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.     

On acyclic and unicyclic graphs whose minimum rank equals the diameter

The minimum rank of a graph G is defined as the smallest possible rank over all symmetric matrices governed by G. It is well known that the minimum rank of a connected graph is at least the diameter of that graph. In this paper, we investigate the graphs for which equality holds between minimum rank and diameter, and completely describe the acyclic and unicyclic graphs for which this equality holds.     

On some matrix equalities for generalized inverses with applications

Necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for the matrix equality A^-=PN^-Q to hold, where A^- and N^- are generalized inverses of matrices. Some consequences and applications are also given. In particular, necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for the additive decompositions C^-=A^-+B^- and to hold.     

The nullity and rank of linear combinations of idempotent matrices

Baksalary and Baksalary [J.K. Baksalary, O.M. Baksalary, Nonsingularity of linear combinations of idempotent matrices, Linear Algebra Appl. 388 (2004) 25-29] proved that the nonsingularity of P₁ + P₂, where P₁ and P₂ are idempotent matrices, is equivalent to the nonsingularity of any linear combinations c₁P₁ + c₂P₂, where c₁, c₂ ≠ 0 and c₁ + c₂ ≠ 0. In the present note this result is strengthened by showing that the nullity and rank of c₁P₁ + c₂P₂ are constant. Furthermore, a simple proof of the rank formula of Groß and Trenkler [J. Groß, G. Trenkler, Nonsingularity of the difference of two oblique projectors, SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 21 (1999) 390-395] is obtained.     

Unitary matrix digraphs and minimum semidefinite rank

For an undirected simple graph G, the minimum rank among all positive semidefinite matrices with graph G is called the minimum semidefinite rank (msr) of G. In this paper, we show that the msr of a given graph may be determined from the msr of a related bipartite graph. Finding the msr of a given bipartite graph is then shown to be equivalent to determining which digraphs encode the zero/nonzero pattern of a unitary matrix. We provide an algorithm to construct unitary matrices with a certain pattern, and use previous results to give a lower bound for the msr of certain bipartite graphs.     

On the matrices of given rank in a large subspace

Let V be a linear subspace of M_n,p(K) with codimension lesser than n, where K is an arbitrary field and n?p. In a recent work of the author, it was proven that V is always spanned by its rank p matrices unless n=p=2 and K?F₂. Here, we give a sufficient condition on codim V for V to be spanned by its rank r matrices for a given r∈?1,p-1?. This involves a generalization of the Gerstenhaber theorem on linear subspaces of nilpotent matrices.     

Zero forcing parameters and minimum rank problems

The zero forcing number Z(G), which is the minimum number of vertices in a zero forcing set of a graph G, is used to study the maximum nullity/minimum rank of the family of symmetric matrices described by G. It is shown that for a connected graph of order at least two, no vertex is in every zero forcing set. The positive semidefinite zero forcing number Z₊(G) is introduced, and shown to be equal to |G|-OS(G), where OS(G) is the recently defined ordered set number that is a lower bound for minimum positive semidefinite rank. The positive semidefinite zero forcing number is applied to the computation of positive semidefinite minimum rank of certain graphs. An example of a graph for which the real positive symmetric semidefinite minimum rank is greater than the complex Hermitian positive semidefinite minimum rank is presented.     

Scott rank of Polish metric spaces

Following the work of Friedman, Koerwien, Nies and Schlicht we positively answer their question whether the Scott rank of Polish metric spaces is countable.     

On classical adjoint-commuting mappings between matrix algebras

Let F be a field and let m and n be integers with m,n?3. Let M_n denote the algebra of n×n matrices over F. In this note, we characterize mappings ψ:M_n→M_m that satisfy one of the following conditions:

1.

|F|=2 or |F|>n+1, and ψ(adj(A+αB))=adj(ψ(A)+αψ(B)) for all A,B∈M_n and α∈F with ψ(I_n)≠0.

2.

ψ is surjective and ψ(adj(A-B))=adj(ψ(A)-ψ(B)) for every A,B∈M_n.

Here, adjA denotes the classical adjoint of the matrix A, and I_n is the identity matrix of order n. We give examples showing the indispensability of the assumption ψ(I_n)≠0 in our results.     

