On sums of idempotent matrices over a field of positive characteristic

We study which square matrices are sums of idempotents over a field of positive characteristic; in particular, we prove that any such matrix, provided it is large enough, is actually a sum of five idempotents, and even of four when the field is a prime one.     

Characterizations and representations of the group inverse involving idempotents

This paper is to present some results on the group invertibility of products and differences of idempotents. In addition, some formulae for the group inverse of sums, differences and products of idempotents are established by using some given idempotents.     

On linear combinations of two idempotent matrices over an arbitrary field

Given an arbitrary field K and non-zero scalars α and β, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a matrix A∈M_n(K) to be a linear combination of two idempotents with coefficients α and β. This extends results previously obtained by Hartwig and Putcha in two ways: the field K considered here is arbitrary (possibly of characteristic 2), and the case α≠±β is taken into account.     

Rank one preservers between spaces of Boolean matrices

In this paper, we characterize (i) linear transformations from one space of Boolean matrices to another that send pairs of distinct rank one elements to pairs of distinct rank one elements and (ii) surjective mappings from one space of Boolean matrices to another that send rank one matrices to rank one matrices and preserve order relation in both directions. Both results are proved in a more general setting of tensor products of two Boolean vector spaces of arbitrary dimension.     

A gentle guide to the basics of two projections theory

This paper is a survey of the basics of the theory of two projections. It contains in particular the theorem by Halmos on two orthogonal projections and Roch, Silbermann, Gohberg, and Krupnik’s theorem on two idempotents in Banach algebras. These two theorems, which deliver the desired results usually very quickly and comfortably, are missing or wrongly cited in many recent publications on the topic, The paper is intended as a gentle guide to the field. The basic theorems are precisely stated, some of them are accompanied by full proofs, others not, but precise references are given in each case, and many examples illustrate how to work with the theorems.     

Idempotent structure of Clifford algebras

Spinor spaces can be represented as minimal left ideals of Clifford algebras and they are generated by primitive idempotents. Primitive idempotents of the Clifford algebras R _{p, q} are shown to be products of mutually nonannihilating commuting idempotent % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXafv3ySLgzGmvETj2BSbqefm0B1jxALjhiov2D% aebbfv3ySLgzGueE0jxyaibaiGc9yrFr0xXdbba91rFfpec8Eeeu0x% Xdbba9frFj0-OqFfea0dXdd9vqaq-JfrVkFHe9pgea0dXdar-Jb9hs% 0dXdbPYxe9vr0-vr0-vqpWqaaeaabaGaaiaacaqabeaadaqaaqGaaO% qaamaaleaaleaacaaIXaaabaGaaGOmaaaaaaa!3DBD!\[{\textstyle{1 \over 2}}\]2}}\](1+e _T ), where the k=q–r _q–p basis elements e _T satisfy e _T ²=1. The lattice generated by a set of mutually annihilating primitive idempotents is examined. The final result characterizes all Clifford algebras R _{p, q} with an anti-involution such that each symmetric elements is either a nilpotent or then some right multiple of it is a nonzero symmetric idempotent. This happens when p+q<-3 and (p, q)(2, 1).     

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.     

The Drazin inverses of sum and difference of idempotents

In this note, the Drazin inverses of sum and difference of idempotents on a Hilbert space are established under some conditions.     

Computing permanents via determinants for some classes of sparse matrices

Starting from recent formulas for calculating the permanents of some sparse circulant matrices, we obtain more general formulas expressing the permanents of a wider class of matrices as a linear combination of appropriate determinants.     

Bicomplex holomorphic functional calculus

In this paper we introduce and study a functional calculus for bicomplex linear bounded operators. The study is based on the decomposition of bicomplex numbers and of linear operators using the two nonreal idempotents. We show that, due to the presence of zero divisors in the bicomplex numbers, the spectrum of a bounded operator is unbounded. We therefore introduce a different spectrum (called reduced spectrum) which is bounded and turns out to be the right tool to construct the bicomplex holomorphic functional calculus. Finally we provide some properties of the calculus.     

