All Questions
2,026 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
55
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0
answers
2k
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What did Gelfand mean by suggesting to study "Heredity Principle" structures instead of categories?
Israel Gelfand wrote in his remarkable talk "Mathematics as an adequate language (a few remarks)", given at "The Unity of Mathematics" Conference in honor of his 90th birthday, the ...
38
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Groups whose complex irreducible representations are finite dimensional
By a complex irreducible representation of a group $G$, I mean a simple $\mathbb CG$-module. So my representations need not be unitary and we are working in the purely algebraic setting.
It is easy ...
35
votes
0
answers
1k
views
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 $...
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 ...
30
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Is there a field $F$ which is isomorphic to $F(X,Y)$ but not to $F(X)$?
Is there a field $F$ such that $F \cong F(X,Y)$ as fields, but $F \not \cong F(X)$ as fields?
I know only an example of a field $F$ such that $F$ isomorphic to $F(x,y)$ : this is something like $F=k(...
30
votes
0
answers
3k
views
Greatly expanded new edition of a Bourbaki chapter on algebra?
Recently I discovered by accident that Bourbaki issued in 2012 a radically expanded version of their 1958 Chapter 8 Modules et anneaux semi-simples (like other chapters, initially in French) within ...
28
votes
0
answers
527
views
What algebraic structure characterizes all natural operations between differential operators and differential forms?
On a smooth manifold $M$ one can define various algebraic structures, natural with respect to diffeomorphisms:
the differential graded-commutative algebra $\Omega(M)$ of differential forms on $M$;
...
23
votes
0
answers
463
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Topological loops vs. algebro-geometric suspension in Hochschild homology
Let $k$ be a base commutative ring, and let $A$ be a (unital but not necessarily commutative) $k$-algebra. The cone on $A$ is the ring $CA$ of infinite matrices $(a_{ij})_{i,j \geq 1}$ that are ...
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). ...
21
votes
0
answers
868
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 ...
21
votes
0
answers
2k
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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 ...
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 \...
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 ...
17
votes
0
answers
399
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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 ...
17
votes
0
answers
1k
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Relations in a certain Lie algebra
Let ${\mathfrak g}$ be the (real) Lie algebra generated by infinitely many generators $D_i, E_i$ with $i=1,2,3,\dots$ subject to the following relations for any natural numbers $i,j$:
\begin{gather*}
[...
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 (...
16
votes
0
answers
574
views
Are $0, 1, 4, 7, 8$ the only dimensions in which a bivector-valued cross product exists?
It is a well-known mathematical curiosity that ordinary (vector-valued) cross products over $\mathbb{R}$ exist only in dimensions $0, 1, 3$ and $7$ (this fact is related to Hurwitz's theorem that real ...
16
votes
0
answers
487
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 ...
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 ...
16
votes
0
answers
784
views
How to explain the picturesque patterns in François Brunault's matrix?
How to explain the patterns in the matrix defined in François Brunault's
answer to the question Freeness of a Z[x] module depicted below? --
Choosing colors according to the highest power of 2 which ...
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 ...
15
votes
0
answers
217
views
If a map between unital rings preserves multiplication and successor, does it preserve addition?
Welcome to my first MathOverflow posting!
This is a question about rings, all of them assumed to be both unital and associative.
Let $f\colon R\to S$ be a map between rings such that $f(xy)=f(x)f(y)$ ...
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,\...
14
votes
0
answers
558
views
Rings that fail to satisfy the strong rank condition
In T.Y. Lam's book Lectures on Modules and Rings, a ring $R$ is said to satisfy the strong rank condition if, for every natural number $n$, there is no right $R$-module monomorphism $R^{n+1}\to R^n$. ...
14
votes
0
answers
378
views
A hard Lefschetz theorem for nilCoxeter algebras
Let $W$ be a finite Coxeter group and $\mathcal{N}(W)$ its nilCoxeter
algebra (over the reals, say), as defined at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nil-Coxeter_algebra. $\mathcal{N}(W)$ has
a natural ...
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{...
14
votes
0
answers
1k
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Kaplansky's theorem and Axiom of choice
Kaplansky in his paper titled by Projective Modules gave an important and essential theorem as follow:
Theorem: Let $R$ be a ring, $M$ an $R$-module which is a direct sum of (any number of) countably ...
14
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Finite dimensional real division algebras
A celebrated theorem of Milnor and Kervaire asserts that any finite dimensional (not necessarily associative, unital) division algebra over the real numbers has dimension 1,2,4 or 8. This result is ...
13
votes
0
answers
573
views
Classical (i.e. commutative) spaces with quantum symmetry but no classical symmetry
In a recent preprint (arXiv:2311.04889), my coauthors and I constructed a sequence of graphs with no classical symmetry which nevertheless have quantum symmetry.
For graphs this had been an open ...
13
votes
0
answers
571
views
Why is it so hard to give examples of differentially closed fields?
The theory of algebraically closed field, say in characteristic zero, and of differentially closed fields (of characteristic zero) have much in common: quantifier elimination and (hence) decidability; ...
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 $...
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 ...
13
votes
0
answers
355
views
Analog of Haar element in an algebra
In a Hopf algebra $H $ (over some field $ k $), there is the notion of a Haar element $ h \in H$. This is an element of the algebra which has the property that if $ V $ is a representation of $ H $, ...
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{$\...
13
votes
0
answers
338
views
When does Hochschild homology commute with infinite products?
Let $A$ be an associative algebra. Its zeroth Hochschild homology $\mathrm{HH}_0(A)$ is the cokernel of the linear map $A^{\wedge 2} \to A$, $a \wedge b \mapsto ab - ba$. I.e. you quotient the ...
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 - \...
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 ...
12
votes
0
answers
187
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 ...
12
votes
0
answers
542
views
Does Wedderburn's Little Theorem hold constructively?
Wedderburn's Little Theorem states that every finite division ring is commutative. Perhaps even more surprising, this implies that every finite reduced ring is commutative.
The proofs that I am aware ...
12
votes
0
answers
224
views
Do compact inverse-property loops (or just compact Moufang loops) have invariant uniformities and bi-invariant Haar measure?
So, the overall question is in the title: Does a compact topological loop with the inverse property have a Haar measure that is simultaneously left and right invariant? (And we can restrict to ...
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 ...
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\...
12
votes
2
answers
799
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$...
12
votes
0
answers
185
views
Hopf-Galois extensions where the "extension" is a module?
For $H$ a Hopf-algebra, an $H$-Hopf-Galois extension is a map of rings $\phi\colon\thinspace A\to B$ such that $H$ coacts on $B$ over $A$, $B\otimes_AB\cong B\otimes H$, and the cofixed points, or the ...
12
votes
0
answers
267
views
Finitely generated skew-fields
There is a well known theorem saying that a commutative field that is finitely generated as a ring has to be finite (Kaplansky).
Is the same true for non-commutative "fields" (usually called ...
12
votes
0
answers
276
views
How can you unitalize a higher category?
Given an associative nonunital algebra $A$, there are (at least) two standard ways to produce a unital algebra $A'$ together with a map $A \to A'$. Following the discussion in the comments below, ...
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^{...
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 $a(n,n - 2k) = \frac{{n!}}{{k!(n - 2k)!}}\frac{{(m + n - k - 1)!}}{{(m + n - 1)!}}$...
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 ...
12
votes
0
answers
533
views
Does there exist a Noetherian ring of finite injective dimension but higher Krull dimension?
Definition: a (not necessarily commutative) left and right Noetherian ring $R$ is said to be Auslander-Gorenstein if
(i) $R$ has finite left and right injective dimension (in which case it turns out ...