On range tripotents in JBW*-triples

Let B be a JBW*-triple, let A be a JB*-subtriple of B and let be the set of range tripotents relative to A. It is shown that, under certain conditions, the supremum of a family of range tripotents in coincides with that in the complete lattice of all tripotents in B. As a consequence, a sufficient condition for a tripotent to be a range tripotent relative to A is obtained. The action of isomorphisms on range tripotents is investigated, and an analysis of the suprema of families of spectral range tripotents leads to a generalization of a result known for open projections in W*-algebras. Received: 8 July 2008     

Congruence of Hermitian matrices by Hermitian matrices

Two Hermitian matrices A,B∈M_n(C) are said to be Hermitian-congruent if there exists a nonsingular Hermitian matrix C∈M_n(C) such that B=CAC. In this paper, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for two nonsingular simultaneously unitarily diagonalizable Hermitian matrices A and B to be Hermitian-congruent. Moreover, when A and B are Hermitian-congruent, we describe the possible inertias of the Hermitian matrices C that carry the congruence. We also give necessary and sufficient conditions for any 2-by-2 nonsingular Hermitian matrices to be Hermitian-congruent. In both of the studied cases, we show that if A and B are real and Hermitian-congruent, then they are congruent by a real symmetric matrix. Finally we note that if A and B are 2-by-2 nonsingular real symmetric matrices having the same sign pattern, then there is always a real symmetric matrix C satisfying B=CAC. Moreover, if both matrices are positive, then C can be picked with arbitrary inertia.     

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.     

Defect indices of powers of a contraction

Let A be a contraction on a Hilbert space H. The defect index d_A of A is, by definition, the dimension of the closure of the range of I-A^∗A. We prove that (1) d_Aⁿ?nd_A for all n?0, (2) if, in addition, Aⁿ converges to 0 in the strong operator topology and d_A=1, then d_Aⁿ=n for all finite n,0?n?dimH, and (3) d_A=d_A^∗ implies d_Aⁿ=d_A^n∗ for all n?0. The norm-one index k_A of A is defined as sup{n?0:‖Aⁿ‖=1}. When dimH=m<∞, a lower bound for k_A was obtained before: k_A?(m/d_A)-1. We show that the equality holds if and only if either A is unitary or the eigenvalues of A are all in the open unit disc, d_A divides m and d_Aⁿ=nd_A for all n, 1?n?m/d_A. We also consider the defect index of f(A) for a finite Blaschke product f and show that d_f(A)=d_Aⁿ, where n is the number of zeros of f.     

k-Potence preserving maps without the linearity and surjectivity assumptions

Let M_n be the space of all n × n complex matrices, and let Γ_n be the subset of M_n consisting of all n × n k-potent matrices. We denote by Ψ_n the set of all maps on M_n satisfying A − λB ∈ Γ_n if and only if ?(A) − λ?(B) ∈ Γ_n for every A,B ∈ M_n and λ ∈ C. It was shown that ? ∈ Ψ_n if and only if there exist an invertible matrix P ∈ M_n and c ∈ C with c^k−1 = 1 such that either ?(A) = cPAP⁻¹ for every A ∈ M_n, or ?(A) = cPA^TP⁻¹ for every A ∈ M_n.     

A note on Potter’s theorem for quasi-commutative matrices

We discuss the converse of a theorem of Potter stating that if the matrix equation AB=ωBA is satisfied with ω a primitive qth root of unity, then A^q+B^q=(A+B)^q. We show that both conditions have to be modified to get a converse statement and we present a characterization when the converse holds for these modified conditions and q=3 and a conjecture for the general case. We also present some further partial results and conjectures.     

On D. Hägele’s approach to the Bessis-Moussa-Villani conjecture

The reformulation of the Bessis-Moussa-Villani (BMV) conjecture given by Lieb and Seiringer asserts that the coefficient α_m,k(A,B) of t^k in the polynomial Tr(A+tB)^m, with A,B positive semidefinite matrices, is nonnegative for all m,k. We propose a natural extension of a method of attack on this problem due to Hägele, and investigate for what values of m,k the method is successful, obtaining a complete determination when either m or k is odd.     

