Characteristic polynomials of symmetric matrices III: some counterexamples

When is a monic polynomial the characteristic polynomial of a symmetric matrix over an integral domain D? Known necessary conditions are shown to be insufficient when D is the field of 2-adic numbers and when D is the rational integers. The latter counterexamples lead to totally real cubic extensions of the rationals whose difierents are not narrowly equivalent to squares. Furthermorex³-4x+1 is the characteristic polynomial of a rational symmetric matrix and is the characteristic polynomial of an integral symmetric p-adic matrix for every prime p, but is not the characteristic polynomial of a rational integral symmetric matrix.     

Characteristic polynomials of symmetric matrices II: Local number fields

When is a monic polynomial the characteristic polynomial of a symmetric matrix over a field? A theorem on determinants of matrices commuting with a given matrix provides a simple necessary condition. The condition is sufficient over local number fields except for certain irreducible quartic polynomials over the 2-adic rational numbers.     

Combinatorially symmetric matrices

This paper presents a brief survey of some of the recent results on combinatorially symmetric matrices. Some examples of current interest are given. We present a simple proof of a theorem of Parker and Youngs. We also prove a theorem on skew—symmetrization of combinatorially symmetric matrices and present some applications to stability problems.     

Properties of symmetric matrices

We find the extreme points and the smooth points of the unit ball of the Banach space n_℘ of all real symmetric (n×n)-matrices.     

Block matrices and symmetric perturbations

We prove that if A=[A_ij]∈R^N,N is a block symmetric matrix and y is a solution of a nearby linear system (A+E)y=b, then there exists F=F^T such that y solves a nearby symmetric system (A+F)y=b, if A is symmetric positive definite or the matricial norm μ(A)=(‖A_ij‖₂) is diagonally dominant. Our blockwise analysis extends existing normwise and componentwise results on preserving symmetric perturbations (cf. [J.R. Bunch, J.W. Demmel, Ch. F. Van Loan, The strong stability of algorithms for solving symmetric linear systems, SIAM J.Matrix Anal. Appl. 10 (4) (1989) 494-499; D. Herceg, N. Kreji?, On the strong componentwise stability and H-matrices, Demonstratio Mathematica 30 (2) (1997) 373-378; A. Smoktunowicz, A note on the strong componentwise stability of algorithms for solving symmetric linear systems, Demonstratio Mathematica 28 (2) (1995) 443-448]).     

Splittings of symmetric matrices and a question of Ortega

A complete answer is given to a problem posed in 1988 by Ortega concerning convergent splittings of symmetric matrices.     

Power symmetric stochastic matrices

Stochastic matrices A which satisfy the equation A^T=A^p are characterized for integral values of p > 1.     

Factorizing symmetric indefinite matrices

The LDL^T factorization of a symmetric indefinite matrix, although efficient computationally, may not exist and can be unstable in the presence of round off error. The use of block diagonal 2×2 pivots is attractive, but there are some difficulties in determining an efficient and stable pivot strategy. Previous suggestions have required O(n>³) operations (either multiplications or comparisons) just to implement the pivot strategy. A new strategy is described which in practice only requires O(n²) operations. Indeed, the effort required by this pivot strategy is less than that required when using partial pivoting with an unsymmetric LU factorization, which is the usual way of factorizing indefinite matrices.     

Absolutely indecomposable symmetric matrices

Let A be a symmetric matrix of size n×n with entries in some (commutative) field K. We study the possibility of decomposing A into two blocks by conjugation by an orthogonal matrix T∈Mat_n(K). We say that A is absolutely indecomposable if it is indecomposable over every extension of the base field. If K is formally real then every symmetric matrix A diagonalizes orthogonally over the real closure of K. Assume that K is a not formally real and of level s. We prove that in Mat_n(K) there exist symmetric, absolutely indecomposable matrices iff n is congruent to 0, 1 or −1 modulo 2s.     

Eigenvector matrices of symmetric tridiagonals

Summary A simple test is given for determining whether a given matrix is the eigenvector matrix of an (unknown) unreduced symmetric tridiagonal matrix. A list of known necessary conditions is also provided. A lower bound on the separation between eigenvalues of tridiagonals follows from our Theorem 3.Dedicated to Professor F.L. Bauer on the occasion of his 60th birthdayThe first author gratefully acknowledges support from ONR Contract N00014-76-C-0013     

Invertibility of symmetric random matrices

We study symmetric random matrices H, possibly discrete, with iid above‐diagonal entries. We show that H is singular with probability at most , and . Furthermore, the spectrum of H is delocalized on the optimal scale . These results improve upon a polynomial singularity bound due to Costello, Tao and Vu, and they generalize, up to constant factors, results of Tao and Vu, and Erdös, Schlein and Yau.Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 44, 135‐182, 2014     

On a family of symmetric polynomials

In this paper, we provide two simple approaches to the explicit expression of a family of symmetric polynomials introduced and studied in Milovanovi? and Cvetkovi? [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 311 (2005) 191], thereby improving on their observations.