Suites récurrentes linéaires : terme général et idempotents

In this Note, we show essentially two results. The first one consists in showing that the algebra of linear recurrence sequences is the direct sum of two sets. The second result consists in giving a characterisation of the idempotents of this algebra.     

Unitary Spaces on Clifford Algebras

For the complex Clifford algebra (p, q) of dimension n = p + q we define a Hermitian scalar product. This scalar product depends on the signature (p, q) of Clifford algebra. So, we arrive at unitary spaces on Clifford algebras. With the aid of Hermitian idempotents we suggest a new construction of, so called, normal matrix representations of Clifford algebra elements. These representations take into account the structure of unitary space on Clifford algebra. The work of N.M. is supported in part by the Russian President’s grant NSh-6705.2006.1.     

Representation of tripotents and representations via tripotents

Let A be an algebra. An element A∈A is called tripotent if A³=A. We study the questions: if both A and B are tripotents, then: Under what conditions are A+B and AB tripotent? Under what conditions do A and B commute? We extend the partial order from the Hilbert space idempotents to the set of all tripotents and show that every normal tripotent is self-adjoint. For A=M_n(C) we describe the set of all finite sums of tripotents, the convex hull of tripotents and the set of all tripotents averages. We also give the new proof of rational trace matrix representations by Choi and Wu [2].     

Zero-preserving iso-spectral flows based on parallel sums

Driessel [K.R. Driessel, Computing canonical forms using flows, Linear Algebra Appl 379 (2004) 353-379] introduced the notion of quasi-projection onto the range of a linear transformation from one inner product space into another inner product space. Here we introduce the notion of quasi-projection onto the intersection of the ranges of two linear transformations from two inner product spaces into a third inner product space. As an application, we design a new family of iso-spectral flows on the space of symmetric matrices that preserves zero patterns. We discuss the equilibrium points of these flows. We conjecture that these flows generically converge to diagonal matrices. We perform some numerical experiments with these flows which support this conjecture. We also compare our zero-preserving flows with the Toda flow.     

Perturbations on the subdiagonals of Toeplitz matrices

Let L be an Hermitian linear functional defined on the linear space of Laurent polynomials. It is very well known that the Gram matrix of the associated bilinear functional in the linear space of polynomials is a Toeplitz matrix. In this contribution we analyze some linear spectral transforms of L such that the corresponding Toeplitz matrix is the result of the addition of a constant in a subdiagonal of the initial Toeplitz matrix. We focus our attention in the analysis of the quasi-definite character of the perturbed linear functional as well as in the explicit expressions of the new monic orthogonal polynomial sequence in terms of the first one.     

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 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.     

Algorithms for the computation of functionals defined on the solution of a discrete ill-posed problem

We study a linear, discrete ill-posed problem, by which we mean a very ill-conditioned linear least squares problem. In particular we consider the case when one is primarily interested in computing a functional defined on the solution rather than the solution itself. In order to alleviate the ill-conditioning we require the norm of the solution to be smaller than a given constant. Thus we are lead to minimizing a linear functional subject to two quadratic constraints. We study existence and uniqueness for this problem and show that it is essentially equivalent to a least squares problem with a linear and a quadratic constraint, which is easier to handle computationally. Efficient algorithms are suggested for this problem.     

The decomposition of idempotents associated with inflators

In a recent paper, Friedland, Hershkowitz, and Schneider introduced a new matrix product called the inflation product and a new class of matrices called inflators. Fundamental to the constructions were certain idempotent matrices associated with the inflators. This paper studies the structure of the idempotent matrix associated with an inflator. In particular, it is shown that if the idempotent associated with an inflator has rank greater than one, then the idempotent can be split into several pairwise orthogonal idempotents of lower rank such that the resultant idempotents are associated with inflators which are inflation product factors of the original inflator. The indecomposable idempotents associated with the decomposition of an inflator are characterized in terms of rank, and are shown to be generally nonunique. The number of indecomposable idempotents in a splitting is shown to be invariant.