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.     

Least squares solutions to AX = B for bisymmetric matrices under a central principal submatrix constraint and the optimal approximation

A matrix A∈R^n×n is called a bisymmetric matrix if its elements a_i,j satisfy the properties a_i,j=a_j,i and a_i,j=a_n-j+1,n-i+1 for 1?i,j?n. This paper considers least squares solutions to the matrix equation AX=B for A under a central principal submatrix constraint and the optimal approximation. A central principal submatrix is a submatrix obtained by deleting the same number of rows and columns in edges of a given matrix. We first discuss the specified structure of bisymmetric matrices and their central principal submatrices. Then we give some necessary and sufficient conditions for the solvability of the least squares problem, and derive the general representation of the solutions. Moreover, we also obtain the expression of the solution to the corresponding optimal approximation problem.     

Procrustes problems and associated approximation problems for matrices with k-involutory symmetries

We say that a matrix R∈C^n×n is k-involutary if its minimal polynomial is x^k-1 for some k?2, so R^k-1=R^-1 and the eigenvalues of R are 1,ζ,ζ²,…,ζ^k-1, where ζ=e^2πi/k. Let α,μ∈{0,1,…,k-1}. If R∈C^m×m, A∈C^m×n, S∈C^n×n and R and S are k-involutory, we say that A is (R,S,μ)-symmetric if RAS^-1=ζ^μA, and A is (R,S,α,μ)-symmetric if RAS^-α=ζ^μA.Let L be the class of m×n(R,S,μ)-symmetric matrices or the class of m×n(R,S,α,μ)-symmetric matrices. Given X∈C^n×t and B∈C^m×t, we characterize the matrices A in L that minimize ‖AX-B‖ (Frobenius norm), and, given an arbitrary W∈C^m×n, we find the unique matrix A∈L that minimizes both ‖AX-B‖ and ‖A-W‖. We also obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of A∈L such that AX=B, and, assuming that the conditions are satisfied, characterize the set of all such A.     

On the spectral radius and the spectral norm of Hadamard products of nonnegative matrices

We prove the spectral radius inequality ρ(A₁°A₂°?°A_k)?ρ(A₁A₂?A_k) for nonnegative matrices using the ideas of Horn and Zhang. We obtain the inequality ‖A°B‖?ρ(A^TB) for nonnegative matrices, which improves Schur’s classical inequality ‖A°B‖?‖A‖‖B‖, where ‖·‖ denotes the spectral norm. We also give counterexamples to two conjectures about the Hadamard product.     

Pairs of mutually annihilating operators

Pairs (A,B) of mutually annihilating operators AB=BA=0 on a finite dimensional vector space over an algebraically closed field were classified by Gelfand and Ponomarev [Russian Math. Surveys 23 (1968) 1-58] by method of linear relations. The classification of (A,B) over any field was derived by Nazarova, Roiter, Sergeichuk, and Bondarenko [J. Soviet Math. 3 (1975) 636-654] from the classification of finitely generated modules over a dyad of two local Dedekind rings. We give canonical matrices of (A,B) over any field in an explicit form and our proof is constructive: the matrices of (A,B) are sequentially reduced to their canonical form by similarity transformations (A,B)?(S^-1AS,S^-1BS).     

Products of two involutions with prescribed eigenvalues and some applications

Let F be a field. In [Djokovic, Product of two involutions, Arch. Math. 18 (1967) 582-584] it was proved that a matrix A∈F^n×n can be written as A=BC, for some involutions B,C∈F^n×n, if and only if A is similar to A^-1. In this paper we describe the possible eigenvalues of the matrices B and C.As a consequence, in case charF≠2, we describe the possible similarity classes of (P₁₁⊕P₂₂)P^-1, when the nonsingular matrix P=[P_ij]∈F^n×n, i,j∈{1,2} and P₁₁∈F^s×s, varies.When F is an algebraically closed field and charF≠2, we also describe the possible similarity classes of [A_ij]∈F^n×n, i,j∈{1,2}, when A₁₁ and A₂₂ are square zero matrices and A₁₂ and A₂₁ vary.     

