Optimally scaled matrices,necessary and sufficient conditions

Summary We shall in this paper consider the problem of determination a row or column scaling of a matrixA, which minimizes the condition number ofA. This problem was studied by several authors. For the cases of the maximum norm and of the sum norm the scale problem was completely solved by Bauer 1] and Sluis 5]. The condition ofA subordinate to the pair of euclidean norms is the ratio /, where and are the maximal and minimal eigenvalue of (A ^H A)^1/2 respectively. The euclidean case was considered by Forsythe and Strauss 3]. Shapiro 6] proposed some approaches to a numerical solution in this case. The main result of this paper is the presentation of necessary and sufficient conditions for optimal scaling in terms of maximizing and minimizing vectors. A uniqueness proof for the solution is offered provided some normality assumption is satisfied.