On the characterization of almost strictly totally positive matrices

A nonsingular matrix is called almost strictly totally positive when all its minors are nonnegative and, furthermore, these minors are strictly positive if and only if their diagonal entries are strictly positive. Almost strictly totally positive matrices are useful in Approximation Theory and Computer Aided Geometric Design to generate bases of functions with good shape preserving properties. In this paper we give an algorithmic characterization of these matrices. Moreover, we provide a determinantal characterization of them in terms of the positivity of a very reduced number of their minors and also in terms of their factorizations. Both authors were partially supported by the DGICYT Spain Research Grant PB93-0310     

On the characterization of almost strictly totally positive matrices

A nonsingular matrix is called almost strictly totally positive when all its minors are nonnegative and, furthermore, these minors are strictly positive if and only if their diagonal entries are strictly positive. Almost strictly totally positive matrices are useful in Approximation Theory and Computer Aided Geometric Design to generate bases of functions with good shape preserving properties. In this paper we give an algorithmic characterization of these matrices. Moreover, we provide a determinantal characterization of them in terms of the positivity of a very reduced number of their minors and also in terms of their factorizations.     

A generalization of the variation diminishing property

For totally positive matrices, a new variation diminishing property on the sign of consecutive minors is obtained. this property is used to show shape preserving properties of curves generated by totally positive bases and, in particular, of B-spline curves.     

Total nonpositivity of nonsingular matrices

In this paper, nonsingular totally nonpositive matrices are studied and new characterizations are provided in terms of the signs of minors with consecutive initial rows or consecutive initial columns. These characterizations extend an existing characterization that uses some restrictive hypotheses.     

A generalization of the variation diminishing property

For totally positive matrices, a new variation diminishing property on the sign of consecutive minors is obtained. this property is used to show shape preserving properties of curves generated by totally positive bases and, in particular, of B-spline curves. Partially supported by DGICYT PS93-0310.     

Almost strictly totally positive matrices

A determinantal identity, frequently used in the study of totally positive matrices, is extended, and then used to re-prove the well-known univariate knot insertion formula for B-splines. Also we introduce a class of matrices, intermediate between totally positive and strictly totally positive matrices. The determinantal identity is used to show any minor of such matrices is positive if and only if its diagonal entries are positive. Among others, this class of matrices includes B-splines collocation matrices and Hurwitz matrices.This author acknowledges a sabbatical stay at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in 1990, which was supported by a DGICYT grant from Spain.     

Intervals of Totally Nonnegative and Related Matrices

We consider the class of the totally nonnegative matrices, i.e., the matrices having all their minors nonnegative, and intervals of matrices with respect to the chequerboard partial ordering, which results from the usual entrywise partial ordering if we reverse the inequality sign in all components having odd index sum. For these intervals we study the following conjecture: If the left and right endpoints of an interval are nonsingular and totally nonnegative then all matrices taken from the interval are nonsingular and totally nonnegative. We present a new class of the totally nonnegative matrices for which this conjecture holds true. Similar results for classes of related matrices are also given.     

Characterizations of rectangular totally and strictly totally positive matrices

An n×m real matrix A is said to be totally positive (strictly totally positive) if every minor is nonnegative (positive). In this paper, we study characterizations of these classes of matrices by minors, by their full rank factorization and by their thin QR factorization.     

Interlacing properties of the eigenvalues of some matrix classes

We establish the eigenvalue interlacing property (i.e. the smallest real eigenvalue of a matrix is less than the smallest real eigenvalue of any of its principal submatrices) for the class of matrices introduced by Kotelyansky (all principal and almost principal minors of these matrices are positive). We show that certain generalizations of Kotelyansky and totally positive matrices possess this property. We also prove some interlacing inequalities for the other eigenvalues of Kotelyansky matrices.     

Surjectivity and invertibility properties of totally positive matrices

A new “finite section” type theorem is used to show that the members of an interesting class of bounded totally positive matrices map l_∞ onto l_∞ if and only if their range contains a vector which alternates in sign and has coordinates bounded away from zero. The class of matrices studied contains all banded totally positive matrices, and thus all infinite spline collocation matrices. Connections to related work and extension to matrices which are not sign regular are indicated.     

Totally nonnegative cells and matrix Poisson varieties

We describe explicitly the admissible families of minors for the totally nonnegative cells of real matrices, that is, the families of minors that produce nonempty cells in the cell decompositions of spaces of totally nonnegative matrices introduced by A. Postnikov. In order to do this, we relate the totally nonnegative cells to torus orbits of symplectic leaves of the Poisson varieties of complex matrices. In particular, we describe the minors that vanish on a torus orbit of symplectic leaves, we prove that such families of minors are exactly the admissible families, and we show that the nonempty totally nonnegative cells are the intersections of the torus orbits of symplectic leaves with the spaces of totally nonnegative matrices.     

