Singular, nonsingular, and bounded rank completions of ACI-matrices

An affine column independent matrix is a matrix whose entries are polynomials of degree at most 1 in a number of indeterminates where no indeterminate appears with a nonzero coefficient in two different columns. A completion is a matrix obtained by giving values to each of the indeterminates. Affine column independent matrices are more general than partial matrices where each entry is either a constant or a distinct indeterminate. We determine when the rank of all completions of an affine column independent matrix is bounded by a given number, generalizing known results for partial matrices. We also characterize the square partial matrices over a field all of whose completions are nonsingular. The maximum number of free entries in such matrices of a given order is determined as well as the partial matrices with this maximum number of free entries.     

An extremal sparsity property of the Jordan canonical form

We prove that among all the matrices that are similar to a given square complex matrix, the Jordan canonical form has the largest number of off-diagonal zero entries. We also characterize those matrices that attain this largest number.     

Partial matrices whose completions have ranks bounded below

A partial matrix over a field F is a matrix whose entries are either elements of F or independent indeterminates. A completion of such a partial matrix is obtained by specifying values from F for the indeterminates. We determine the maximum possible number of indeterminates in a partial m×n matrix whose completions all have rank at least equal to a particular k, and we fully describe those examples in which this maximum is attained. Our main theoretical tool, which is developed in Section 2, is a duality relationship between affine spaces of matrices in which ranks are bounded below and affine spaces of matrices in which the (left or right) nullspaces of elements possess a certain covering property.     

On block partial linearizations of the pfaffian

Amitsur’s formula, which expresses det(A + B) as a polynomial in coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of a matrix, is generalized for partial linearizations of the pfaffian of block matrices. As applications, in upcoming papers we determine generators for the SO(n)-invariants of several matrices and relations for the O(n)-invariants of several matrices over a field of arbitrary characteristic.     

On the 0-1 matrices whose squares are 0-1 matrices

We study the 0-1 matrices whose squares are still 0-1 matrices and determine the maximal number of ones in such a matrix. The maximizing matrices are also specified. This solves a special case of a problem posed by Zhan.     

The elliptic matrix completion problem

Completions of partial elliptic matrices are studied. Given an undirected graph G, it is shown that every partial elliptic matrix with graph G can be completed to an elliptic matrix if and only if the maximal cliques of G are pairwise disjoint. Further, given a partial elliptic matrix A with undirected graph G, it is proved that if G is chordal and each specified principal submatrix defined by a pair of intersecting maximal cliques is nonsingular, then A can be completed to an elliptic matrix. Conversely, if G is nonchordal or if the regularity condition is relaxed, it is shown that there exist partial elliptic matrices which are not completable to an elliptic matrix. In the process we obtain several results concerning chordal graphs that may be of independent interest.     

Remarks on the sharp partial order and the ordering of squares of matrices

In this note we revisit the sharp partial order introduced by Mitra [S.K. Mitra, On group inverses and the sharp order, Linear Algebra Appl. 92 (1987) 17-37]. We recall some already known facts from certain matrix decompositions and derive new statements, relating our discussion to recent results in the literature concerned with partial orders between matrices and their squares.     

Equalities and inequalities for inertias of hermitian matrices with applications

The inertia of a Hermitian matrix is defined to be a triplet composed of the numbers of the positive, negative and zero eigenvalues of the matrix counted with multiplicities, respectively. In this paper, we show some basic formulas for inertias of 2×2 block Hermitian matrices. From these formulas, we derive various equalities and inequalities for inertias of sums, parallel sums, products of Hermitian matrices, submatrices in block Hermitian matrices, differences of outer inverses of Hermitian matrices. As applications, we derive the extremal inertias of the linear matrix expression A-BXB^∗ with respect to a variable Hermitian matrix X. In addition, we give some results on the extremal inertias of Hermitian solutions to the matrix equation AX=B, as well as the extremal inertias of a partial block Hermitian matrix.     

