonal vectors with entries from $\{-1,0,1\}$

Let $\mathbf{1}$ be the all-ones vector, and suppose $\mathbf{1}, \mathbf{v_1}, \mathbf{v_2}, \ldots, \mathbf{v_{n-1}} \in \{-1,0,1\}^n$ are mutually orthogonal non-zero vectors. Does it follow that $...
Nathaniel Johnston's user avatar
32 votes
0 answers
649 views

Existence of orthogonal basis of symmetric $n\times n$ matrices, where each matrix is unitary?

For a positive integer $n$, let $S_n$ denote the set of $n\times n$ symmetric matrices over $\mathbb{C}$. As a complex vector space, this set has dimension $\mathrm{dim}(S_n)=\binom{n+1}{2}$. The ...
Mark Girard's user avatar
23 votes
0 answers
8k views

An $n \times n$ matrix $A$ is similar to its transpose $A^{\top}$: elementary proof?

A famous result in linear algebra is the following. An $n \times n$ matrix $A$ over a field $\mathbb{F}$ is similar to its transpose $A^T$. I know one proof using the Smith Normal Form (SNF). ...
Sungjin Kim's user avatar
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21 votes
0 answers
869 views

Noncommutative arithmetic mean geometric mean inequality and symmetric polynomials

While analyzing convergence speed of stochastic-gradient methods for convex optimization problems, Recht et al (2011) posed a tantalizing conjecture. It seems quite tricky, so after having struggled a ...
Suvrit's user avatar
  • 28.6k
21 votes
0 answers
2k views

The Fourier Transform of taking Eigenvalues

The purpose of this question is to ask about the Fourier transform of the map which associate to an $n$ by $n$ matrix its $n$ eigenvalues, or some function of the $n$ eigenvalues. The main motivation ...
Gil Kalai's user avatar
  • 24.7k
21 votes
0 answers
904 views

Cauchy matrices with elementary symmetric polynomials

$\newcommand{\vx}{\mathbf{x}}$ Let $e_k(\vx)$ denote the elementary symmetric polynomial, defined for $k=0,1,\ldots,n$ over a vector $\vx=(x_1,\ldots,x_n)$ by \begin{equation*} e_k(\vx) := \sum_{1 \...
Suvrit's user avatar
  • 28.6k
18 votes
0 answers
734 views

How boundedly generated is $SL_3(\mathbb{Z})$?

The group $G = \mathrm{SL}_3(\mathbb{Z})$ is known to be boundedly generated, that is, there exists some $m \in \mathbb{N}$, and $g_1, \dots, g_m \in G$ such that we have the following equality of ...
Pablo's user avatar
  • 11.3k
17 votes
0 answers
402 views

Number of $F_p$-matrices ac=ca, bd = db , ad - da = cb - bc is polynomial in p ? ("Manin matrix variety" - normal ? Cohen–Macaulay ? )

Consider four $n\times n$ matrices $a,b,c,d$ over finite field $F_q$ (or $F_p$ for simplicity), such that they satisfy three equations: $ac=ca,bd=db, ad-da=cb-bc $. Thus an affine algebraic manifold ...
Alexander Chervov's user avatar
17 votes
0 answers
704 views

When is the determinant an $8$-th power?

I am working over $\mathbb{R}$ (though most of the story goes over any field). I am looking for linear spaces of matrices such that the restriction of the determinant to this spaces can be written (...
Libli's user avatar
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16 votes
0 answers
488 views

An inequality for matrix norms

Working on a problem in combinatorics I come up with the following inequality on matrix norms, which I checked it also numerically: Let $A=(a_{ij})$ be a real symmetric $n\times n$ matrix with ...
Mostafa - Free Palestine's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
808 views

Determinant inequality involving Hermitian, positive definite matrices

Let $A,B,C\in M_{n}(\mathbb C)$ be Hermitian and positive-definite matrices such that $A+B+C=I_{n}$. Show that $$\det\left(6(A^3+B^3+C^3)+I_{n}\right)\ge 5^n\det(A^2+B^2+C^2)$$ This question has been ...
Krokop's user avatar
  • 269
16 votes
0 answers
860 views

Is "being a full ring of quotients" a Morita invariant property?