On the span of Hadamard products of vectors

Let A₁, … , A_k be positive semidefinite matrices and B₁, … , B_k arbitrary complex matrices of order n. We show that

span{(A₁x)°(A₂x)°?°(A_kx)|x∈Cⁿ}=range(A₁°A₂°?°A_k)     

On disjoint range matrices

For a square complex matrix F and for F^∗ being its conjugate transpose, the class of matrices satisfying R(F)∩R(F^∗)={0}, where R(.) denotes range (column space) of a matrix argument, is investigated. Besides identifying a number of its properties, several functions of F, such as F+F^∗, (F:F^∗), FF^∗+F^∗F, and F-F^∗, are considered. Particular attention is paid to the Moore-Penrose inverses of those functions and projectors attributed to them. It is shown that some results scattered in the literature, whose complexity practically prevents them from being used to deal with real problems, can be replaced with much simpler expressions when the ranges of F and F^∗ are disjoint. Furthermore, as a by-product of the derived formulae, one obtains a variety of relevant facts concerning, for instance, rank and range.     

On bilinear maps determined by rank one matrices with some applications

Let M_n be the algebra of all n×n matrix over a field F, A a rank one matrix in M_n. In this article it is shown that if a bilinear map ? from M_n×M_n to M_n satisfies the condition that ?(u,v)=?(I,A) whenever u·v=A, then there exists a linear map φ from M_n to M_n such that . If ? is further assumed to be symmetric then there exists a matrix B such that ?(x,y)=tr(xy)B for all x,y∈M_n. Applying the main result we prove that if a linear map on M_n is desirable at a rank one matrix then it is a derivation, and if an invertible linear map on M_n is automorphisable at a rank one matrix then it is an automorphism. In other words, each rank one matrix in M_n is an all-desirable point and an all-automorphisable point, respectively.     

On decomposing any matrix as a linear combination of three idempotents

In a recent article, we gave a full characterization of matrices that can be decomposed as linear combinations of two idempotents with prescribed coefficients. In this one, we use those results to improve on a recent theorem of Rabanovich: we establish that every square matrix is a linear combination of three idempotents (for an arbitrary coefficient field rather than just one of characteristic 0).     

On the graph complement conjecture for minimum semidefinite rank

In this note, we combine a number of recent ideas to give new results on the graph complement conjecture for minimum semidefinite rank.     

On the concept of matrix derivative

We discuss how to generalize the concept of vector derivative to matrix derivative, propose two definitions, a ‘broad’ and a ‘narrow’ one, compare the two definitions, and argue in favor of the narrow definition.     

A system of real quaternion matrix equations with applications

Let H be the real quaternion algebra and H^n×m denote the set of all n×m matrices over H. Let P∈H^n×n and Q∈H^m×m be involutions, i.e., P²=I,Q²=I. A matrix A∈H^n×m is said to be (P,Q)-symmetric if A=PAQ. This paper studies the system of linear real quaternion matrix equations

     

Subspaces of matrices with special rank properties

Let K be a field and let M_m×n(K) denote the space of m×n matrices over K. We investigate properties of a subspace M of M_m×n(K) of dimension n(m-r+1) in which each non-zero element of M has rank at least r and enumerate the number of elements of a given rank in M when K is finite. We also provide an upper bound for the dimension of a constant rank r subspace of M_m×n(K) when K is finite and give non-trivial examples to show that our bound is optimal in some cases. We include a similar a bound for the maximum dimension of a constant rank subspace of skew-symmetric matrices over a finite field.     

Bijective linear maps on semimodules spanned by Boolean matrices of fixed rank

Let M_m,n(B) be the semimodule of all m×n Boolean matrices where B is the Boolean algebra with two elements. Let k be a positive integer such that 2?k?min(m,n). Let B(m,n,k) denote the subsemimodule of M_m,n(B) spanned by the set of all rank k matrices. We show that if T is a bijective linear mapping on B(m,n,k), then there exist permutation matrices P and Q such that T(A)=PAQ for all A∈B(m,n,k) or m=n and T(A)=PA^tQ for all A∈B(m,n,k). This result follows from a more general theorem we prove concerning the structure of linear mappings on B(m,n,k) that preserve both the weight of each matrix and rank one matrices of weight k². Here the weight of a Boolean matrix is the number of its nonzero entries.