Displacement structure approach to Chebyshev-Vandermonde and related matrices

In this paper we use the displacement structure concept to introduce a new class of matrices, designated asChebyshev-Vandermonde-like matrices, generalizing ordinary Chebyshev-Vandermonde matrices, studied earlier by different authors. Among other results the displacement structure approach allows us to give a nice explanation for the form of the Gohberg-Olshevsky formulas for the inverses of ordinary Chebyshev-Vandermonde matrices. Furthermore, the fact that the displacement structure is inherited by Schur complements leads to a fastO(n ²) implementation of Gaussian elimination withpartial pivoting for Chebyshev-Vandermonde-like matrices.     

Fibonacci numbers, alternating parity sequences and faces of the tridiagonal Birkhoff polytope

We determine the number of alternating parity sequences that are subsequences of an increasing m-tuple of integers. For this and other related counting problems we find formulas that are combinations of Fibonacci numbers. These results are applied to determine, among other things, the number of vertices of any face of the polytope of tridiagonal doubly stochastic matrices.     

Hermitian matrices with a bounded number of eigenvalues

Conjugation covariants of matrices are applied to study the real algebraic variety consisting of complex Hermitian matrices with a bounded number of distinct eigenvalues. A minimal generating system of the vanishing ideal of degenerate three by three Hermitian matrices is given, and the structure of the corresponding coordinate ring as a module over the special unitary group is determined. The method applies also for degenerate real symmetric three by three matrices. For arbitrary n   partial information on the minimal degree component of the vanishing ideal of the variety of n×n$n\times n$ Hermitian matrices with a bounded number of eigenvalues is obtained, and some known results on sum of squares presentations of subdiscriminants of real symmetric matrices are extended to the case of complex Hermitian matrices.     

Efficiently computing the permanent and Hafnian of some banded Toeplitz matrices

We present a new efficient method for computing the permanent and Hafnian of certain banded Toeplitz matrices. The method covers non-trivial cases for which previous known methods do not apply. The main idea is to use the elements of the first row and column, which determine the entire Toeplitz matrix, to construct a digraph in which certain paths correspond to permutations that the permanent and Hafnian count. Since counting paths can be done efficiently, the permanent and Hafnian for those matrices is easily obtainable.     

On a matrix decomposition of Hartwig and Spindelböck

The main task of the paper is to demonstrate that Corollary 6 in [R.E. Hartwig, K. Spindelböck, Matrices for which A^∗ and A^† commute, Linear and Multilinear Algebra 14 (1984) 241-256] provides a powerful tool to investigate square matrices with complex entries. This aim is achieved, on the one hand, by obtaining several original results involving square matrices, and, on the other hand, by reestablishing some of the facts already known in the literature, often in extended and/or generalized forms. The particular attention is paid to the usefulness of the aforementioned corollary to characterize various classes of matrices and to explore matrix partial orderings.     

Revisitation of the product of two orthogonal projectors

Several results involving a product of two orthogonal projectors (i.e., Hermitian idempotent matrices) are established by exploring a representation of the product as a partitioned matrix. These results concern, for instance, rank, trace, range, null space, generalized inverses, and spectral properties of the product and its various functions. Particular attention is paid to the conditions equivalent to the requirement that the product of two orthogonal projectors is an orthogonal projector itself, and these characterizations refer to such known classes of matrices as Hermitian, involutory, normal, star-dagger, unitary as well as partial isometries and semi-orthogonal projectors. Moreover, some results dealing with the notions of parallel sum and spectral norm are obtained. The variety of problems considered shows that the approach utilized in the paper provides a powerful tool of wide applicability.     

The linear preservers of real diagonalizable matrices

Using a recent result of Bogdanov and Guterman on the linear preservers of pairs of simultaneously diagonalizable matrices, we determine all the automorphisms of the vector space M_n(R) which stabilize the set of diagonalizable matrices. To do so, we investigate the structure of linear subspaces of diagonalizable matrices of M_n(R) with maximal dimension.     