Definition and context: An (associative, unital, not necessarily commutative) ring $R$ is called classical if every regular element of $R$ is a unit. Equivalently, $R$ is its own classical ring of ...
Torsten Schoeneberg's user avatar
15 votes
0 answers
446 views

The rank of a "triangle-free" matrix

This is a version of the question I asked recently, but the assumptions got now strengthened substantially. Suppose that $A=(a_{ij})_{1\le i,j\le n}$ is a square matrix with all elements in $\{0,\...
Seva's user avatar
  • 23k
14 votes
0 answers
537 views

Determining the kernel of a Vandermonde-like matrix

The kernel of a Vandermonde matrix can be determined using >this< formula. The following type of matrix has a similar structure, and should also have a one-dimensional kernel. $V= \begin{...
trion's user avatar
  • 241
14 votes
0 answers
4k views

Minimum tiling of a rectangle by squares

Given the $n\times m$ rectangle, I want to compute the minimum number of integer-sided squares needed to tile it (possibly of different sizes). Is there an efficient way to calculate this?
didest's user avatar
  • 1,015
13 votes
0 answers
188 views

Why is $ULU=NU$ (a refinement of $|N|=q^{n^2-n}$)?

Let $G=GL_n(\mathbb{F}_q)$, $U$, $L$, $N$ the subsets of upper-triangular unipotent, lower-triangular unipotent, all unipotent matrices respectively. Then $ULU=NU$ means that for any $g\in G$ the ...
Anton Mellit's user avatar
  • 3,772
13 votes
0 answers
237 views

A Dynkin type classification result in linear algebra

Let $G$ be a finite directed acyclic graph. The Cartan matrix $C_G=C$ of $G$ is defined as the matrix with rows and colums indexed by the vertices of $G$ and $c_{i,j}$ counts the number of paths from $...
Mare's user avatar
  • 26.5k
13 votes
0 answers
809 views

Can one Gershgorin circle (only) contain all eigenvalues, when the other circles are not contained in it

In short, following a question from my students, I am trying to find a special case where all the eigenvalues of a matrix lie within only one circle, but not in the others, and the other circles are ...
Itay's user avatar
  • 673
13 votes
0 answers
1k views

Pointwise (Hadamard) matrix product and the rank

$\DeclareMathOperator{\rk}{rk}$ Suppose that $A$ is a square matrix of order $n$. If, for any polynomials $P$ and $Q$ with $\deg P+\deg Q\le 2$, we have $$ P(A)\circ Q(A^t) = P(1)Q(1)\, I_n \tag{$\...
Seva's user avatar
  • 23k
13 votes
0 answers
458 views

Descartes rule of signs for a noncommutative polynomial in matrix variables

Recently, while studying certain notions of "averaging" a set of input matrices, I obtained a nonlinear polynomial in matrix variables. A simple example is \begin{equation*} \mathcal{G}(X) := X^n - \...
Suvrit's user avatar
  • 28.6k
13 votes
0 answers
713 views

Regular languages of matrices and their generating functions

My question is somewhat related to this question. Let us fix natural numbers $k$ and $C$. Let $A$ be an automaton whose alphabet consists of $k\times k$ matrices with integer coefficients of ...
Łukasz Grabowski's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
321 views

Combinatorial proof of invertibility of a symmetric matrix associated to the ring of matrices over a finite field

Let $F$ be a finite field of $q$ elements with characteristic $p$. Let $M_n(F)$ be the ring of $n\times n$ matrices over $F$. We define a $q^{n^2}\times q^{n^2}$ symmetric matrix $L$ over the ...
Benjamin Steinberg's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
508 views

More mysterious properties of Gram matrix

This is another question related to the mysterious properties of the Gram matrix in dimension $4$. Here's the previous question. The following fact could be extracted from 0402087: For any $a_i\...
Daniil Rudenko's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
800 views

A (linear) optimization problem subject to (linear) matrix inequality constraints

Let $A \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times n}$ be a Hurwitz matrix, i.e. $A$ satisfies $\mathrm{Re}\,\lambda_i< 0$, where $\{\lambda_i\}_{i=1}^n$ is the set of eigenvalues of $A$. Suppose that the trace of $A$...
Ludwig's user avatar
  • 2,712
12 votes
0 answers
218 views

Which ordering of factors is needed to obtain this kind of determinantal inequalities?

