An alternative approach to unitoidness

In a recent paper C.R. Johnson, S. Furtado, A generalization of Sylvester’s law of inertia, Linear Algebra Appl. 338 (2001) 287-290], Sylvester’s law of inertia is generalized to any matrix that is ∗-congruent to a diagonal matrix. Such a matrix is called unitoid. In the present paper, an alternative approach to the subject of unitoidness is offered. Specifically, Sylvester’s law of inertia states that a Hermitian n × n matrix of rank r with inertia (p, q, n − r) is ∗-congruent to the direct sum

eⁱ⁰I_p⊕e^iπI_q⊕0I_n-r.