Pattern Avoidance in Alternating Sign Matrices

We generalize the definition of a pattern from permutations to alternating sign matrices. The number of alternating sign matrices avoiding 132 is proved to be counted by the large Schr?der numbers, 1, 2, 6, 22, 90, 394, .... We give a bijection between 132-avoiding alternating sign matrices and Schr?der paths, which gives a refined enumeration. We also show that the 132-, 123-avoiding alternating sign matrices are counted by every second Fibonacci number. Received January 2, 2007     

Unitarily achievable zero patterns and traces of words in A and A

Our primary objective is to identify a natural and substantial problem about unitary similarity on arbitrary complex matrices: which 0-patterns may be achieved for any given n-by-n complex matrix via some unitary similarity of it. To this end, certain restrictions on “achievable” 0-patterns are mentioned, both positional and, more important, on the maximum number of achievable 0’s. Prior results fitting this general question are mentioned, as well as the “first” unresolved pattern (for 3-by-3 matrices!). In the process a recent question is answered.A closely related additional objective is to mention the best known bound for the maximum length of words necessary for the application of Specht’s theorem about which pairs of complex matrices are unitarily similar, which seems not widely known to matrix theorists. In the process, we mention the number of words necessary for small size matrices.     

Computation of eigenpair partial derivatives by Rayleigh–Ritz procedure

Based on Rayleigh–Ritz procedure, a new method is proposed for a few eigenpair partial derivatives of large matrices. This method simultaneously computes the approximate eigenpairs and their partial derivatives. The linear systems of equations that are solved for eigenvector partial derivatives are greatly reduced from the original matrix size. And the left eigenvectors are not required. Moreover, errors of the computed eigenpairs and their partial derivatives are investigated. Hausdorff distance and containment gap are used to measure the accuracy of approximate eigenpair partial derivatives. Error bounds on the computed eigenpairs and their partial derivatives are derived. Finally numerical experiments are reported to show the efficiency of the proposed method.     

The positive definite completion problem revisited

In [R. Grone, C.R. Johnson, E. Sa, H. Wolkowicz, Positive definite completions of partial Hermitian matrices, Linear Algebra Appl. 58 (1984) 109-124] the positive definite (semi-) completion problem in which the underlying graph is chordal was solved. For the positive definite case, the process was constructive and the completion was obtained by completing the partial matrix an entry at a time. For the positive semidefinite case, they obtained completions of a particular sequence of partial positive definite matrices with the same underlying graph and noted that there is a convergent subsequence of these completions that converges to the desired completion. Here, in the chordal case, we provide a constructive solution, based entirely on matrix/graph theoretic methods, to the positive (semi-)definite completion problem. Our solution associates a specific tree (called the “clique tree” [C.R. Johnson, M. Lundquist, Matrices with chordal inverse zero-patterns, Linear and Multilinear Algebra 36 (1993) 1-17]) with the (chordal) graph of the given partial positive (semi-)definite matrix. This tree structure allows us to complete the matrix a “block at a time” as opposed to an “entry at a time” (as in Grone et al. (1984) for the positive definite case). In Grone et al. (1984), using complex analytic techniques, the completion for the positive definite case was shown to be the unique determinant maximizing completion and was shown to be the unique completion that has zeros in its inverse in the positions corresponding to the unspecified entries of the partial matrix. Here, we show the same using only matrix/graph theoretic tools.     

Subtotally positive and Monge matrices

A real matrix is called k-subtotally positive if the determinants of all its submatrices of order at most k are positive. We show that for an m × n matrix, only mn inequalities determine such class for every k, 1 ? k ? min(m,n). Spectral properties of square k-subtotally positive matrices are studied. Finally, completion problems for 2-subtotally positive matrices and their additive counterpart, the anti-Monge matrices, are investigated. Since totally positive matrices are 2-subtotally positive as well, the presented necessary conditions for this completion problem are also necessary conditions for totally positive matrices.