Let $A$ and $B$ be $n\times n$ Hermitian positive definite matrices. The curious determinantal inequality given here, which can be stated as $$\det (A^{4}+ ABBA+BAAB+B^{4})\ge\det(A^{4}+ AABB+BBAA+B^{...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.4k
12 votes
0 answers
314 views

Ratio of entries of A and log A where A is a triangular matrix

Consider triangular matrices $A = \left( {a(n,k)} \right)$ of arbitrary order with $a(n,k) = 0$ if $n + k$ is odd and $a(n,n - 2k) = \frac{{n!}}{{k!(n - 2k)!}}\frac{{(m + n - k - 1)!}}{{(m + n - 1)!}}$...
Johann Cigler's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
825 views

Eigenvalues of permutations of a real matrix: how complex can they be?

This is sort of complementary to this thread. I’ll repeat the definitions here: For a matrix $M\in GL(n,\mathbb R)$, consider the $n!$ matrices obtained by permutations of the rows (say) of $M$ and ...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.4k
11 votes
0 answers
227 views

Matrices that admit a power that is symmetric

We fix an integer $n\geq 2$. Let $S_n$ be the set of real symmetric matrices in $M_n(\mathbb{R})$. We consider the algebraic sets $Y_k=\{A\in M_n(\mathbb{R});A^k\in S_n\},k\geq 2$ and the sequence $...
loup blanc's user avatar
  • 3,741
11 votes
0 answers
764 views

Fast computation of matrix product $AXA^T$ with fixed $A$?

Suppose we have two $n$-by-$n$ matrices $X$ and $A$, where $A$ is known and $X$ may change in different invocations, and we want to compute $AXA^T$. Is there an algorithm that beats the naive one of ...
hao chen's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
253 views

Poset of nonvanishing minors of a matrix

This question was posed on MSE here three days ago, but hasn't gotten any answers or suggestions. I hope it's okay to ask it on MO, but if I should wait a little longer, please just let me know. Say $...
Zach Teitler's user avatar
  • 6,237
11 votes
0 answers
313 views

Jaffard's theorem - finite matrices

For infinite matrices, Jaffard's theorem states that if $(A(k,l))_{k,l\in \mathbb{Z}}$ is invertible and satisfies $$ A(k,l) \leq C (1+\left|k-l\right|)^{-r}, $$ for some $C>0$, then $$ A^{-1}(k,...
Ozzy's user avatar
  • 393
11 votes
0 answers
248 views

Is my matrix perturbation analysis legitimate?

I am not a matrix theorist, or numerical linear algebra expert, but I have a problem and my proposed solution leads me to a question that I cannot answer. I can give more details, but the gist is ...
Gordon Royle's user avatar
  • 12.7k
11 votes
0 answers
305 views

Generalized Classical Adjoints and Factorizations of the Characteristic Polynomial

This is idle noodling, and I'm prepared to learn that it's foolish as well as idle. But.... Let $M$ be an $n\times n$ matrix over, oh, let's say an algebraically closed field for now. There have ...
Steven Landsburg's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
177 views

Matrices whose pairwise products form a basis

Over the vector space of 2x2 matrices, the Pauli matrices $I, X, Y, Z$ form a complete basis. Each of these matrices square to $I$, and with the additional relation that $Z = iXY$, we see that every ...
Alex Meiburg's user avatar
  • 1,203
10 votes
0 answers
237 views

Generalized eigen property of a matrix

Given a $n \times n$ invertible matrix $A$, I am interested in the set $$ \mathcal{S}(A) = \{ D \textrm{ diagonal matrix } \mid \det(D - A) = 0 \}. $$ Thus, for all eigenvalues $\lambda_i$, we have $...
Jiro's user avatar
  • 909
10 votes
0 answers
250 views

What are these matrices called?

A paper I'm writing heavily uses block diagonal matrices with the property that each block is upper triangular and constant along its diagonal. Like this: $$\begin{bmatrix} A_1 \\ & \ddots \\ &...
Nik Weaver's user avatar
  • 42.8k
10 votes
0 answers
230 views

Matrix identities in two variables

The famous Amitsur-Levitzki Theorem states that the algebra $M_n(\mathbb C)$ satisfies no polynomial identity of degree less than $2n$ and it satisfies $$p(x_1,\dots,x_{2n}) = \sum_{\sigma \in \frak ...
Andreas Thom's user avatar
  • 25.5k
10 votes
0 answers
722 views

Fractional Matching version of Hall's Marriage theorem

Let $G=(S,T,E)$ be a bipartite graph, $|S|=|T|$. Then the following are equivalent: 1) there exist a perfect matching in $G$; 2) there exist non-negative weights on edges such that the sum of ...
Fedor Petrov's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
276 views

A $k \times n$ matrix with a lot of invertible $k \times k$ submatrices over $\mathbb{F}_2$

In the appendix of the paper by Tolhuizen ( http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=841182) there is a very fast and easy probabilistic proof that for $k=cn$ where $c \in [0,1]$ is fixed, ...
Daniel Soltész's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
477 views

Name for an operation on matrices?