Diagonal dominance, Schur complements and some classes of H-matrices and P-matrices

We analyze a class of matrices generalizing strictly diagonally dominant matrices and included in the important class of H-matrices. Adequate pivoting strategies and the corresponding Schur complements are studied. A new class of matrices with all their principal minors positive is presented.     

Efficient Recognition of Totally Nonnegative Matrix Cells

The space of m×p totally nonnegative real matrices has a stratification into totally nonnegative cells. The largest such cell is the space of totally positive matrices. There is a well-known criterion due to Gasca and Peña for testing a real matrix for total positivity. This criterion involves testing mp minors. In contrast, there is no known small set of minors for testing for total nonnegativity. In this paper, we show that for each of the totally nonnegative cells there is a test for membership which only involves mp minors, thus extending the Gasca and Peña result to all totally nonnegative cells.     

Torus-invariant prime ideals in quantum matrices, totally nonnegative cells and symplectic leaves

The algebra of quantum matrices of a given size supports a rational torus action by automorphisms. It follows from work of Letzter and the first named author that to understand the prime and primitive spectra of this algebra, the first step is to understand the prime ideals that are invariant under the torus action. In this paper, we prove that a family of quantum minors is the set of all quantum minors that belong to a given torus-invariant prime ideal of a quantum matrix algebra if and only if the corresponding family of minors defines a non-empty totally nonnegative cell in the space of totally nonnegative real matrices of the appropriate size. As a corollary, we obtain explicit generating sets of quantum minors for the torus-invariant prime ideals of quantum matrices in the case where the quantisation parameter q is transcendental over ${\mathbb{Q}}$ .     

AlmostP 0-matrices and the classQ

This paper demonstrates that within the class of thosen × n real matrices, each of which has a negative determinant, nonnegative proper principal minors and inverse with at least one positive entry, the class ofQ-matrices coincides with the class of regular matrices. Each of these classes of matrices plays an important role in the theory of the linear complementarity problem. Lastly, analogous results are obtained for nonsingular matrices which possess only nonpositive principal minors.     

Depth of almost strictly sign regular matrices

The concept of depth of an almost strictly sign regular matrix is introduced and used to simplify some algorithmic characterizations of these matrices.     

Necessary conditions and a sufficient condition for the Fischer-Hadamard inequalities

It is well known that a matrix, all of whose principal minors are positive, satisfies the Fischer-Hadamard inequalities if and only if it is weakly sign symmetric. In this paper we consider the general case of matrices whose principal minors may be nonpositive. Necessary conditions and a sufficient condition for the Fischer-Hadamard inequalities to hold are given in the general case.     

Subdirect sums of P(P0)-matrices and totally nonnegative matrices

In this paper, the problem of when the sub-direct sum of two strictly diagonally dominant P-matrices is a strictly diagonally dominant P-matrix is studied. In particular, it is shown that the subdirect sum of overlapping principal submatrices of strictly diagonally dominant P-matrices is a strictly diagonally dominant P-matrix. It is also established that the 2-subdirect sum of two totally nonnegative matrices is a totally nonnegative matrix under some conditions. It is obtained that a partial totally nonnegative matrix, whose graph of the specified entries is a monotonically labeled 2-chordal graph, has a totally nonnegative completion. Finally, a positive answer to the question (IV) in Fallat and Johnson [Shaun M. Fallat, C.R. Johnson, J.R. Torregrosa, A.M. Urbano, P-matrix completions under weak symmetry assumptions, Linear Algebra Appl. 312 (2000) 73-91] is given for P₀-matrices.     

Total Nonnegativity of Infinite Hurwitz Matrices of Entire and Meromorphic Functions

In this paper we completely describe functions generating the infinite totally nonnegative Hurwitz matrices. In particular, we generalize the well-known result by Asner and Kemperman on the total nonnegativity of the Hurwitz matrices of real stable polynomials. An alternative criterion for entire functions to generate a Pólya frequency sequence is also obtained. The results are based on a connection between a factorization of totally nonnegative matrices of the Hurwitz type and the expansion of Stieltjes meromorphic functions into Stieltjes continued fractions (regular $C$ -fractions with positive coefficients).     

The Koteljanskii inequalities for mixed matrices

Recently, a new class of matrices, called mixed matrices, that unifies the Z-matrices and symmetric matrices has been identified. They share the property that when the leading principal minors are positive, all principal minors are positive. It is natural to ask what other properties of M-matrices and positive definite matrices are enjoyed by mixed matrices as well. Here, we show that mixed P-matrices satisfy a broad family of determinantal inequalities, the Koteljanskii inequalities, previously known for those two classes. In the process, other properties of mixed matrices are developed, and consequences of the Koteljanskii inequalities are given.