Sign patterns that require almost unique rank

A sign pattern matrix is a matrix whose entries are from the set {+,-,0}. For a real matrix B, sgn(B) is the sign pattern matrix obtained by replacing each positive (respectively, negative, zero) entry of B by + (respectively, −, 0). For a sign pattern matrix A, the sign pattern class of A, denoted Q(A), is defined as {B:sgn(B)=A}. The minimum rank mr(A) (maximum rank MR(A)) of a sign pattern matrix A is the minimum (maximum) of the ranks of the real matrices in Q(A). Several results concerning sign patterns A that require almost unique rank, that is to say, the sign patterns A such that MR(A) = mr(A) + 1, are established and are extended to sign patterns A for which the spread is d=MR(A)-mr(A). A complete characterization of the sign patterns that require almost unique rank is obtained.     

Shorted operators of partitioned matrices and application

In this paper, our main objective is to study the effect of appending/deleting a column/row on the shorted operators. It turns out that for matrices A and B for which the shorted operator S(A|B) exists, S(A₁|B₁) of the matrix A₁=[A:a] with respect to the matrix B₁=[B:b], when it exists, is obtained by appending a suitable column to S(A|B). Moreover, if S(A₁|B₁) exists, then S(A|B) exists and is obtained from S(A₁|B₁) by dropping its last column. In the process, we study the effect of appending/deleting a column/row on the space pre-order and the parallel sum of parallel summable matrices. Finally, we specialize to the case of and matrices and study the effect of bordering (by an additional column and a row) on the shorted operator. We conclude the paper with an application to Linear Models with singular dispersion structure.     

A note on “Constructing matrices with prescribed off-diagonal submatrix and invariant polynomials”

Let F be any field and let B a matrix of F^q×p. Zaballa found necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a matrix A=[A_ij]_i,j∈{1,2}∈F^(p+q)×(p+q) with prescribed similarity class and such that A₂₁=B. In an earlier paper [A. Borobia, R. Canogar, Constructing matrices with prescribed off-diagonal submatrix and invariant polynomials, Linear Algebra Appl. 424 (2007) 615-633] we obtained, for fields of characteristic different from 2, a finite step algorithm to construct A when it exists. In this short note we extend the algorithm to any field.     

Preservers of pairs of bivectors with bounded distance

We extend Liu’s fundamental theorem of the geometry of alternate matrices to the second exterior power of an infinite dimensional vector space and also use her theorem to characterize surjective mappings T from the vector space V of all n×n alternate matrices over a field with at least three elements onto itself such that for any pair A, B in V, rank(A-B)?2k if and only if rank(T(A)-T(B))?2k, where k is a fixed positive integer such that n?2k+2 and k?2.     

Simultaneous solutions of Sylvester equations and idempotent matrices separating the joint spectrum

We investigate simultaneous solutions of the matrix Sylvester equations A_iX-XB_i=C_i,i=1,2,…,k, where {A₁,…,A_k} and {B₁,…,B_k} are k-tuples of commuting matrices of order m×m and p×p, respectively. We show that the matrix Sylvester equations have a unique solution X for every compatible k-tuple of m×p matrices {C₁,…,C_k} if and only if the joint spectra σ(A₁,…,A_k) and σ(B₁,…,B_k) are disjoint. We discuss the connection between the simultaneous solutions of Sylvester equations and related questions about idempotent matrices separating disjoint subsets of the joint spectrum, spectral mapping for the differences of commuting k-tuples, and a characterization of the joint spectrum via simultaneous solutions of systems of linear equations.