Given two matrices $A$ and $B$ of size $a \times n$ and $b \times m$ consider the following operation $A \dagger B$ whose result is an $a b^n \times n m$ matrix. $A \dagger B$ is a block matrix with $...
Grigory Yaroslavtsev's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
802 views

Positive definiteness of matrix

This question is about the positive definiteness of a (non-random) matrix that is defined using random variables as follows: We fix the vector $v=(1,1)$ (yet, it seems the final result does not ...
Kung Yao's user avatar
  • 192
9 votes
0 answers
270 views

The number of non-singular $n\times n$ matrices over $\mathbb{F}_2$ with exactly $k$ non-zero entries

Suppose $M_{n}^{k}$ is the number of non-singular $n\times n$ matrices over $\mathbb{F}_2$, that have exactly $k$ non-zero entries. Is there some sort of formula to calculate $M_n^k$? If $k < n$ ...
Chain Markov's user avatar
  • 2,618
9 votes
0 answers
164 views

Comparison of the absolute value of an operator with its positive parts, II

Suppose $A,B\in M_n(\mathbb C)$ are self-adjoint. Does there exist a constant $C>0$ depending only on $n$ such that $$ |A+iB| \leq C(|A| + |B|)? $$ One can take $C=1$ if $A$ and $B$ commute. More ...
Chris Ramsey's user avatar
  • 3,984
9 votes
0 answers
624 views

Eigenvalues of leading principal submatrix of the Clement-Kac-Sylvester tridiagonal matrix

It's well-known that the eigenvalues of the Clement-Kac-Sylvester tridiagonal matrix $$\begin{pmatrix} 0 & n-1 & 0 & \dots & 0 \\\ 1 & 0 & n-2 & \dots & 0\\\ 0 & ...
Sihuang Hu's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
243 views

Rationality of a certain real algebraic variety

Let $A_n$ denote the vector space of $n\times n$ antisymmetric matrices over ${\mathbb{Q}}$, where $n$ is even. Let $A_n^*\subset A_n$ denote the affine ${\mathbb{Q}}$-subvariety of invertible ...
Mikhail Borovoi's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
360 views

Finding $U,V$ in Thompson's Formula

Thompson's formula says, given $A,B \in \mathfrak{su}(n)$, there exists $U,V \in SU(n)$ such that: $e^{A}e^{B}=e^{UAU^{\dagger} + VBV^{\dagger}}$ Given $a,b \in \mathfrak{su}(4)$ defined by: $a=J_x ...
Benjamin's user avatar
  • 2,099
9 votes
0 answers
217 views

Is there any study about positive definiteness of some matrix space whose matrices don't have to be positive-definite?

--Updated description-- I'm trying to investigate the stability of tensegrity structures, and this question is related to the second order test. Suppose there is a vector space $W=\operatorname{span}...
wenru's user avatar
  • 91
9 votes
0 answers
978 views

Strong convexity of the trace of the square root of a matrix function

Any clues about how to prove that the following function is strongly-concave in $x$? (We conjecture it is $2$-strongly concave but cannot prove it. We have already proved strict concavity through ...
Mary's user avatar
  • 91
8 votes
0 answers
335 views

How to check two matrices for similitude over $\mathbb{Z}$?

General question. Let $A$ and $B$ be two $n\times n$-matrices over $\mathbb{Z}$. How do I algorithmically check whether $A$ and $B$ are similar (i.e., conjugate in the ring $\mathbb{Z}^{n\times n}$)? ...
darij grinberg's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
400 views

When do we have $\|X - Y\| = \|\Sigma(X) - \Sigma(Y)\|$?

For any $X \in \mathbb{C}^{m\times n}$, let $\Sigma(X)$ be the "middle factor" in its SVD, so that $X = U\Sigma(X) V^H$ and the diagonal of $\Sigma(X)$ is arranged in descending order. ...
Nuno's user avatar
  • 269

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